Florida Baseball pitcher Aidan King shuts down Miami to help Gators take series

Coming into the 2025 season, Aidan King wasn't necessarily viewed as one of the key cogs for Florida Baseball. He was ranked outside the top 400 by Perfect Game, so only the most astute of observers would have hopped on the hype train early.

King started to get some pre-season recognition, but as is the case with most freshmen, you never really know how someone is going to look until they do it in a real game.

On Saturday, King was forced into action early. 3.1 innings of one-hit baseball later, it is safe to say that King has emerged as a top arm out of the bullpen for the Gators in 2025.

Florida Baseball: Checkmate

Pierce Coppola started the game for Florida and went 2.2 innings of scoreless baseball before walking back-to-back hitters. Kevin O'Sullivan came out to check on Coppola, and next thing everyone knew Coppola exited the game.

Afterward, O'Sullivan said Coppola was fine but just "didn't look right."

It forced the freshman King into action, with two men on base, to face Miami's best hitter Daniel Cuvet.

Strike three, sit down, inning over.

King would go on for 3.2 innings with just one hit and one walk for no runs before giving way to Frank Menendez.

King's performance was key, too, as all Florida had to show for run support for five innings was a Bobby Boser solo home run in the 4th.

Florida started to create daylight in the 6th after a Luke Heyman home run made it 4-0. Cuvet clawed it back to 4-2 with a home run of his own before Heyman homered again in the 8th to make it 6-2.

Alex Philpott closed it out in the 9th for the 6-3 victory.

The win was in front of a home crowd record 9,303 fans to move Florida to 11-0 on the season and secrue the series against Miami. The win also gives Florida the all-time series lead at 136-135-1.

The series finale is today at 1 PM.