The Gators beat Fairfield in a must-win game on Saturday afternoon to keep their season alive.
CONWAY, S.C. — The Gators showed they are not ready for their season to end. They got what they needed from starting pitcher Aidan King<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/aidan-king/17366>, and they got three home runs and 16 hits from the lineup.
Most importantly, the Gators got a win over Fairfield on Saturday afternoon in a Conway (S.C.) Regional elimination game at Springs Brooks Stadium.
The Gators beat the Stags, 17-2, behind an exceptional outing from King and home runs from Blake Cyr<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/blake-cyr/17347>, Bobby Boser<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/bobby-boser/17349> and Brody Donay<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/brody-donay/17324>.
Cyr hit a solo shot in the fourth, Boser connected for a two-run homer in the fifth, and Donay drew oohs and aahs from the crowd when he crushed a 1-1 pitch from Stags reliever Brendon Miller onto the roof of the Coastal Carolina hitting facility located beyond the left-center wall. Donay’s 433-foot bomb exited his bat at 109 mph and provided extra cushion for the Gators, who padded their lead in the late innings with the help of 10 walks by Fairfield relievers.
Freshman first baseman Brendan Lawson<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/brendan-lawson/17350> contributed to the victory in a big way at the plate. Lawson went 5-for-7 with a double, three RBI and three runs scored. He became the third player in school history to record a five-hit game in the NCAA Tournament, and first since Wyatt Langford on June 25, 2023, against LSU in the College World Series.
PLAYER OF THE GAME: Florida desperately needed King to eat innings after using seven pitchers in Friday’s 11-6 loss to East Carolina that dropped UF into the loser’s bracket. King did his job in his first career NCAA Tournament start. King became the first Gators starter to pitch into the eighth inning since Hurston Waldrep in the 2023 Super Regional that sent the Gators to the College World Series.
IN THE SPOTLIGHT: The attention was clearly on King as the Gators turned to the freshman to help keep the season alive following a short outing by sophomore Liam Peterson<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/liam-peterson/17332> on Friday forced UF coach Kevin O’Sullivan<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/coaches/kevin-o-sullivan/1999> to use six relief pitchers. King pitched a career-high eight innings, giving up four hits and one run. He struck out seven and walked two and got stronger in the final innings. After he gave up back-to-back singles with one out in the sixth, King retired the final eight batters he faced before reliever Felix Ong<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/felix-ong/17364> took over in the ninth. King threw 94 pitches, 59 for strikes, and faced just four hitters over the minimum.
KEY MOMENT: Cyr’s homer in the top of the fourth put Florida up 1-0. Stags right fielder Matt Bucciera answered with a solo homer in the bottom of the inning to make it 1-1. The Gators came right back regain the momentum when Justin Nadeau<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/justin-nadeau/17342> led off the fifth with a single. On the next pitch, Boser slammed a two-run homer off Fairfield lefty Bowen Baker to give the Gators a 3-1 lead they never relinquished.
UP NEXT: The Gators face the loser of Saturday night’s East Carolina-Coastal Carolina game on Sunday afternoon in an elimination game. If they win, they will face the East Carolina-Coastal Carolina winner on Sunday night. Florida is trying to win a regional for the first time in program history after losing its first game.
NOTABLES
* Florida has now won seven-straight elimination games at NCAA Regionals.
* The Gators have won 19 of their last 26 games overall.
* Making his 12th-career start, King became the first UF pitcher since June 10, 2023 (Brandon Sproat vs. South Carolina) to pitch into and complete the eighth inning.
* King fired eight innings of one-run ball behind seven strikeouts, lowering his season ERA to a team-low 2.58 across 73 1/3 innings.
* King registered his team-best fifth quality start of the season.
* Boser extended his hitting streak to nine games with a leadoff single in the third.
* Florida turned two inning-ending double plays in the first and third.
* Cyr opened the scoring with his ninth homer of the season – his second in as many games at the NCAA Conway Regional.
* Cyr went 3-for-5 with one homer, a team-high four RBI and two runs scored.
* Boser put Florida back on top in the fifth with a two-run shot for his team-leading 18th home run of the campaign.
* Donay tied Boser for the team high with his 18th homer of the year in the sixth.
* Boser was 3-for-6 with one homer, three RBI, three runs and one walk.
* Boser later swiped his 19th base, drawing closer to becoming the second 20-homer/20-steal player in program history alongside Brad Wilkerson (1991).
* Lawson recorded his first-career, five-hit game, finishing 5-for-7 with one double, three RBI and three runs scored.
* Lawson is the third Gator to record five hits in an NCAA Tournament game and the first since Wyatt Langford vs. LSU on June 25, 2023 in the College World Series Finals.
* Florida tallied eight runs in the eighth inning.
* Caden McDonald<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/caden-mcdonald/17329> drove in a run as a pinch-hitter in the ninth in his first-career at bat.
* The Gators are 138-89 across 40 NCAA Tournament appearances.
* Florida is 91-53 all-time at NCAA Regionals.
* Florida is now 3-0 all-time against Fairfield including 1-0 at neutral sites.
* The previous two meetings came via a 2015 midweek sweep by the Gators.
* Fairfield Head Coach Bill Currier was ejected with two outs and the bases loaded in the top of the eighth inning.
FROM HEAD COACH KEVIN O’SULLIVAN
On the outcome of the game…
“First of all, I want to congratulate Fairfield for a great year. Obviously, you never want to see your season come to end, but coming into this thing, we knew they were going to be a really difficult four-seed. So, congrats to them, first and foremost. Secondly, as far as today goes, obviously yesterday was really disappointing on how we played, but we were in a very similar situation last year. The first thing that has to happen, is you have to be able to score a bunch of runs, and Blake had a great game offensively. Second thing is, you need your starting pitcher to go deep, so that you don’t have to use your pen. And that’s exactly what happened. We’re looking forward to playing tomorrow…”
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