GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Scoring seven runs in an inning on one hit is not easy. Neither is sending 12 batters to the plate.
The Gators did both in the bottom of the sixth on Saturday night, blowing open a tie game to defeat Miami, 22-10, in the Gainesville Regional.
Florida can clinch the regional championship on Sunday afternoon when it plays the winner of the Miami-Troy elimination game, scheduled earlier in the day. If the Gators lose, they will have another chance on Monday.
Now, back to that wacky bottom of the sixth.
In a game that the Gators led 6-1 after the first inning — sending 11 men to the plate — Miami chipped away at the lead until pulling even, 8-8, in the top of the fifth. That was the score when Kyle Jones opened the sixth by drawing a leadoff walk. By the time the 40-minute inning was over, four Hurricanes pitchers had walked four batters and hit two more, and paired with two critical Miami defensive miscues, Florida seized control in front of a fired-up crowd at Condron Ballpark.
Florida scored the go-ahead run when Karson Bowen drew a bases-loaded walk off Miami reliever Ryan Bilka. After a pitching change, Landon Stripling drew a bases-loaded walk to make it 10-8. The Gators continued to pile on the runs with help from the Hurricanes until Jones, batting for the second time in the frame, cleared the bases with a three-run double to make it 15-8.
Normally, such an inning is so mind-blowing that all others turn to dust in the memory. Those who stayed around after midnight saw something they might never see again.
“The fans were unbelievable tonight,” head coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “I’ve never seen the atmosphere like it was tonight, and it helped. There is no question it helped us the entire night.”
In the bottom of the eighth, with the score 15-10 after Miami scored twice in the top of the inning, the Gators hit five home runs off Miami sophomore Tate DeRias, who had entered to close out the seventh. Florida’s seven home runs in the game set a program record for a postseason game.
Cade Kurland started the homer party by hitting his second of the game with one out. Three batters later, Brendan Lawson hit a two-run homer to make it 18-10, before Blake Cyr and Ethan Surowiec followed with solo shots as the Gators went back-to-back-to-back. They weren’t finished. Following a Caden McDonald single, Bowen connected for his second home run of the game to make it 22-10 and leave fans looking at each other, wondering if what they had seen really happened.
It had, prompting the exit of DeRias, a seldom-used sophomore only in the game because Miami was running low on pitchers.
Florida’s seven-run eighth inning was the third time in the game that the Gators batted around and proved once again that you never know what you might see at the ballpark.
“I can’t explain tonight. It was amazing,” O’Sullivan said. “It’s just one of those weird moments that doesn’t happen very often.”
The look on Karson Bowen‘s face says it all after he returns to the dugout after hitting the Gators’ fifth homer of the eighth inning on Saturday night/Sunday morning. (Photo: Hannah White)
PLAYER OF THE GAME
Bowen finished 3-for-4 with five RBI, four runs and two homers in a game he will remember. Meanwhile, his patience at the plate in the bottom of the sixth to draw the go-ahead walk opened the floodgates for Florida’s late offensive explosion.
IN THE SPOTLIGHT
Aidan King got the start, and despite being handed a five-run lead after the first inning, was unable to keep the Hurricanes in check. King lasted only three-plus innings and surrendered eight hits and six runs in his shortest outing since a loss to High Point on March 7.
KEY MOMENT
The Gators had taken the lead on the back-to-back two-out walks to Bowen and Stripling in the sixth when McDonald bounced a grounder to Miami shortstop Vance Sheahan with the bases loaded. Sheahan took the short play and threw to third baseman Gabirel Milano for the force out. However, Jones was safe when Milano was unable to find the bag with his right foot, extending the inning and allowing the extra damage by the Gators.
QUOTE OF NOTE
“The guys really lock in on their approaches in the pregame stuff. They are really prepared. I’m just proud of the group. I’m just so proud of them on how they go about everything. The work really hard.” — Gators associate head coach Tom Slater on the postgame radio show
UP NEXT
The Gators face the winner of Sunday’s Miami-Troy game on Sunday evening. If they win, they earn an NCAA Super Regional berth.
NOTABLES
- Florida is 2-0 to begin Regional play with a win in the Saturday night game for the first time since the 2018 Gainesville Regional and will go for its first 3-0 sweep in Regionals since the 2016 NCAA Gainesville Regional.
- The Gators hit a program-record seven home runs in an NCAA Tournament game (t-season high) and set a program record with five home runs in an inning (eighth) – finishing with 2,729 feet of big flies.
- Florida launched five home runs in the eighth inning alone, including back-to-back-to-back jacks from Lawson, Cyr and Surowiec.
