Seven homers with a little help from their friends puts Gators in control of the regional

Karson Bowen celebrates his second homer of the game (UAA photo)

The Miami Hurricanes lit up Florida pitchers for 16 hits that produced a most impressive 10 runs Saturday night at Condron Family Ballpark. Aidan King, the Southeastern Conference Pitcher of the Year, was one of the Hurricanes’ victims. He was knocked out of the box without registering a single out in the fourth, finishing his stint on the mound giving up eight hits and six earned runs. It was that kind of night for Florida pitchers. If this had been a normal night, the kind that becomes a chapter in a memory book, the Canes would have been sitting pretty in the driver’s seat of the NCAA Gainesville Regional.

This wasn’t a normal night. Bizarre? Yes. Normal? No.

This theater of the bizarre was punctuated by two contrasting innings, the Florida half of the sixth and eighth. In the sixth the Gators sent 12 men to the plate and scored seven runs with only one hit to show for their efforts. In the eighth, 12 again strode to the plate. That was another seven-run outburst only this one featured five home runs including back-to-back-to back jobs by Brendan Lawson, Blake Cyr and Ethan Surowiec.

Miami coach J.T. Arteaga went through nine pitchers trying to stop the bleeding but tourniquets were in short supply, in part because Hurricane pitchers walked nine and hit three batters while committing four errors in the field. The only thing missing from this circus in the field were poodles jumping through flaming hoops.

Florida 22, Miami 10, a football score on a baseball diamond. Whether you saw the game in person or on television, you probably agree with Florida coach Kevin O’Sullivan, who said afterward, “I can’t explain tonight.”

No explanation could come close to full appreciation of a night at the ball yard perhaps best described by that old adage it’s better to give than to receive. Miami was on the receiving end of a bad night at the office by the Florida pitching staff, but not to be outdone, the Hurricanes were downright benevolent, handing over control of the Gainesville Regional to the Gators.

With two wins in two days in this double-elimination tournament, the Gators await the winner of a 12 noon encounter between Miami (39-19) and Troy (33-30) at 5 p.m. (ESPN+). Win and the Gators host a super regional next weekend. Lose and the Gators get a second chance to clinch the regional championship Monday.

Saturday’s game began with a Miami leadoff home run by Jake Ogden, a foretelling of difficulty ahead for King. Florida answered with a six-run first in which featured a tape-measure home run by Cade Kurland, his first of two. This was a towering 3-run blast that cleared the stadium and wound up in the parking lot.

King had an eight-pitch second, his only decent inning of the game but he gave up four straight hits and three runs in the third before allowing two singles and a wild pitch in the fourth. That brought on Luke McNeillie in the fourth followed by Jackson Barberi in the fifth. Miami tied the score at 8-8 before Barberi got into enough of a rhythm to shut down the Canes.

Then came the Florida half of the sixth in which the Gators ran through four Miami pitchers en route to seven runs. Miami pitchers walked five Gators in the inning, uncorked a wild pitch, committed an error that counted and a mental blunder that could have doused water on the Florida rally. With two outs and two on, Caden McDonald hit a bouncer to Vance Sheahan at shortstop, who threw to Gabirel Milano at third. Milano was late arriving so there was no force and his tag of Kyle Jones was too late. A pair of run-scoring walks and a wild pitch followed to plate three runs, then Jones, up for the second time in the inning, launched a bases-clearing double that missed leaving the park by about two feet.

Working with a 15-8 cushion through six innings, Barberi delivered a 1-2-3 seventh before allowing a pair of runs in the eighth. Florida answered that Miami rally with a five homer inning that began with Kurland’s second homer of the day, this one opposite field to right. One out and Kyle Jones being hit by a pitch later, Lawson homered to center on the first pitch he saw from Tate DeRias. Cyr also launched the first pitch he saw, this one to left center, and Surowiec made it three in a row with a blast to center field. Following a McDonald single to left, Karson Bowen hit his second home run of the game to left to make it 22-10.

The five home run inning was the first of its kind in school history. The Gators have now homered 45 times in the last 15 games. Florida’s seven home runs traveled 2,729 feet.

Game notes: Starting with a May 2 win over Oklahoma, the Gators have won 12 of their last 14 games … Each of Florida’s nine hitters delivered at least one base hit and scored at least one run … Bowen had three hits and five RBI while Kurland’s two homers drove in four … Liam Peterson (3-5, 3.86 ERA, 107 strikeouts in 79 innings) is expected to get the start for the Gators today.

NCAA Regional Scoreboard (SEC teams bold face)

Los Angeles

No. 1 UCLA (52-7) 6, Virginia Tech (30-26) 5; Virginia Tech eliminated

Cal Poly (38-22) 14, Saint Mary’s (35-26) 2

Atlanta

The Citadel (36-25) 9, UIC (27-29-1) 8; UIC eliminated

No. 2 Georgia Tech (50-9) 9, Oklahoma (33-22) 3

Athens

Boston College (37-22) 8, Long Island (30-22) 4; Long Island eliminated

No. 3 Georgia (48-12) 6, Liberty (42-20) 2

Auburn

No. 4 Auburn (39-20) 17, North Carolina State (32-24) 13; North Carolina State eliminated

Milwaukee (27-31) 13, UCF (32-22) 6

Chapel Hill

VCU (38-24) 5, Tennessee (38-22) 4; Tennessee eliminated

No. 5 North Carolina (47-11-1) 7, East Carolina (37-23-1) 5

Austin

UC-Santa Barbara (39-19) 15, Holy Cross (25-30) 1; Holy Cross eliminated

Texas (42-13) 17, Tarleton State (38-20) 2

Tuscaloosa

Oklahoma State (38-21) 8, Alabama State (34-23) 7, 11 innings; Alabama State eliminated

No. 7 Alabama (39-19) 7, South Carolina Upstate (34-29) 2

GAINESVILLE

Troy (33-20) 15, Rider (33-20) 7; Rider eliminated

No. 8 FLORIDA (41-19) 22, Miami (39-19) 10

Hattiesburg

Virginia (37-22) 15, No. 9 Southern Miss (44-17) 11; Southern Miss eliminated

Little Rock (38-26) 8, Jacksonville State (47-14) 6

Tallahassee

No. 10 Florida State (38-18) 2, Coastal Carolina (37-21) 3; Suspended top of the sixth

Eugene

Oregon State (44-13) 9, Yale (30-14-1) 2; Yale eliminated

No. 11 Oregon (42-16) 4, Washington State (31-27) 0

College Station

Southern Cal (44-16) 19, Lamar (34-27) 6; Lamar eliminated

Texas A&M (41-14) 17, Texas State (37-25) 2

Lincoln

Arizona State (38-20) 17, South Dakota State (24-33) 0; South Dakota State eliminated

Ole Miss (38-21) 6, No. 13 Nebraska (43-16) 3

Starkville

Louisiana (40-24) 10, Lipscomb (29-25) 4; Lipscomb eliminated

No. 14 Mississippi State (42-17) 10, Cincinnati (37-26) 5

Lawrence

Northeastern (39-21) 5, Missouri State (34-21) 1; Missouri State eliminated

No. 15 Kansas (44-16) 5, Arkansas (40-21) 3

Morgantown

Wake Forest (39-20) 12, Binghamton (31-22) 3; Binghamton eliminated

Kentucky (33-21) 11, No. 16 West Virginia (40-15) 9