Luke Heyman provided the Gators’ lone run with a solo homer in the eighth.
COLUMBIA, Mo. – No. 6 Florida came up short in an 11-inning affair against Missouri, falling 2-1 at Taylor Stadium on Friday night.
Only three half innings saw runs in the series opener, as the Orange & Blue picked up its first hit in the fourth and was held scoreless until the eighth. Meanwhile, Missouri stranded 16 runners on base against the Gators’ four.
The Tigers (13-18, 2-8 SEC) struck first in game one, as Jeric Curtis led off with a triple to right and came in to score on an RBI groundout to second base by Jackson Beaman. Florida starter Brandon Neely<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/brandon-neely/16373> stranded the bases loaded to minimize the damage for the Gators (17-12, 6-4 SEC) in the opening frame.
Neely settled in after the first, blanking the Tigers in the second and third. Missouri loaded the bases with one out in the fourth, but Neely induced a pop out to second and groundout to himself to keep Florida within one.
After firing a scoreless fifth, Neely was lifted in favor of Cade Fisher<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/cade-fisher/16369>. The southpaw worked around a leadoff single and a two-out fielding error at shortstop to hold the score. In the seventh, he stranded runners at the corners to produce another zero.
In the top of the eighth, the Gators finally broke through. Leading off the inning, Luke Heyman<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/luke-heyman/16370> hammered a 2-1 offering over the left-field wall to knot the ballgame at one run apiece.
With the game tied, the Orange & Blue turned to right-hander Luke McNeillie<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/luke-mcneillie/16629>. The freshman navigated around a two-out walk and hit-by-pitch to take the Gators through eight frames.
McNeillie pitched Florida into extra innings, tossing a scoreless ninth and 10th. With the UF offense unable to push a run across, the matchup remained knotted into the bottom of the 11th, when Jackson Lovich got into scoring position with a one-out double to left. Two batters later, Jedier Hernandez walked it off with a game-winning single through the left side.
Despite his stellar effort, McNeillie (3-4) was handed the loss. He threw 3 1/3 innings with one run allowed on two hits, one walk and five strikeouts.
Tigers reliever Carter Rustad (4-4) earned the win, giving up one run in five innings. He allowed one hit and struck out five.
Neely did not factor into the decision. He allowed one earned run across five innings on four hits, three walks and three strikeouts.
Missouri starter Logan Lunceford also received a no-decision. He surrendered just one hit over six shutout frames, walking one and fanning eight.
NOTABLES
* Friday night’s official attendance was 1,749.
* The Gators played their third extra-inning contest of the season.
* Florida was held to a season-low two hits.
* Missouri’s 16 runners left on base was the most by a Gators’ opponent since June 26, 2023 against LSU in the College World Series Finals.
* Heyman hit his seventh home run of the season to tie the game in the eighth.
* Shelnut has reached base safely in 16-straight games followed closely by Caglianone at 15-consecutive.
* The Gators are 44-17 in weekend series since 2023 and 53-20 across the team’s previous 25 series.
* Florida is 43-20 in its last 63 games vs. SEC opponents including a 35-17 regular-season mark.
* Florida is now 31-6 all-time vs. Missouri including 11-5 on the road.
* The Gators are 26-5 against the Tigers under head coach Kevin O’Sullivan<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/coaches/kevin-o-sullivan/1752> (11-5 away).
* Florida has won 20 of the last 22 meetings.
* Florida’s four-game win streak in the series was snapped.
FROM HEAD COACH KEVIN O’SULLIVAN
On the offense…
“I mean, the conditions were the same for both teams. You can’t always play when it’s 75 and sunny. Yeah, disappointed with the effort offensively. I mean, the starting pitcher got hit in the hand in the second inning and he went three innings or so without being able to spin his breaking ball for a strike and we didn’t take advantage of it. Really, for the most part, we got beat by fastballs the entire night. You’re not going to win many games scoring one run on two hits, one being an infield single. You know, pitchers did what they were supposed to do tonight. We rolled the dice there with Luke (McNeillie) to extend him. We felt like with the game where it was at, obviously one run was going to win it and he was throwing the ball extremely well. Cade (Fisher) threw the ball extremely well for two innings. We had to use him on Tuesday, so, you know, that’s the way the thing works out. Obviously, offensively we didn’t have a good night.”
On the effort from the pitching staff…
“Yeah, we didn’t have too many 1-2-3 innings. We pitched with traffic on the bases the entire night. Credit our guys, they made some pitches when they had to.”
On the mentality for the remainder of the weekend…
“We’re going to have to flush it because we’re going to have our hands full with (Javyn) Pimental. He threw the Saturday game last year against us and threw two innings, he was coming back from injury. He’s not going to be easy to deal with so we’re going to have to flush this and get ready to play tomorrow.”
UP NEXT
Florida and Missouri face off in game two on Saturday, scheduled for 4 p.m. ET on SEC Network+.
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