CORAL GABLES, Fla. – No. 4 Florida dropped game two at Miami by a final score of 10-6 at Mark Light Field on Saturday evening.
The Hurricanes (6-4) opened the scoring in game two, as Jason Torres hit a three-run home run to left-center to hand the Gators (7-3) an early 3-0 deficit. The next inning, Edgardo Villegas connected on a two-out, two-run homer to left-center to extend the UM lead to 5-0.
In the third, UF starting pitcher Liam Peterson<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/liam-peterson/16631> settled in by retiring the side in order. He produced another clean frame in the fourth to make it seven-straight outs while picking up his fifth strikeout.
After being held scoreless through four, the Gators offense broke through in the fifth. Ty Evans<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/ty-evans/16368> led off with a single back up the middle, followed by a walk from Armando Albert<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/armando-albert/16619>. On a 1-1 count, Dale Thomas<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/dale-thomas/16378> blasted a three-run shot to center to draw Florida within two, 5-3.
Peterson picked up two more strikeouts in the fifth to raise his total to seven while setting down his 10th-consecutive batter to end the frame. Fellow freshman hurler Luke McNeillie<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/luke-mcneillie/16629> took over in the sixth and worked around a one-out single to produce a zero.
Following the seventh-inning stretch, Miami put the game out of reach. It started with a sacrifice fly to left by Blake Cyr to score Jack Scanlon. From there, Daniel Cuvet hit a three-run homer to center field to push the UM lead to 9-3.
The Gators did no go quietly, responding for three runs in the eighth. Following hit-by-pitches of Luke Heyman<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/luke-heyman/16370> and Evans, Shelnut smacked a two-run double to left to bring Florida within four. Albert then singled to left to move Shelnut to third, allowing Thomas to drive him in with a deep sacrifice fly to center.
With the Orange & Blue trailing 9-6, the Hurricanes added a late run in the eighth on a sacrifice fly to left by Antonio Jimenez. Heyman reached via a two-out hit-by-pitch in the top of the ninth, but Canes closer Nick Robert polished off the game to cement a 10-6 final score.
Peterson (1-1) was handed his first-career loss, allowing five earned runs in five innings. He surrendered three hits and two walks while fanning seven.
Miami starter Rafe Schlesinger (2-0) earned the win by allowing three earned runs across 6 1/3 frames. The southpaw allowed seven hits and two walks, striking out nine.
NOTABLES
* Saturday’s official attendance was another sellout crowd of 3,555 fans.
* Florida dropped to 133-135-1 all-time vs. Miami.
* The Gators are 52-82 in the series on the road.
* The Gators fell to 40-18 vs. the Canes featuring a 17-9 away mark under head coach Kevin O’Sullivan<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/coaches/kevin-o-sullivan/1752>.
* Florida is 21-8 against Miami across the last 29 meetings.
* Thomas hit his second home run of the season (third at UF).
* He finished 2-for-3 while driving in four of Florida’s six runs.
* Peterson’s seven strikeouts tied his career high.
* Menendez made his career debut on the mound.
* Newcomers Blake Brookins<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/blake-brookins/16620> and Landon Russell<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/landon-russell/16636> made their debuts as well.
* Florida is 35-12 in weekend series since 2023 and 44-15 across the team’s previous 20 series.
* Dating back to last season, Florida is 29-6 in regular season non-conference games and has won 20 of its last 23 such contests.
FROM HEAD COACH KEVIN O’SULLIVAN
On Peterson’s second weekend start…
“He just looked out of sorts from the beginning. I had to take a visit in the first. The pace was really slow. It didn’t look anything like the other times he had pitched this year. The positive is he came back and put three zeroes on the board after that. Dale (Thomas) had the three-run homer there in the top of the fifth. Obviously, the seventh inning kind of got away from us. We hit the leadoff man in the bottom half of the order. It was just unfortunate because I did feel that if it stayed where it was we would have a chance there at the end.”
On this game being a learning experience…
“It goes a little bit further than that. We got into a lot of fastball counts. That’s what happened to Liam. He couldn’t command his secondary pitches today. You get in those 2-0, 3-0 counts, you don’t locate your fastball and things like that happen. The first two innings for sure.”
On Schelsinger’s outing for Miami…
“I thought our guys the second time through got a much better look at him. It is a different look, not something you see every day, a low-angle lefty like that throwing low 90s. Offensively, we did what we were supposed to do today. We scored six runs on nine hits against a really good starter…”
UP NEXT
The Gators and Canes face off one last time in the series finale on Sunday at 1 p.m. on ACC Network Extra.
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