Freshmen Cade Kurland and Luke Heyman launched grand slams in the premiere.
Gainesville, Fla. – No. 3 Florida dropped game one to Georgia by a score of 13-11 at Condron Family Ballpark on Friday night.
Freshmen Cade Kurland<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/cade-kurland/15514> (2-for-5) and Luke Heyman<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/luke-heyman/15522> (2-for-5) launched grand slams in the premiere, combining for eight RBI on four hits. It marked the first time the Gators launched multiple grand slams in the same game since hitting three vs. Winthrop on March 3, 2019.
After two scoreless innings, the Bulldogs (19-15, 4-9 SEC) put three runs on the Gators (28-7, 9-4 SEC) in the top of the third. Ben Anderson produced the first run with a sacrifice bunt to plate Fernando Gonzalez, followed by a two-run homer to left field by Charlie Condron to open a 3-0 Georgia lead.
Florida responded immediately with a five-run bottom of the third. Josh Rivera<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/josh-rivera/15504> drove in Wyatt Langford<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/wyatt-langford/15497> with a sacrifice fly to right field while Kurland provided the big blow, launching a grand slam to left on a 3-2 offering to give the Gators a 5-3 advantage.
Having been provided with the lead, starting pitcher Brandon Sproat<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/brandon-sproat/15508> settled in on the mound. The right-hander blanked the Bulldogs in the fourth and fifth before allowing a lone run in the sixth on a solo homer to right-center by Condon.
Just like in the third, Florida answered Georgia with a five-run bottom half thanks to a Rivera RBI and grand slam by a freshman. Rivera singled to left to bring home Langford, followed by the Gators second grand slam of the game – this time off the bat of Heyman to left field to push the lead to 10-4.
Condon left the yard for the third time of the night in the eighth, hitting a two-run shot to left-center to cut the Bulldog deficit to 10-6.
Georgia roared back to life in the ninth, tying the game with a grand slam to left by Connor Tate. Parks Harber put Georgia on top with an RBI double to center field while Cole Wagner added an RBI single and Gonzalez made it 13-10 with a sacrifice fly to left.
Florida pushed across one run in the bottom of the ninth on a Rivera sacrifice fly to right, but the Gators stranded the bases loaded as the matchup ended in a 13-11 tally.
Bulldogs reliver Dalton Rhadans (2-0) picked up his second victory after throwing 2 2/3 scoreless innings of relief on two this and one walk. He struck out one. Leighton Finley earned his second save, giving up one run on one hit and one walk in the ninth while striking out two.
Gators reliever Brandon Neely<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/brandon-neely/15499> (0-1) received the loss, having allowed seven runs (five earned) in one-third of an inning. He surrendered six hits and two walks while striking out one.
NOTABLES
* Friday night’s official attendance was 6,994.
* Florida connected for multiple grand slams in a game for the first time since March 3, 2019 vs. Winthrop.
* Three Gators – Kendrick Calilao<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/kendrick-calilao/15092>, Jacob Young and Santino Miozzi – all hit grand slams.
* Both of Florida’s grand slams came in five-run innings by freshmen and followed a Rivera RBI.
* Kurland hit his second career grand slam for his 10th home run of the season.
* Rivera extended his team-leading hitting streak to eight games.
* Riopelle extended his team-high on-base streak to 15 games.
* Halter’s on-base streak reached 14 games while Langford’s hit 12.
* Florida has struck out double-digit batters in 24 of 35 games.
* Florida has struck out 382 batters in 302 1/3 innings – translating to 11.4 per nine innings.
* Through 35 games, Florida has a run differential of plus-144.
* The Gators have scored in 137 of 279 batted innings this season (49.1%).
* The Gators have 379 hits through 35 games (10.8 hits/game).
* Florida dropped to 191-115-2 all-time against Georgia including 99-44-1 at home.
* The Gators are 28-17 vs. the Bulldogs under Head Coach Kevin O’Sullivan<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/coaches/kevin-o-sullivan/1551>, featuring a 16-6 mark in Gainesville.
FROM HEAD COACH KEVIN O’SULLIVAN
On the ninth inning…
“[Brandon Neely<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/brandon-neely/15499>] ran some deep counts. Obviously, a leadoff single, the swinging bunt by the catcher. Obviously, trying not to get back to Tate and Condon. That’s kind of what happened. The error there in the ninth didn’t help either. It was really a combination of things. The bottom line is, it’s disappointing, but we cannot let this leak into them all. Simple as that. We got beat pretty good against Auburn on opening night and we came back and won the series. It’s just that simple.”
On his message to the team…
“I really didn’t say a whole lot. There’s nothing to say right now. Everybody is disappointed. This is not the time to keep them in the dugout for fifteen minutes. You could see it in their faces, they’re disappointed. Brandon [Neely] has been so good for us the entire year. That’s part of being a closer. You’re going to have nights where you’re not going to do as well as you want, but most of the time he’s done everything we’ve asked him to do.”
On Sproat’s outing…
“He was good. We just made some mistakes, obviously. In the third inning, walked the eight-hole hitter, I think. We had the comebacker we didn’t execute. Kind of threw the ball the wrong side of the bag and kind of self-inflicted there a little bit. I thought he threw the ball well.”
UP NEXT
Florida and Georgia face off in game two on Saturday night with coverage on SEC Network at 7 p.m. Right-handed pitcher Hurston Waldrep<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/hurston-waldrep/15517> will toe the slab for the Orange & Blue.
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