- It marked Florida’s first time hitting three-consecutive home runs since Ty Evans, Jac Caglianone and Tyler Shelnut accomplished the feat in the eighth inning at LSU on March 24, 2024.
- The Gators scored a season-high 22 runs – their largest NCAA Tournament total since defeating LSU 24-4 in the College World Series Finals on June 25, 2023 (postseason program record).
- Florida plated its most runs a game since May 3, 2025 at South Carolina (W, 22-3).
- Florida has crushed 12 home runs in two games at the Gainesville Regional.
- Bowen and Kurland both recorded multi-homer games.
- Florida has won five-straight games as an NCAA Regional host dating back to 2023.
- The Gators have won 12 of their last 14 games while outscoring opponents, 147-75.
- Florida improved to 26-12 against unranked teams on top of being a nation-best 15-7 against ranked opponents while repping 16 Quad I wins.
- The Gators delivered their 16th come-from-behind win of the campaign including their second in as many days.
- Going into tonight’s game, Ciscar had only given up six first-inning runs all season before surrendering six runs in the first to Florida on Saturday night to double his total.
- The Gators have homered in 15-consecutive games dating back to the series opener at Oklahoma on May 1, cranking 45 homers in that span for 3.0 per game.
- Florida plated at least six runs in the first inning for the third time this season, last doing so on May 14 at LSU.
- The Gators scored six runs on five hits, one walk and one hit-by-pitch in the first.
- Kurland homered for the second-straight game (and second-straight at bat) to extend the UF lead to 6-1 with his seventh home run of the season in the bottom of the first.
- Eight of nine UF starters had a hit, run or RBI in the first – seven of which scored or drove in a run.
- Bowen swatted his sixth home run in the third, marking his first long ball since recording a two-homer game at Oklahoma on May 3
- Florida scored seven runs in the bottom of the sixth – on one hit, a bases-clearing double by Jones.
- Kurland homered for the third time in the Gainesville Regional with his eighth homer of the campaign in the eighth.
- Lawson connected for his team-high 18th home run to start of the back-to-back-to-back homers in the eighth.
- Cyr bashed his 14th homer to follow Lawson in the eighth.
- Surowiec capped the back-to-back-to-back jacks with his 12th big fly.
- Bowen belted his second homer of the game to give him seven on the season in the eighth.
- Bowen recorded the second multi-homer effort of his career including the second in the past month after failing to accomplish the feat in his first three collegiate campaigns.
- Kurland has launched five home runs in the last six games.
- Florida plated seven runs on five homers in the eighth.
- The Gators have now plated at least seven runs in an inning seven times this season.
- Florida plated at least six runs in three separate frames on Saturday (first, sixth, eighth).
- All nine UF starters scored runs and registered hits while eight scored, drove in runs and logged knocks.
- Florida is 140-90 across 41 NCAA Tournament appearances including a 93-54 mark at Regionals.
- Florida has claimed 16 Regional titles.
- Florida is now 139-136-1 all-time against Miami including 82-52-1 at home.
- The Gators are 46-19 with a 24-10 home mark in the series under Head Coach Kevin O’Sullivan.
- Florida has won 27 of the last 36 meetings with Miami.
- Saturday night’s attendance was 5,673.
FROM HEAD COACH KEVIN O’SULLIVAN
On summarizing tonight’s instant classic…
“I mean, it’s kind of crazy. I was thinking about this, this morning, like the first game of a Regional feels like it’s opening night. It’s like jitters and everybody’s not quite themselves and I can’t explain tonight, it’s one of those nights that we swung about really well offensively. I think we hit seven home runs. Jackson Barberi bouncing back from the night before was probably the key to that whole thing on the mound.”
On Florida’s five-homer eighth inning…
“I was probably just like everybody in this room and all the fans. It was amazing. I mean, it was just one of those weird moments that just doesn’t happen very often, but it was incredible. The other thing I want to mention that popped in my head on the way down, the fans were unbelievable tonight. I mean, I’ve never seen the atmosphere like it was tonight and it helped. There’s no question it helped us the entire night. The other thing, I’d like to thank our managers. They were here, there was a late game last night. Half of them stayed until 4:30 in the morning and the other half until 6:30 in the morning. So, I just want to make sure that I said something about those guys because they are an incredible group and work extremely hard.”
On the atmosphere at Condron Family Ballpark…
“I think a lot of it had to do with our fans. Like I said, I don’t know how many were here, this is my 19th year and that’s the best it’s ever been by far. And it was helpful. I really appreciate people staying as long as they did because people could have easily left a lot earlier, but they stuck around. Looking forward to having a great crowd tomorrow, too.”
— Sullivan Bortner contributed to this report.
