The Gators beat Oral Roberts to improve to 2-0 and one win away from a berth in the CWS championship series.
WHAT HAPPENED: Florida held off a late surge by Oral Roberts to stay in the winners’ bracket of the College World Series with a 5-4 victory over the Golden Eagles. The Gators took a 5-1 lead behind home runs from Ty Evans<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/ty-evans/15491>, Josh Rivera<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/josh-rivera/15504> and Luke Heyman<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/luke-heyman/15522>, and another outstanding outing from starter Hurston Waldrep<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/hurston-waldrep/15517>. However, like they have shown throughout the NCAA Tournament, the Golden Eagles refused to go away and cut the lead to a run in the bottom of the ninth inning and had the tying run on third base. Needing one more out, Gators reliever Cade Fisher<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/cade-fisher/15513> retired Jacob Godman on a fly ball to center fielder Michael Robertson<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/michael-robertson/15505> on the game’s final pitch, allowing the Gators to take a deep breath and know they have two days off before their next game.
PLAY OF THE GAME: Heyman’s two-run blast in the fourth inning gave the Gators a four-run lead and chased Oral Roberts starter Harley Gollart. All the momentum was on Florida’s side. But by the end of the game, Heyman’s homer proved crucial and helped Florida snap the Golden Eagles’ seven-game win streak (three in the NCAA Tournament) in games they trailed by three runs or more.
STAGGERING STAT: Through six innings of Sunday’s game, 25 of the first 36 outs came via the strikeout. Three Oral Roberts pitchers accumulated 13 strikeouts in the first six innings, while Waldrep had 12.
IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Waldrep rose to the challenge for the third consecutive outing in the NCAA Tournament. He won his 10th game of the season by pitching six innings, limiting Oral Roberts to one run, seven hits and three walks. Waldrep struck out 12 and improved to 3-0 with a 0.86 ERA in the NCAA Tournament. He has pitched 21 innings in his three starts, allowing 15 hits and two runs. He has walked seven and struck out 37, an average of 15.9 strikeouts per nine innings.
KEY MOMENT: Oral Roberts loaded the bases loaded in the bottom of the eighth, but the Gators escaped unharmed after a highly unusual sequence that forced UF to remove closer Brandon Neely<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/brandon-neely/15499> and replace him with freshman lefty Fisher due to a violation of mound visits. Florida coach Kevin O’Sullivan<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/coaches/kevin-o-sullivan/1551> appeared stunned on TV replays, and Neely asked “what happened?” when told to depart by umpires. Fisher rushed to the mound, took a few extra warmup tosses, and then retired Justin Quinn to end the threat.
HE SAID IT: “We did just enough to win the ballgame. A lot of big pitches. Hurston was obviously good on the mound. And obviously, the mistake I made [with mound visits]. That totally falls on my shoulders. I’m just glad Cade picked up that save. That is a mistake I have never made in my career. It certainly put [Fisher] in a tough spot. He had to make some pitches and he did. It was an unfortunate situation he was put it, but he did figure a way to get out of the game. These games are not easy. You want to win the first game, you want to win the second game. It’s hard for me right now because of the mistake I made. I’m still kicking myself about it.” — Gators coach Kevin O’Sullivan<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/coaches/kevin-o-sullivan/1551> on the win and strange eighth inning
BY THE NUMBERS: 135 — Program-record home runs hit by the Gators after hitting three on Sunday, breaking 25-year-old record of 132 set by the 1998 team. 13 — Consecutive wins for the Gators in the CWS when they lead by four or more runs.
FROM HEAD COACH KEVIN O’SULLIVAN
Opening statement…
“Well, obviously a well-played game came down to the last out in the ninth and started on the mound with Hurston. He was outstanding, struck out 12 over six. And offensively we hit some home runs early to get to a 5-1 lead. And we knew Oral Roberts was going to be really difficult to deal with. They’ve got an older lineup, but Cade came in shut down things for us. We’re excited about being 2-0 and looking forward to playing on Wednesday.”
On starting 2-0 in Omaha…
“We’ve got to keep our edge. We haven’t done it yet. So, sure, we’re one game away from the finals, but we’ve still got to play one more game. So, they’ve just got to stay the course and what we’ve done the entire year and don’t take anything for granted and be ready to go on Wednesday.
On breaking the program home run record and the impact of the long ball…
“You would like at some point maybe get a couple guys on, hit a three-run homer. Solo ones. But certainly, our team is built different this year than maybe it was some other years. We’ve been fortunate, to where the wind on Friday night, the last three innings, it died down and tonight the wind was in our favor as well. We’re prepared if we’ve got to change the way we score runs and play more hit-and-run and run the bases a little more aggressively, that type of thing, to manufacture runs, we do have the ability to do that, too.”
On the starting pitching…
“Well, you can’t get to this spot without having Sproat and Waldrep and now Cags has to follow up on Wednesday and we have a guy to the back end of Neely. And I mean, when we’ve been in this position and we’ve won the first two, or we’ve gotten to the finals, the starting pitching has been really good, and both Brandon and Hurston have been just outstanding.”
NOTABLES
* Florida has won back-to-back one-run games in Omaha and has posted three-straight victories in one-run games dating back to Super Regionals.
* The Gators are now 23-24 all-time at the CWS and 127-84 in the NCAA Tournament.
* Florida is playing in its 13th College World Series and eighth in the Kevin O’Sullivan<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/coaches/kevin-o-sullivan/1551> era: 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2023.
* By striking out 12 Golden Eagles, Waldrep has struck out 37 batters across three NCAA Tournament starts.
* Waldrep became the fourth UF pitcher to strike out double-digit batters at the CWS, joining Alex Faedo (twice), Jackson Kowar (twice) and Brady Singer (once).
* The right-hander’s 12 strikeouts are tied for the second-most by a Gator in the CWS alongside Singer.
* Kowar holds the record with 13 vs. Texas in 2018.
* Waldrep has struck out at least 12 batters in all three of his NCAA Tournament starts.
* Giving UF a 2-0 lead in the second, Evans launched his sixth home run of the season and second in as many games at the 2023 College World Series.
* Evans improved to 3-for-3 with two home runs and one double across his first-three career at bats in Omaha.
* He is the first Florida player ever to homer in UF’s first-two games of a College World Series.
* Rivera smacked his 18th homer of the campaign to extend UF’s lead to 3-1 in the fourth inning.
* Heyman hit his 12th home run of the season in the fourth.
* Fisher secured his second-career save.
* Florida has now swatted 135 home runs this season, which broke the single-season program record, passing the 1998 squad (132).
* The Gators broke the record on Evans’ second-inning blast.
* Since facing elimination in NCAA Regionals, Florida has gone 7-0 while outscoring opponents, 41-16.
* Florida has hammered 14 home runs while allowing just two.
* Florida has struck out 689 batters in 575 innings – translating to 10.8 per nine innings, which would mark a new program record.
* The Gators have 642 hits through 67 games (9.6 hits/game).
* The Gators have scored in 43.6% of batted innings (239 of 548).
* Florida improved to 1-0 in the first-ever meeting vs. Oral Roberts.
UP NEXT: The Gators are in the driver’s seat on their side of the bracket by winning their first two games. The Gators will play the winner of Tuesday’s elimination game between TCU and Oral Roberts on Wednesday at 2 p.m. ET with an opportunity to advance to the best-of-three championship with a victory.
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