GAINESVILLE -- Saturday was supposed to be about Karsten Whitson, the Gators’ star sophomore pitcher making his first start of the season. Instead, newcomer Taylor Gushue stole the show for the second game in a row.

An 18-year-old freshman who bypassed his senior year of high school at Fort Lauderdale Calvary Christian Academy to enroll early at Florida, Gushue had the game-winning hit Saturday a day after hitting a home run in his first collegiate at-bat. He belted a line-drive triple in the bottom of the fourth to drive in two and put the No. 1 Gators ahead for good in Saturday’s 5-2 win against No. 25 Cal State Fullerton.

“Couldn’t ask for anything more,” Gushue said of his three-RBI start to the season. “At first, it’s not as real as you think it is, but now it’s starting to get more concrete.”

An All-American as a freshman, Whitson looked shaky in his first outing of the year, allowing two runs through a rough first three innings. He gave up a run in the first on a single and a double, both sharply hit balls, and another in the third on another double.

Whitson also walked two and hit a batter before settling down in the fourth and fifth. In all, he gave up five hits and two earned runs in five innings, getting the win thanks to Gushue and the Gators’ bats finally coming alive in the fourth after being held hitless until that point.

“It wasn’t his best outing, but it was solid,” UF coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “Their starting pitcher did a really, really nice job of keeping us off balance through the first three. … Obviously, the story of the game is the one big hit by Taylor, the triple.”

Florida scored four runs in the fourth off Cal State Fullerton starter Grahamm Wiest. Left fielder Daniel Pigott started it with a single to right, followed by an infield single from Preston Tucker and a bloop hit from Mike Zunino that scored Pigott. Gushue went down 0-2 immediately to Wiest before turning on a belt-high change-up and lacing it into the corner in right.

“Once we get going as an offense, I think it’s really hard to stop us,” Gushue said. “Just because we’ve got so much bats, so much skill in our lineup. We don’t want to stop.”

A Boca Raton native, Gushue said his phone has been lighting up with calls and text messages from high school teammates and family and friends since bursting onto the scene in Friday night’s win.

Instead of playing Pembroke Pines Flanagan, Miami Monsignor Pace or Fort Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas this weekend, Gushue was driving in key runs for the top-ranked college baseball team in the country.

“Everything I’ve done in my career is to see what’s the best place for me to get better at,” he said. “I think the University of Florida was absolutely the best decision.”

Junior Austin Maddox threw four innings of scoreless relief to pick up the save, facing just one more than the minimum and allowing one hit while striking out three.

The three-game series concludes at 1 p.m. Sunday.