Pitching depth behind ace Hunter Barco and relievers Blake Purnell and Nick Ficarrotta has been a major concern for the Gators over the past couple of weeks, and it was exposed again on Saturday night against No. 21 LSU.
Starter Brandon Sproat lasted only 2 1/3 innings and gave up six runs (five earned) on four hits. He was replaced by southpaw Timmy Manning, who proceeded to give up back-to-back home runs to dig the Gators into an 8-0 hole in the third inning.
The Tigers (16-7, 2-3 SEC) tacked on an unearned run off of Manning in the fifth and seven runs off of Karl Hartman and Carsten Finnvold in the ninth to run away with a series-evening 16-4 win over No.