Preston Tucker drove in five runs, Daniel Pigott knocked in three and Florida manhandled Manhattan 17-3 in the NCAA tournament’s Gainesville Regional Friday.

The Gators (46-16) scored 16 runs in the first three innings – all off Manhattan ace John Soldinger – and coasted the rest of the way. Florida faces Miami, which earlier beat Jacksonville 7-2, in the winners’ bracket Saturday.

Florida batted around in each of the first three innings, and Tucker did much of the damage. He had an RBI single in the first, a two-run homer in the second and another two-run shot in the third. His second one, his 12th of the season, cleared the scoreboard in right.

Karsten Whitson (8-0) allowed two hits in 3 1/3 innings for the victory. Soldinger (10-3) gave up 16 hits and 15 earned runs in two innings. He faced 26 batters and threw 61 pitches, and his ERA rose from 2.34 to 4.75.

Miami 7, Jacksonville 2: Corey Janson spent most of the season on the mend and on the bench for the Miami Hurricanes. He got a chance to start Friday in the NCAA tournament and probably earned himself more playing time the rest of the way.

Janson homered for the first time and helped the Hurricanes beat Jacksonville in the opening game.

“I’m finally feeling good,” said Janson, who had surgery to repair a perforated ulcer in February, spent a week in the hospital and then six weeks recovering.

Rony Rodriguez drove in two runs for Miami (37-21).

The Dolphins (36-23) face Manhattan in an elimination game at noon Saturday.

Rodriguez did his damage early, with an RBI double in the first and a run-scoring groundout in the third. Janson’s leadoff homer made it 3-1.

Alabama 5, UCF 3: Alabama’s Nathan Kil-crease struck out a career-tying 10 batters Friday in a victory over Central Florida in the Tallahassee regional.

Kilcrease (8-4) now has appeared in four NCAA regionals and is 3-1 overall in postseason play.

His four-hit, seven-inning performance was all the more impressive because Central Florida came into the game with a gaudy .305 team batting average.