Aidan King's brilliant start leads Florida past No. 1 Longhorns, 4-1
- Franz Beard
- May 11, 2025
- 5 min read
Call them Team Lazarus because the Florida Gators have indeed risen from the dead. Sunday afternoon, behind seven brilliant shutout innings from freshman Aidan King, the Gators won their fifth consecutive Southeastern Conference series by taking game three from No. 1 Texas, 4-1, at Disch-Falk Field.
From a 1-11 start in SEC play, the Gators are now 13-14 (35-18 overall) with only a 3-game home series with Alabama (39-13, 15-12 SEC) remaining in the regular season. The Gators have won 15 of their last 19 games, along the way with SEC series wins over Missouri, Mississippi State, No. 5 Arkansas, South Carolina and now, No. 1 Texas.
Florida has gone from a team certain to miss the NCAA Tournament altogether to a team that could very well be a top 16 seed and regional host. After taking two of three from the Longhorns, the Gators moved up to No. 14 nationally in RPI. If they are able to win next weekend’s series with Alabama the Gators will certainly be in contention to host a regional. Should the Gators get a sweep it might take all the guesswork out of hosting for the selection committee.
Sunday was all about King, who improved to 5-2 while lowering his ERA to 2.90. King gave up two walks in the first inning a walk in the third and a single to center field and an infield single in the fourth. He struck out nine, induced six ground outs and six fly ball outs, only four of which reached the outfield.
“I don't remember a freshman pitching on the road like this and pitching as well as he {King] did, and if it has happened, it hasn't happened in a long time,” Florida coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “We talked about it before the game, what Aidan is able to bring to the table is his ability to throw the fastball on both sides of the plate. That was just a totally different look for them and their hitters to see today. After a little bit of a shaky start, he walked the first two guys, he just collected himself and was nothing short of outstanding today."
It looked like a short outing for King in the first inning when he walked the first two batters, but he settled down to work his way out of trouble without allowing a run. King induced a ground out that moved runners into scoring position, but got a called strike three and a lazy fly ball to left field to snuff out the Longhorns.
The only other trouble inning for King was the fourth, Adrian Rodriguez broke up the no-hitter with a one-out single to center field. After a fly out to center field, Will Gasparino legged out an infield hit, but King got a first pitch pop up to shortstop by Jonah Williams to work his way out of the inning.
King was dominating during his final three innings of work, setting down the Longhorns 1-2-3 in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings. During his seven innings on the mound, King threw an efficient 110 pitches, 70 for strikes.
The Gators scored single runs in the second, third, sixth and seventh innings. They could have and should have scored more but for baserunning mistakes. Bobby Boser was hit by a pitch to lead off the game and two outs later moved to third on a Ty Evans single to right field. On an attempted double steal, Boser was thrown out at the plate on the relay from shortstop. In the seventh, Ashton Wilson was caught stealing. One out later Boser doubled off the wall, which would have scored Wilson easily.
The Gators took a 1-0 lead in the second on walks to Blake Cyr and Brody Donay, a sacrifice bunt by Hayden Yost and an infield ground out by Wilson. In the third, Boser was hit by a pitch and Luke Heyman singled him to third. With two out, Blake Cyr singled up the middle to drive home Boser for a 2-0 lead.
The Gators increased the lead to 3-0 in the sixth when Donay hit an opposite field homer to right on an 0-2 count. It was Donay’s 14th homer of the season, tying him with Boser for the team lead.
The Gators added a run in the seventh, an inning in which they could have and should have put up big numbers. Wilson led off with an infield single but was called out trying to steal second. Replay seemed to indicate he was safe, but the booth ruled it inconclusive, therefore out. One out later, Boser doubled to center field and Brendan Lawson reached on an error with Boser making it all the way to third. Heyman delivered a single up the middle to drive home Boser, after which Evans was hit by a pitch to load the bases. The threat ended without further damage, however, when Cyr’s hot grounder was grabbed up by pitcher Max Grubbs.
“They had a shift on him [Heyman] and he hit a ball back up the middle,” O’Sullivan said. “And that was a huge at bat and, you know, tacked on another run with two outs."
With a 4-0 lead, it should have been a comfortable finish for the Gators. Emphasis on should have. Jake Clemente came in for King and made the final two innings an adventure.
In the eighth, Clemente gave up a one-out single to Ethan Mendoza. After striking out Rylan Galvan for the second out, he proceeded to walk Jalin Flores, Kimble Schuessner and Adrian Rodriguez, plating Mendoza. Clemente worked his way out of a big inning by striking out Casey Borba on three pitches for the third out.
Then came the ninth. After a leadoff strikeout, Clemente allowed a single by Jonah Williams and a walk to Tommy Farmer IV. Mendoza went down swinging on three straight pitches and then Galvan bounced to third where Lawson stepped on the base to end the game.
GAME NOTES: This was Florida’s first series win over a No. 1 ranked team since the Gators swept Texas A&M in 2016 … Donay’s home run was the only homer the Gators hit all weekend.
SEC BASEBALL
FLORIDA (35-18, 13-14 SEC) 4, No. 1 Texas (40-9, 20-6 SEC) 1
#23 Alabama (39-13, 15-12 SEC) 9-5, No. 6 Georgia (40-13, 16-11 SEC) 3-4
Kentucky (28-20, 13-14) 7, No. 17 Oklahoma (32-17, 13-14) 2
Missouri (16-35, 3-24 SEC) 10, Texas A&M (27-23, 10-17 SEC) 1
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