The Gators, down two runs in the bottom of the ninth, rally to win their first game of the College World Series.
WHAT HAPPENED: The Gators won their first game of the College World Series in dramatic fashion, beating Virginia 6-5 on a walk-off RBI sacrifice fly by designated hitter Luke Heyman<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/luke-heyman/15522> in the bottom of the ninth. Trailing 5-3 when the inning started, Ty Evans<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/ty-evans/15491> hit a solo home run to make it 5-4, and two batters later, Wyatt Langford<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/wyatt-langford/15497> crushed a pitch out of Charles Schwab Field to tie the game. The Gators didn’t stop there, as they loaded the bases with one out, setting up Heyman’s game-winning fly ball to center field. Evans went 2-for-2 after coming into the game for Richie Schiekofer<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/richie-schiekofer/15520> in the bottom of the seventh, finishing with a double and homer.
PLAY OF THE GAME: They will be talking about Langford’s home run over the left-field concourse in Omaha for the rest of the CWS. Langford crushed a 1-0 pitch from Cavaliers reliever Jake Berry for a mammoth 456-foot bomb, tying the game and creating a buzz that lasted the rest of the inning inside the ballpark. Langford stepped to the plate in a 2-for-23 slump that sailed out of the ballpark with his home run. In addition, Berry had allowed only three home runs in 48 2/3 innings. He served up three homers in 1 2/3 innings Friday.
STAGGERING STAT: Virginia was 46-0 when leading after eight innings when the bottom of the ninth inning started. The Cavs are now 46-1 after Florida rallied for three runs and three hits in the final frame.
IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Brandon Sproat<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/brandon-sproat/15508> continued a string of strong outings for Gators starters. Sproat went 6 1/3 innings, giving up five hits and three runs. He walked three and struck out seven in his first CWS outing. Sproat threw 109 pitches, 73 for strikes, and never faced serious trouble until the seventh.
KEY MOMENT: Sproat had thrown 88 pitches, retired seven of the last eight batters and struck out five of six when the seventh inning started. After his first 1-2-3 inning of the game in the sixth, Sproat walked Virginia leadoff hitter Ethan Anderson to start the seventh. That spelled doom for the big right-hander. By the end of the inning, Sproat was in the dugout, two UF relievers had pitched in the inning, and the Cavs led 4-1.
HE SAID IT: “There’s a lot of things that went into this one. I thought Brandon Sproat<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/brandon-sproat/15508> pitched great. The at-bats there in the ninth were just really tough at-bats. I thought we hit the ball fairly hard. The wind changed in the seventh. We hit a couple balls out in the ninth. If you’re going to win out there, you have to have special performances from people you might not expect. I can’t be happier for Ty. A game like this, he’ll never forget. He was a big part of our win.” — Gators coach Kevin O’Sullivan<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/coaches/kevin-o-sullivan/1551> on the comeback victory
BY THE NUMBERS: 24,801 — Announced attendance for the Florida-Virginia game; 12 — Fly-ball outs for Virginia starter Nick Parker in six innings; 21 — Comeback wins for the Gators this season.
FROM HEAD COACH KEVIN O’SULLIVAN
Opening statement…
“It was obviously a really well-played game. We knew going into it that it was going to be a very fundamentally sound game on both sides. Virginia played really good. Didn’t give us anything. But proud of these guys, the way they hung in there. Brandon was great tonight. Neely was really good for two and a third, really efficient. Threw 30 pitches or so, 32 pitches. But, you know, if Sproat and Neely don’t do what they’ve done it wouldn’t have given us a chance there in the ninth. And obviously we had some big at-bats by Wyatt and Ty Evans. What can you say? This guy has hung in there, he’s battled. Probably a little disappointed with the amount of playing time he’s had this year, but had a big double and big home run tonight. And obviously BT had the big home run. And obviously Luke Heyman came up with a 2-0 count and stayed in the middle of the field and got the winning run in. Special things happen this time of the year. Awfully proud of the team the way we battled.”
