Charleston Southern Stuns No. 7 Florida, 6-3
03/15/2010
Tyler Thornburg pitched his second-career complete game and Jon Matthews hit his first collegiate home run as the Charleston Southern baseball team upset the No. 6-ranked University of Florida Gators 6-3 Sunday afternoon at McKethan Stadium.
The Buccaneers (6-10) handed the highly-ranked Gators (11-3) just their third loss of the season in the series finale, and they held the vaunted Gator offensive attack to a season-low seven hits. The loss also snapped a five-game win streak for Florida.
Charleston Southern jumped out on top in the first inning after Brantley Meier led off the game with a single. He stole second and would later score off a sacrifice fly from Thornburg.
After Meier drew a walk in the third, Matthews stepped up to the plate and blasted his first collegiate homer to put the road squad on top 3-0.
Matthews again came through for the Buccaneers as he hit a two-run single in the fourth, driving home Bentley Christmas and Derek Smith.
Preston Tucker would cross the plate in the home half of the fourth to take away Thornburg’s shutout, but Matt Still answered in the fifth when he was plated by way of a Walt Quattlebaum single.
Matt den Dekker scored on a Tucker groundout in bottom of the fifth to cut into the lead and Bryson Smith scored in the ninth, but Thornburg struck out the last two batters and made sure Florida would get no closer than 6-3.
Matthews paced Charleston Southern with his career-high three hits and four runs batted in. Nick Chinners, Smith and Quattlebaum all recorded two hits.
Meier was 1-for-3 and scored twice for the Buccaneers.
Thornburg (3-1) pitched a brilliant game for the blue and gold, as he scattered just seven hits over nine innings. He allowed just three runs, while striking out 11 Gators and walking just three.
Thornburg’s other complete game came March 22, 2008, when he blanked Presbyterian College in a 12-0 CSU victory. He recorded 10 strikeouts on that day.
Tucker and Josh Adams each picked up two hits to lead Florida. Tucker, Tyler Thompson and Kamm Washington all had an RBI, and den Dekker, Tucker and Smith all scored for the Gators.
Tommy Toledo (2-1) picked up his first loss of the season after allowing four runs on five hits in just three innings. Nick Maronde came in for Toledo and lasted just 1.1 innings after allowing two runs on one hit. He walked four and was only able to record just one strikeout.
Steven Rodriguez relieved Maronde and allowed four hits in four shutout innings. Chas Spottswood pitched the final 0.2 innings and did not allow any runs or hits.
Next up for Charleston Southern will be a 4 p.m. matchup March 16 with University of South Carolina-Upstate. The game will take place in Spartanburg, S.C. CSU took down the Spartans 8-4 March 9 at CSU Ballpark.
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