March 14, 2008
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Grant Dayton did not allow a hit until the fourth and finished the night with seven strikeouts against just one walk but Florida's four-run fourth was enough to propel it to a 7-1 win over Auburn in the Southeastern Conference opener for both teams on Friday night at McKethan Stadium.
Hunter Morris was robbed of his fourth home of the season in the top of the second as Florida center fielder Matt den Dekker leapt at the 365 sign in right-center and brought a ball back that was already over the fence to keep the game scoreless and deny Auburn (11-6, 0-1 SEC) of an early lead.
Florida (12-3, 1-0 SEC) then erupted for four runs in the fourth off of Dayton (1-1), stringing together four hits before Jon Townsend knocked his second home run of the season, a two-run shot to left to make it 4-0.
Florida added three more in the fifth on two singles, a double and a triple as Billy Bullock moved to 2-2 on the year for Florida, going 6.1 innings and scattering five hits against six strikeouts.
"Grant was doing a good job of locating, stayed down in the zone and was throwing the ball very well but Florida did a nice job of stringing a few hits together in the middle innings," Auburn Head Coach Tom Slater said.
Kevin Patterson (3-for-4) knocked in his 12th RBI of the season in the seventh to break up the shutout, singling in Mike Bianucci (1-for-4) from third.
Justin Hargett (1-for-4) extended his hitting streak to six games with a leadoff single in the fourth while Joseph Sanders (0-for-4) had his career-best seven-game hitting streak snapped.
Michael Hurst fanned a career-high five Florida hitters in 3.0 innings of scoreless relief.
The two teams will play game two on Saturday at 3pm CT. Auburn will send So. RHP Scott Shuman (2-0) to the mound while Florida counters with Jr. RHP Patrick Keating (1-0).