Florida homers way to 10-2 win over Miami at CWS

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Harrison Bader led off the game with the first of Florida's four home runs, Alex Faedo and two relievers combined on a four-hitter, and the Gators knocked Miami out of the College World Series with a 10-2 win Wednesday night.

It was the second time in five days the Gators (51-17) dominated Miami, and now they'll play Virginia on Friday needing to beat the Cavaliers twice to reach next week's best-of-three finals.

The Hurricanes (50-17) went 1-2 in their first CWS appearance since 2008.

Two nights after Virginia beat Florida 1-0 on a two-hitter, the Gators' offense was back to its usual prolific self against the Hurricanes. The Gators outscored Miami 25-5 in the two CWS meetings, with Saturday's 15-3 win the most lopsided postseason loss in Miami history.

Buddy Reed, Richie Martin and Peter Alonso also homered for the Gators. Before the new flat-seam ball was put into play this year, TD Ameritrade Park had yielded only 25 home runs in the 59 CWS games since its 2011 opening and only three each of the last two years.

In 213 total games at the stadium, Wednesday's marked the first with more than two homers. Also, Bader and Alonso became the first two batters to hit balls out over center field.

Faedo (6-1) pitched into the sixth inning in his first appearance since May 31. He relied on his slider to strike out seven, but he struggled a bit with his fastball and issued a season-high four walks.

Faedo, Kirby Snead and Shaun Anderson allowed only three singles and a double.

Miami starter Enrique Sosa (7-5) made it just one inning. With a light wind blowing out, Bader drove Sosa's fourth pitch more than 400 feet for his 16th homer. Four batters later, Reed sent Sosa's high fastball out to right for a 3-0 lead.

Andrew Suarez, the Miami ace who threw 63 pitches in the loss to Florida on Saturday, held the Gators scoreless from the second through fourth innings. Suarez gave up three straight hits to start the fifth and was relieved by Danny Garcia in what turned out to be a four-run inning for the Gators.

Alonso's two-run homer in the seventh made it 10-2.

Miami came to Omaha second nationally at 8.4 runs a game and sixth in batting at .311. The Hurricanes beat Arkansas 4-3 on Monday, but largely due to their struggles against the Gators, they managed only nine runs in their three CWS games, batted .224 and were 2 for 32 with runners in scoring position.

Florida has ended Miami's seasons four times in the NCAA Tournament since 2009.

WFTV