GAINESVILLE, Fla. – No. 10 Florida saw eight starters combine for 10 hits in a 13-1 victory against Dayton in seven innings at Condron Family Ballpark on Friday night.
With the win over the Flyers (2-2), the Gators improved to 5-0 for the first time since 2020 (16-0).
Florida received an early boost from Bobby Boser<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/bobby-boser/17349> (1-for-4), who homered and drove in the game-winning RBI for the second-consecutive game. In all, six different Gators drove in runs highlighted by five with multiple. Eight UF starters also notched hits. Cade Kurland<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/cade-kurland/17328> (1-for-3) led the charge with three RBI while Brendan Lawson<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/brendan-lawson/17350> (2-for-3) and Blake Cyr<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/blake-cyr/17347> (2-for-3) each collected a pair of hits and drove in two runs apiece.
Ace hurler Liam Peterson<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/liam-peterson/17332> opened the night with a strikeout of the Flyers leadoff man. After a one-out single, Rylan Lujo lined into a double play to Kurland for a scoreless top half of the first.
In the bottom half, Hayden Yost<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/hayden-yost/17337> roped a leadoff double and Boser quickly made it 2-0 with an opposite field home run to right in the very next at bat. Colby Shelton<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/colby-shelton/17335> then walked, swiped two bases and scored on an RBI groundout to third off the bat of Kurland to open a 3-0 Gators lead.
After a clean frame from Peterson in the second, the Gators went right back to work. Cyr was hit by a pitch and Yost later brought him home on a groundout to third base. Boser then scored on a wild pitch while Kurland cashed in with a two-out, RBI single to right to bring home Shelton.
Holding a 6-0 lead, Peterson navigated around a two-out walk to fire another zero in the third. He ran into a bases-loaded jam in the fourth, but punched out Ty Mainolfi to strand a trio of Flyers.
In the bottom half of the fourth, Brody Donay<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/brody-donay/17324> reached on an infield single and proceeded to swipe second. Lawson capitalized with two outs, stroking a single up the middle to score Donay for a 7-0 Gators advantage.
Following Peterson’s exit at the onset of the fifth, UF right-hander Jackson Barberi<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/jackson-barberi/17354> fired a scoreless fifth inning. Dayton finally broke through in the sixth, as Mainolfi singled to right-center to plate Lujo for a 7-1 ballgame.
The Gators sandwiched a Boser walk and Donay hit-by-pitch around a Shelton double in the bottom half of the sixth, loading the bases for Kurland. The junior second baseman worked a walk to force home Boser and Lawson was subsequently plunked to score Shelton.
From there, Luke Heyman<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/luke-heyman/17327> produced a sacrifice fly to center. Cyr provided the big blow of the inning, doubling into the left-center gap to score both Kurland and Lawson. Yost capped it off with a sacrifice fly to left to push the UF lead to 13-1.
Redshirt freshman Christian Rodriguez<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/christian-rodriguez/17334> took the mound for his career debut in the seventh. He wasted no time recording his first-career strikeout on the first batter he faced. Rodriguez used a second strikeout and flyout to center to pitch a scoreless frame and cement the 13-1, rune-rule victory for the Orange & Blue.
Peterson (2-0) earned the win in a controlled start, tossing four shutout innings on two hits and two walks. He struck out five after fanning 11 in his Opening Night outing one week ago.
Dayton starting pitcher Chris Peguero (0-2) was saddled with the loss, surrendering seven earned runs across four innings. He allowed eight hits, walked two and struck out seven.
NOTABLES
* With the series-opening win, the Gators improve to 5-0 for the first time since 2020 (16-0).
* Florida’s 5-0 start has been powered by two run-rule victories.
* The Gators have knocked double-digit hits in all five games.
* Florida pitchers have produced a 70-to-9 strikeout-to-walk ratio through five games.
* All 16 pitching appearances have featured at least one strikeout.
* As a staff, UF pitchers have allowed just six earned runs on 24 hits and nine walks on the year, equating to a 1.32 ERA and .167 batting average against.
* With four scoreless frames on Friday, Peterson has now pitched a combined 10.0 shutout innings in his first two starts with four hits allowed and 16 total strikeouts.
* Shelton and Donay became the fifth and sixth Gators to reach multiple stolen bases on the season.
* Boser homered for the second-straight game and now has three homers on the year.
* Lawson logged his second multi-hit game in his fifth-career start.
* Barberi pitched a scoreless fifth inning in his second-career appearance.
* Making his collegiate debut, Rodriguez worked a scoreless seventh inning with two strikeouts to secure the win.
* The Gators have struck out just 33 times while drawing 23 walks and 12 hit-by-pitches.
* Florida improved to 1-0 in the first-ever meeting against Dayton.
* The Gators are 38-0 all-time vs. the Atlantic 10 (32-0 vs. current A10 teams).
* UF is 13-0 (10-0) against the A10 under Head Coach Kevin O’Sullivan<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/coaches/kevin-o-sullivan/1999>.
FROM HEAD COACH KEVIN O’SULLIVAN
On Peterson’s start…
“Yeah. It was just probably one of those starts where you don’t want to blame the weather. Honestly, it was not an easy night to hit or pitch. I thought he handled it good. Last year, if we had games like this, a lot of times they got away from us. It was almost like he made some big pitches when he needed to. We got two guys out there that are coming off Tommy John with Caden, obviously, his second appearance this year, and Christian Rodriguez<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/christian-rodriguez/17334> for his first appearance; threw a freshman out there and held it together. Even though our strikes weren’t great tonight, I still think we only walked maybe two the entire night. A lot different than what we had going on last year. But then offensively, I thought our situational hitting was outstanding. The first couple innings especially. We moved some runners over to third with less than two outs, we stole some bases again. I think seven different players had RBIs, so we had production up and down the lineup. It was a good night for us, obviously maybe the line looks a little bit better than the way we pitched probably, but the bottom line is we only gave up one run over seven.”
On being able to score in many different ways…
“I think it’s a combination of things. I think it’s recruiting some players that could do different things. You’ve got to have the skill set to do this, right? And then pushing the issue offensively. And I think that was an emphasis for our offense, is push the issue and maybe the first weekend there we were trying to do too much, and maybe that’s where some of the mistakes happened on the base paths. But if you’re going to be aggressive running the bases, occasionally you’re going to run yourself out of innings and that’s just the way it is; that’s the way this game works. But I think we’ve got some talented players that give us some versatility.”
On the team’s defense to start the year
“Yeah, I’ve said all along I think we are going to play good defense. In all fairness to Colby, I think that ball took a bad hop there the last hop. But yeah, you guys were at the game. It was cold. I mean, everybody’s got jackets on and everything else. But yeah, our defense has been pretty solid for the first five games, for sure.”
UP NEXT
Florida and Dayton face off in game two on Saturday, scheduled for 4 p.m. on SEC Network+.
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