No. 5 Arkansas bounced back on Saturday behind strong pitching and a big fifth inning at the plate to take a 7-0 win over Florida.

The Razorbacks scored six runs in the top of the fifth and got outstanding pitching from Gage Wood, Gabe Gaeckle and Aiden Jimenez limiting the Gators to just five hits. Dave Van Horn praised Kuhio Aloy, Brent Iredale and his team afterward.

"Yeah, just a really good bounce back win after last night," Van Horn said. "We were frustrated after the game and felt like we kind of let it slip away. Then today, made all the plays, turned a couple double plays, great relay play at the plate, stole a couple bases, put together a great inning in the fifth with a little bit of their help. We took advantage of a couple errors. A bobble in the outfield, had a base runner take third base, next pitch (was a) sac fly instead of just an out, we got an RBI. And then Kuhio got a big hit and Iredale got a big two-out double and obviously a pinch-hit two-run homer and we’re up 6-0 and kind of in cruise control there a little bit. So good win."

The pinch hit home run was by Cam Kozeal. Van Horn surprised many starting Rocco Peppi over Kozeal, who has been one of Arkansas' hottest hitters in the SEC.

"Just matching up a little bit," Van Horn said. "The right-hander that they started, (Aidan) King, the numbers against rights were a lot better for the offensive guys that are right-handed compared to the lefties. Just felt like that we’d start out with a bunch of righties. Keep our leadoff man the same, right-handers after that and then we had a left-hander in I think the seven hole but that was it. Big-time swing (by Kozeal), tried to sneak a fastball by him and he hit it about as hard as you can hit it."

Wood, who just recently returned from injury, worked 3.0 innings allowing just a hit, no runs or walks and striking out five. Van Horn expected him to pitch better in his second outing this weekend compared to last week.

"Well, he had a really good bullpen is what I was told by Coach (Matt) Hobbs yesterday," Van Horn said. "Felt like he would be. I felt like he had great stuff last week, he just didn’t have the breaking ball and obviously he didn’t command this fastball quite as well. But today it was fun to watch. Three innings of high-octane carry fastball and a good breaking ball."

Wood's pitch count was 42. Was Van Horn tempted to stick with him longer considering how dominating he was?

"No, we were getting him out," Van Horn said. "As a matter of fact, that was his last hitter. If he didn’t get that last hitter, we were going to the pen. 35 would have been ideal. I think he ended up throwing 42, so that was right where we wanted him. Hopefully he gained a lot of confidence. Coach Hobbs and I talked about it’s kind of like a basketball player that’s been out. He starts seeing the ball go through the hoop, gain a little bit of confidence. He definitely did that today."

Gaeckle (4-1) got the win. He pitched 3.1 innings. He only allowed one hit, no runs, but walked four while striking out two. He also hit a batter. Jimenez worked the final 2.2 innings allowing three hits while fanning a trio. Van Horn reflected back on Gaeckle's performance.

"Didn’t have his best stuff, didn’t command his fastball," Van Horn said. "Had a good breaking ball. Kind of just battled through it. I think he was a little disappointed in himself, but I told him ‘you’re never going to great all the time,’ but he was just good enough and, you know, it is what it is. Hopefully next week when we play Texas he’ll be even better."

In the fifth, Kuhio Aloy did break a scoreless tie with a single that allowed Gabe Fraser and Justin Thomas Jr. to score. An error on a Florida outfielder allowed Aloy to get to third on the play. Iredale's double allowed Aloy to score. Kozeal hit his home run that also plated Iredale.

In the top of the eighth, Wehiwa Aloy gave the Hogs an insurance run with a sacrifice fly that got Fraser home for the final run in the game. The Hogs only struck out six times in the win after 16 times on Friday. What was the difference?

"Well obviously it starts with who’s on the mound, but Aidan King’s got a ton of strikeouts and really good stuff," Van Horn said. "We thought he was gonna throw a little harder than he did. We thought he was gonna be, like, 93-96. he was more like 92 most of the game. I think he hit 93 at least on the board a couple of times. Our guys seemed to be on him a little bit. He threw a lot of off-speed pitches, as they did last night. I mentioned that after the game that we cut down our strikeouts by 10 and we made them field the ball and they didn’t field them all and we took advantage of it and scored 6 in one inning."

Wood also talked about the difference this week and last in addition to how he feels.

"I got outs this week," Wood said. "Last week, I didn't get outs. Yeah, it's more just health reasons right now that I’m on a pitch count and building back up. You can't just go out there and throw 100 pitches after not seeing a hitter for eight weeks but I'm feeling good. Ready to just keep progressing throughout the weekends."

Wood was asked to talk more about his three innings on Saturday.

"I feel like I did a pretty good job of going out there and giving my team a chance to win the ball game," Wood said. "I just want to go out there and compete. Just being out there is a blessing. I got really lucky that I didn't have to get any surgery or anything and that it was just a small injury. It took a little longer than expected, but it's good."

Arkansas (37-8, 14-6) and Florida (29-16, 7-13) will play the third and deciding game of the series on Sunday beginning at noon. The game can be streamed on the SEC Network+.