College Roundup: Gators Finish Seminoles Sweep

After losing the final two games of its series against Mississippi State over the weekend, No. 3 Florida bounced back Tuesday with an 8-2 victory at No. 6 Florida State. With the win, the Gators swept the three-game season series for the second time in three years.

HOW THE TOP 25 FARED

(1) Miami: won, 8-3, vs. Nova Southeastern (Fla.)

(2) Mississippi State: off

(3) Florida: won, 8-2, at (6) Florida State

(4) Texas A&M: won, 10-4, vs. Abilene Christian

(5) South Carolina: postponed vs. (14) North Carolina

(6) Florida State: lost, 8-2, vs. (3) Florida

(7) Texas Christian: lost, 9-1, vs. Dallas Baptist

(8) Mississippi: off

(9) Louisiana State: lost, 7-0, vs. McNeese State

(10) Oregon State: postponed vs. Portland

(11) Louisville: won, 14-2, vs. Western Kentucky

(12) Vanderbilt: won, 7-4, vs. Middle Tennessee State

(13) UC Santa Barbara: off

(14) North Carolina: postponed vs. (5) South Carolina

(15) Texas Tech: postponed vs. Sam Houston State

(16) Kentucky: postponed vs. Eastern Kentucky

(17) California: won, 7-1, at Cal Poly

(18) Long Beach State: off

(19) Rice: won, 3-1, at Texas State

(20) North Carolina State: won, 23-3, at Elon

(21) Florida Atlantic: lost, 3-2, at Florida Gulf Coast in 11 innings

(22) Michigan: lost, 11-5, at Michigan State

(23) South Alabama: won, 2-1, at Southeastern Louisiana

(24) Tulane: lost, 9-2, at Louisiana-Lafayette

(25) Southern Mississippi: off

Coach Kevin O’Sullivan slightly rearranged the lineup, and the Gators offense produced a solid showing. Dalton Guthrie (3-for-5, 2B, 2 RBIs), J.J. Schwarz (3-for-4, HR, 3 RBIs) and Peter Alonso (3-for-5, 2B) led the way, and Florida never trailed.

O’Sullivan said he reorganized the lineup in an effort to give some players a different look.

“I don’t think it had any bearing on winning the game, I think we had good approaches throughout the game,” he said. “I thought we came out of the gates swinging the bats very well. When J.J. is swinging the bat like he did tonight and Pete Alonso is, it’s pretty impressive, and Dalton had three hits.”

Florida (30-5) has now won five straight games against Florida State (22-9) dating back to last year’s super regional matchup between the two teams. That matches the Gators’ longest winning streak in the history of the rivalry.

Michigan and Michigan State will play their Big Ten Conference series at the end of the month, but got a head start Tuesday on the rivalry. After both teams lost part of nonconference weekend series this season, they added a game against each other to fill one of the holes in their schedule.

Michigan State came out victorious in the first meeting of the year, defeating No. 22 Michigan, 11-5. The Spartans (22-6) scored eight runs in the sixth inning to break the game open, and went on to claim their first victory against the Wolverines (21-9) in East Lansing since 2009.

Spartans first baseman Jordan Zimmerman went 2-for-3 with two runs and two walks to extend his hitting streak to 21 games. The junior is hitting .443/.528/.651 with four home runs and 10 stolen bases in 27 games this season.

Miami, which ascended this week to No. 1 in the Top 25 for the first time since 2008, also played a makeup game Tuesday, after it lost two games to snow last weekend at Notre Dame. Miami defeated Nova Southeastern (Fla.), 8-3, to extend its winning streak to 10 games.

Working with a limit of 50 pitches to keep him fresh for his regular turn in the rotation on Sunday, lefthander Danny Garcia (5-2, 2.40) threw four scoreless innings to pick up the win. Zach Collins (.438/.588/.730) collected three hits and scored twice, as the Hurricanes (26-4) cruised to victory.

No. 12 Vanderbilt defeated Middle Tennessee State, 7-4, but perhaps the most promising development of the day for the Commodores were the collegiate debuts Donny Everett and Julian Infante.

The freshmen, who both missed the first half of the season due to injury, were key parts of Vanderbilt’s top-ranked recruiting class this fall. Everett ranked No. 21 on the BA500 last spring, and was the highest ranked high school player not to sign after the draft. The righthander threw a scoreless inning against MTSU, allowing one hit. Infante, No. 319 on the BA500, delivered a pinch-hit single in the seventh inning.