The No. 3 seed Florida Gators took care of business in their first game of the 2012 SEC Baseball Tournament, moving past Auburn with a 6-1 win. The Gators are currently ranked second in the nation and were expected to get past Auburn without much of a struggle. Johnathan Crawford was impressive on the mound, striking out nine and allowing just two hits in 5.2 innings pitched. Crawford handed the ball over to his bullpen in the 6th inning, and Austin Maddox, Greg Larson, and Steven Rodriguez finished it off with a scoreless 3.1 innings of work.
On offense, the Gators got to Tigers' starter Jon Luke Jacobs early on with two runs in the second. Justin Shafer led the offense with a two-hit evening, driving in three runs for the Gators. Cleanup hitter Casey Turgeon knocked in two runs as well to propel Florida to the comfortable 6-1 win.
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