On the big home runs…
“It’s interesting, because the first six, seven innings the wind was blowing in and I thought we had some good at-bats and really didn’t have much to show for it. Then you look up in the eighth and the flag is not moving at all. It’s crazy how that happens. But it happens out here a lot. But he gets pitched tough and sometimes the game doesn’t go the way you want it to go, but obviously you guys know how I feel about him. He’s one of the best players we’ve ever had. He has a knack for rising to the occasion with a couple other guys too. I think the home run by Ty, I think that really gave the dugout a lot of momentum. And we were down to one out and still down a run. But we knew we had Wyatt and Cags and the rest of the guys coming up behind them. But you don’t think as a coach in that situation that he’s going to run into a ball; you hope he has a good at-bat and a good result. But obviously the result was huge for us at the time.”
On what allows this team to consistently come from behind…
“We had a chance to hit the ball out of the yard. One swing of the bat, you can hit a two-run or a three-run homer, feel like you can get back. Not like we had to string together three, four, five hits in an inning to score. It was really important. Even though we gave up the running in the ninth to fall down two, like I said, Ty’s home run got us within one. And obviously then Cade came up and struck out. But then I think it was a change-up that Wyatt got that he hit and obviously you guys saw the rest of the game. When you have the ability — it’s like feast or famine out here. You feel a three-run homer could get you back in the game. But if the wind is blowing in it doesn’t work to your favor. I talked to Chuck about the sixth, we were going to probably start to manufacture a run, put a hit and run and hit at some point because the wind was blowing in. Bottom line, you have to have the ability to score in different ways. If the wind is blowing in, it’s really hard to get out of here. And it’s crazy how the wind just changed, and it doesn’t take a whole lot to feel like really big. I think the wind was blowing in seven, eight miles an hour. All of a sudden he saw the flags, they weren’t moving, felt like, okay, if we can get a walk here and we can get back to the top of the order and get — because every time we could flip the lineup over and get back to the top, we feel like we have a chance to score that inning. That’s how it worked out tonight.”
NOTABLES
* Florida delivered its first-ever walk-off win in the College World Series.
* The win marked UF’s fourth walk-off win of the campaign.
* The Gators are now 22-24 all-time at the CWS and 126-84 in the NCAA Tournament.
* UF posted its 21st come-from-behind win of the season.
* 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.
* Before today, Virginia was 46-0 this season when leading after eight innings – now 46-1.
* Riopelle smacked his 17th home run including his team-high seventh of the 2023 Postseason.
* Evans hit his fifth home run of the season to bring Florida within one run in the ninth.
* It marked Evans’ first homer since April 11 vs. Florida State.
* Langford hit his 19th home run of the season to tied the game at 5-5 with one out in the ninth.
* Sproat has gone five-plus innings in 26 of his last 28 starts dating back to last season, allowing three earned runs or fewer in 21 of those outings.
* The right-hander has fired four-straight quality starts.
* Florida has now swatted 132 home runs this season, which is tied for the single-season program record alongside the 1998 squad (132).
* Since facing elimination in NCAA Regionals, Florida has gone 6-0 while outscoring opponents, 36-12.
* Florida has hammered 11 home runs while allowing just two.
* Halter put Florida on the board with an RBI single in the second inning, marking his fourth RBI across UF’s last two contests.
* Neely picked up his first win of the 2023 campaign.
* Florida has struck out 662 batters in 559 innings – translating to 10.7 per nine innings, which would mark a new program record.
* The Gators have 637 hits through 66 games (9.7 hits/game).
* The Gators have scored in 44.0% of batted innings (237 of 539).
* Florida is 6-3 all-time against Virginia featuring a 3-3 mark in the NCAA Tournament.
* The Gators are 2-2 vs. the Cavaliers under O’Sullivan, all of which have taken place in Omaha.
UP NEXT: The comeback victory kept the Gators in the winners’ bracket, where they will face Oral Roberts at 7 p.m. ET on Sunday. Oral Roberts won the first game of the CWS on Friday, 6-5, over TCU with a ninth-inning comeback.
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