GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- This is the time of year in which hot starts can lead to very hot finishes in college baseball, and for No. 2 national seed Florida, the postseason couldn't have started any hotter.
The Gators dominated the Gainesville Regional and continued to swing those sizzling bats Friday as they jumped on Mississippi State early with seven runs through the first three innings on their way to an 11-1 rout of the Bulldogs in Game 1 of a best-of-three series in the Gainesville Super Regional.
"This time of year, it's all about momentum -- how you handle momentum, how you gain momentum and hang onto it," Florida coach Kevin O'Sullivan said.
The Gators wasted no time dismantling Bulldogs freshman right-hander Evan Mitchell (6-2, 5.68 ERA) in front of a crowd of 2,446 at McKethan Stadium. Florida loaded the bases with its first three batters (two on walks) before SEC Player of the Year Mike Zunino's single to left-center scored the first two runs of the game. Two batters later, the Gators made it 4-0 after outfielder Tyler Thompson doubled to right-center.
Florida added two more in the second with a two-run home run from shortstop Nolan Fontana. Zunino, who finished the day 2-for-4 with three RBIs, blasted his team-leading 17th home run in the third inning to increase Florida's lead to 7-0.
In postseason play, the Gators have outscored their opponents 34-1 in the first three innings.
"We're just trying to grind out at bats, try to see a lot of pitches," Zunino said. "Nolan and Bryson [Smith] do a great job with the first two at-bats of the game just to let everybody see a lot of pitches, and when they get on we really get going and the back-half of the lineup just tries to drive them in."
It helped that Mitchell lost his command early. The rookie earned the loss after just two innings, surrendering seven earned runs on five hits and walking three. The walks disappointed Bulldogs coach John Cohen the most.
"The thing that we have to do against a really good club like Florida is we gotta throw the ball for strikes immediately," Cohen said.
"If you give up solo home runs, it's not going to kill you, but walks hurt in front of that."
The Gators scored in each of the first five innings to take a 10-0 lead.
On the mound, Florida righty Hudson Randall found a rhythm as revenge fueled him after he gave up six earned against the Bulldogs in April.
Randall (10-3, 2.21) cruised through eight innings of work, striking out a season-high eight and allowing one earned on six hits, while throwing a career-high 115 pitches.
"I was a little more anxious," Randall said. "Super regionals against Mississippi State pumped me up a little bit more because they tattooed me over in Starkville and I missed pitching against them in the SEC tournament, so I was really excited to come back out and give it another go."
Florida struck hard Friday, but there's no time to celebrate in Gainesville. O'Sullivan made that clear to his team after the game and intends to have amnesia wash over his team Saturday.
"This job is not done, and we talked about that as soon as this game was over," he said. "We don't carry any runs from today over to tomorrow. Mississippi State has a great ball club. They've earned the right to play in this super regional. I can assure you, we'll be ready to play and we are not going to overlook what happened today.
"Our players are mature, they've focused and we've got a huge task ahead of us."
Junior left-hander Nick Routt (3-3, 3.78) will start for Mississippi State Saturday, while freshman Karsten Whitson (8-0, 2.42) will start for Florida.
