GAINESVILLE, Fla. – No. 21 Florida rode seven stellar frames from starter Aidan King to blank Ole Miss by a score of 2-0 for a series-evening victory in game two at Condron Family Ballpark on Friday night.
Earning the win for the Gators (24-8, 7-4 SEC) over the Rebels (21-11, 4-7 SEC), King was masterful across seven scoreless innings to help produce Florida’s nation-leading seventh shutout of the season. Lowering his ERA to 1.62 on the year, King scattered four hits while striking out eight batters against zero walks. He tossed 70 of his 93 pitches for strikes.
Although King required little run support, Kyle Jones (2-for-3) collected a pair of inning-opening hits and scored one run while Cade Kurland (1-for-4) delivered UF’s lone, run-scoring knock with a go-ahead single in the second inning. For the second-straight game in the series, the Gators matched the Rebels in hits (six).
Following a weather delay that pushed the start time back two hours and two minutes to 8:32 p.m., King worked around a leadoff single by fanning the next three Rebels in order. The Gators loaded the bases with two outs in the home half, but stranded them juiced in a scoreless first inning.
Navigating around a leadoff walk in the second, King blanked the Rebels before chucking another zero along with his fourth strikeout in the third. Passing the baton to the UF offense, Florida broke through to take a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the third. Jones led off with a single to left and advanced to third on a one-out single to right by Ethan Surowiec. With two men down, Kurland singled through the right side to open the scoring while back-to-back walks to Cole Stanford and Jacob Kendall forced home the second run.
Pitching with a two-run edge, King fanned the leadoff man in the fourth en route to a seven-pitch frame. The sophomore right-hander fired another clean inning in the fifth while logging his sixth strikeout. King surrendered a leadoff single to Judd Utermark in the top of the sixth, but fanned his seventh Rebels and induced a pair of flyouts to left field to complete six shutout innings.
Still leading 2-0 in the top of the seventh, King churned out a seventh zero thanks to a sensational catch by Blake Cyr while running into the right field wall. King struck out Austin Fawley to end the frame for his eighth strikeout.
At the onset of the eighth, King was relieved by right-hander Jackson Barberi. The sophomore righty ran into a two-out, one-on jam, but induced a six-three double play off the bat of Will Furniss to eliminate the threat.
Staying in for the ninth, Barberi struck out Collin Reuter for the first out before giving up a single to left to Dom Decker. Florida called on closer Joshua Whritenour for the final two outs, who induced a fielder’s choice to shortstop prior to fanning Fawley to cement his fifth save.
King (4-2) was awarded the series-evening victory. He tossed a season-high seven shutout innings, allowing four hits and fanning eight Rebels without issuing a free pass.
Rebel starting pitcher Hunter Elliott (3-1) was saddled with the loss. The junior southpaw gave up two earned runs on four hits and four walks over four innings while striking out nine.
NOTABLES
- Florida pitched its nation-leading seventh shutout of the season to even the series.
- The Gators have won eight of their last nine SEC series, going 21-8 across their last 29 SEC games dating back to last season.
- King pitched a season-high 7.0 shutout innings, allowing just four hits while striking out eight against zero walks to lower his ERA to 1.62 on the season.
- Across his last 13 starts dating back to 2025, King is 8-3 with a 1.16 ERA and 70-to-19 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 77 2/3 innings pitched (10 earned runs allowed).
- In the first two games against Ole Miss, Surowiec has reached safely in six of his nine plate appearances while going a combined 4-for-7 with one homer, three RBI and two walks against his former club.
- Jones led off with an infield single to improve to 2-for-2 leading off games in the series and now has 13 game-opening knocks on the season.
- Jones later led off the third inning with a hit and has now reached 28 times in 64 leadoff plate appearances this season (.438).
- Jones stole his team-high 16th base of the season.
- Whritenour improved to 5-for-5 in save opportunities.
- The Gators have recorded double-digit strikeouts in 23 of the last 28 games.
- The Gators have won 41 of their last 54 regular-season games dating back to 2025.
- Florida is now 59-57 all-time and 34-18 in Gainesville against Ole Miss.
- The Gators are 22-18 overall and 12-5 at home vs. the Rebels under Head Coach Kevin O’Sullivan.
- Florida has won 11 of the last 14 meetings against Ole Miss in Gainesville.
- Friday night’s official attendance was 5,911.
FROM HEAD COACH KEVIN O’SULLIVAN
On King’s pitching performance…
“It was the performance we needed to have, honestly, because I knew how good Hunter Elliott was. And obviously, [King] was outstanding. Threw a bunch of fastballs earlier on both sides of the plate, started mixing in some changeups the second time through, and the third time through started mixing in the slider a little bit more. But was just outstanding, and that’s what we needed obviously…”
On Cyr’s fantastic running catch…
“Unbelievable. Unbelievable. That and the double play there in the eighth was awesome. That was a really good game. Especially coming out last night where we played poorly, but that play was incredible.”
On what he’s looking for from the second half of the lineup…
“Move the ball a little bit more. Limit the swing and miss. Those guys will probably have some more action, but they just got to move the ball just a little bit. All in all, I thought the at bats from a combined one-through-nine, we got one of the best pitchers in the country out after four. Sometimes the hit column doesn’t really tell you the whole story.”
ON DECK
The Gators and Rebels face off in the series finale on Saturday night, which will air on SEC Network at 7:30 p.m. Junior righty Russell Sandefer (2-1, 4.24 ERA) gets the ball for the Gators against right-hander Cade Townsend (2-1, 1.90 ERA) of Ole Miss.
