Gators' relievers stymie Bull batters

It's been a brutal couple of weeks for Florida's bullpen. But the Gators' relievers finally got a little relief for themselves Tuesday night during Florida's 12-2 win over South Florida at McKethan Stadium.

Four Gator relievers combined to hold the Bulls to just two runs (one earned) over the final five innings while Jonathan Pigott and Clayton Pisani each homered to key Florida's 17-hit attack.

With a regular-season-ending series against Vanderbilt beginning Thursday at home and the postseason looming, it's quickly becoming clear the Gators (31-20) will go as far as their bullpen will take them.

"We're putting runs on the board and, for the most part, our starting pitching has been pretty good," Gators coach Kevin O'Sullivan said. "We just have to shore up our bullpen."

Florida's bullpen had posted a 15.75 ERA in the last five games prior to Tuesday. The Gators' relievers blew a pair of late-inning leads in last weekend's series at Alabama and nearly wasted an 11-1 lead last week against Bethune-Cookman, a game the Gators held on to win, 11-10.

"We don't have a guy at the end of the game who throws 90, 92 (miles per hour) with a secondary pitch," O'Sullivan said. "We've just been piecing it together with some experience and guys being crafty. But scouting reports get out. We've got to make adjustments ourselves. Our guys are our guys. We're going to stick with them. They've had success in the past so they're going to have to have confidence."

One of those guys is sophomore Kyle Mullaney (2-4), who got the win after throwing three solid innings. Mullaney gave up four hits and his only mistake was a solo home run to Joey Angelberger.

"It was really important for us," Mullaney said. "We just needed to go out and throw strikes and pitch well."

Tony Davis, Adam Allen and Dustin Bamberg combined to close out the game. Allen, making his second career appearance, walked the bases loaded with one out in the ninth. Bamberg, Florida's designated hitter, came on to get the final two outs.

"I compliment our pitchers tonight," said left fielder Avery Barnes, who was 3-for-5.

"They threw well tonight, giving up just two runs."

Freshman Tommy Toledo got the start and threw four scoreless innings. His outing came two days after he came out of the bullpen to give up three runs while failing to retire a batter during Sunday's 8-7 loss at Alabama.

"Our thought process was that we wanted to run Tommy right back out there so he wouldn't sit on it for a week and feel bad about it," O'Sullivan said.

NOTES: O'Sullivan said he thinks Brandon McArthur is fine after the senior had to leave the game in the seventh inning. McArthur, who has been playing with a ruptured right ACL since April 2, tweaked the knee while trying to field a throw at first base on Mike Consolmagno's ground ball. McArthur fell to the ground writhing in pain for several moments before walking off on his own power. "I got a little nervous to be honest," O'Sullivan said. "But after talking to him I think he's going to be fine." Matt den Dekker extended his hitting streak to 10 games with a seventh inning single. Pigott's home run was his second of the year and first since Feb. 29.