The victory gave the Gators their first lead in the head-to-head series vs. the Hurricanes since 1969.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – No. 8 Florida drilled a trio of homers to post a 6-3 victory and clinch the series vs. Miami in front of a program-record crowd of 9,303 fans at Condron Family Ballpark on Saturday evening.
In winning their 11th-straight game to open the season, the Gators (11-0) took the all-time series lead against the Hurricanes (8-3) at 136-135-1, which dates back to 1940. Florida will defend the series advantage for the first time since 1969 as it goes for its first sweep of Miami since 2020.
Bobby Boser<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/bobby-boser/17349> (1-for-3) and Luke Heyman<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/luke-heyman/17327> (2-for-4) clubbed homers for the Orange & Blue, with Heyman leaving the yard twice to finish with a team-high four RBI. Landon Stripling<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/landon-stripling/17351> (3-for-3) reached base in all four of his trips to the plate, tallying with one double, one RBI and one run scored. However, it was freshman Aidan King<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/aidan-king/17366> who dazzled throughout the middle innings with a career-high 3 1/3 one-hit frames to record his second win in the last four contests.
Florida received a clean inning from starter Pierce Coppola<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/pierce-coppola/17323> in the top of the first. In the second, the southpaw struck out his first two batters to make it six up and six down.
In what proved to be a pitchers’ duel, Coppola recorded two outs in the third before being lifted after a pair of walks. King took over on the bump, punching out Daniel Cuvet looking to strand two baserunners. The rookie fired a clean frame in the top of the fourth, opening the door for the Gators to rally.
Leadoff off the home half of the fourth, Boser broke the deadlock by smacking the first pitch over the right-field wall for an opposite field homer. The Gators had a chance to bust it open with two outs and the bases loaded, but a flyout by Heyman to the warning track in left limited the UF lead to 1-0 after four.
The Hurricanes managed their first hit with two men down in the fifth via a Tanner Smith single, but King fanned Michael Torres to maintain the shutout. Florida had another two-out rally in the bottom half with runners at the corners, but Miami starter Griffin Hugus utilized a strikeout to hold the score.
King worked around a one-out walk to keep the Canes scoreless through six. In the bottom half, Ashton Wilson<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/ashton-wilson/17336> drew a leadoff walk, advanced to second on a failed pickoff attempt and scored on a double down the left-field line off the bat of Stripling. The Gators were not finished, as Heyman broke the game open with a two-run homer onto the left-field berm to make it 4-0 in favor of Florida.
Leading by four, the Gators turned to southpaw Frank Menendez<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/frank-menendez/17331> in the seventh. Menendez navigated around a pair of two-out baserunners to produce a zero for the Orange & Blue.
Miami erased the shutout in the top of the eighth. Following a leadoff walk, Cuvet hit a two-run homer to right-center to cut Florida’s lead in half at 4-2. Right-hander Alex Philpott<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/alex-philpott/17333> recorded the final out of the inning to keep UF’s advantage intact.
In search of much-need insurance in bottom-eight, Heyman provided just that. With Stripling on base from a leadoff single, Heyman hammered his second homer of the game – this time to straightaway left field – to extend the Gators’ lead to 6-2 through eight innings.
Back on the mound for the ninth, Philpott struck out Todd Hudson and Tanner Smith for the first two outs before the Canes showed late life. Fabio Peralta singled and took second on defensive indifference, allowing him to score on an RBI single to center from Dorian Gonzalez. With the tying run on deck, Philpott induced a groundout of Cuvet to shortstop as Shelton made a slick play in the hole to secure the 6-3, series-clinching win.
Philpott registered his first-career save, striking out three over 1 1/3 innings. The sophomore right-hander gave up one run on two hits and did not issue a walk.
King (2-0) earned his second win of the week, chucking 3 1/3 shutout, one-hit frames on one walk. He also fanned three Hurricanes.
Coppola did not factor into the decision, pitching 2 1/3 no-hit innings of scoreless ball. The left-hander walked two and struck out three.
Hurricanes starter Griffin Hugus (2-1) was saddled with the loss after tossing five innings of two-run ball on four hits and three walks. He struck out 10 batters.
NOTABLES
* On Saturday, Condron Family Ballpark welcomed a program-record crowd 9,303 fans, marking the largest on-campus crowd for a baseball game in the history of the state of Florida.
* Florida gained the all-time series lead against Miami at 136-135-1 with tonight’s win.
* The Gators last led the series, 29-28, on Feb. 28, 1969.
* The Gators are 43-18 overall and 23-9 in Gainesville in the series under Head Coach Kevin O’Sullivan<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/coaches/kevin-o-sullivan/1999>.
* Florida is 81-51-1 in the series at home.
* Florida has now won 10 of the last 11 series against Miami and is 24-8 across the last 32 meetings.
* Florida’s 11-game winning streak is the team’s longest since winning 16 in a row to open the 2020 season.
* The Gators have knocked at least eight hits in all 11 games and 10-plus in eight of 11.
* Boser homered for the second-straight game to open the series and now has five on the season.
* King pitched a career-high 3 1/3 innings to earn his second win of the week.
* He allowed just one hit and one walk while striking out four.
* Heyman launched his first two home runs of the season to finish with a team-high four RBI.
* Stripling (3-for-3) posted his first three-hit game as a Gator while reaching base safely in all four trips to the plate.
* Florida pitchers have produced a 139-to-28 strikeout-to-walk ratio through 11 games.
* Since the start of the season, 39 of 41 UF pitching appearances have featured at least one strikeout.
FROM HEAD COACH KEVIN O’SULLIVAN
On taking the all-time series lead against Miami…
“I don’t really think a whole lot about it. The truth is I’m hoping to win 137, or whatever it is, that’s the biggest thing. I know that those are good things to write about and talk about, but I don’t really think about those things very often.”
On the depth of this year’s bullpen…
“I mean we finished third, fourth in the country last year and got to the World Series. We started seeing signs of those younger pitchers starting to figure it out, like Frankie (Menendez) in the Regional against Oklahoma State and obviously Luke (McNeillie) at Clemson in the Super Regional. You started seeing some flashes of those guys getting better and I think that’s just a byproduct of them working hard. They’re a year older, and you’re starting to see the reason why we recruit a lot of these guys.”
On tonight’s program-record crowd…
“It was awesome. I can’t tell the fans how much we appreciate their support. It really does help us; the energy it gives to our players, they feed off of it. I didn’t know how many people exactly until they did the radio, but it was awesome.”
On his early impressions of Philpott in the closer role…
“He throws strikes. He fields his position. He holds runners. He’s got multiple pitches. He’s like a starter, but he’s got different weapons. His fastball honestly is a lot different than it was last year. I thought he had the mentality to do it. It’s a long season, but he certainly has had a good weekend.”
UP NEXT
The Gators and Hurricanes meet in the series finale on Sunday, scheduled for 1 p.m. on SEC Network+
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