![Florida's Liam Peterson (12) was the starting pitcher for the Gators on Opening Day against UAB, Friday, February 13, 2026, at Condron Family Ballpark in Gainesville, Florida. The Gators lost Game 1 to the Blazers 9-7.
[Cyndi Chambers/ Gainesville Sun] 2026](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_crop,x_0,y_352,w_3304,h_1858/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/images/ImagnImages/mmsport/213/01kjj4faatcjyg9vgkym.jpg "Florida's Liam Peterson (12) was the starting pitcher for the Gators on Opening Day against UAB, Friday, February 13, 2026, at Condron Family Ballpark in Gainesville, Florida. The Gators lost Game 1 to the Blazers 9-7.
[Cyndi Chambers/ Gainesville Sun] 2026")
The annual series against Miami is always a good benchmark for the Gators to see where they are truly at in the season. While Florida was off to a 9-1 start, they had yet to face the meat of their schedule. The Gators took to the road to face 10-0 Miami and came away with a game one victory while looking like the far more complete team in the process.
Florida struck first with a 430-foot Brendan Lawson home run in the first inning and later tacked on a second run in the fourth off a Cash Strayer sacrifice fly that scored Lawson. It stayed 2-0 until the sixth inning, where Florida looked like it was going to add to its lead, but a line drive back to the pitcher resulted in a double play.
From there, Miami tied things up in the sixth with some good fortune of its own. Aided by a lead-off check swing double and later a swinging bunt that stayed fair as it hit third base, Miami was able to chase Liam Peterson after 5.2 innings.
Jackson Barberi help Florida Baseball win the battle of the bullpens
But in the battle of the bullpens, Jackson Barberi outdueled the four Hurricane pitchers that Miami trotted out from the bullpen. Barberi went 3.1 innings with just two hits, a walk, and no earned runs.
Florida, meanwhile, broke things open in the eighth inning. Jacob Kendall hit the eventual game-winning home run, and the Gators benefited from some poor fielding from the Hurricanes to eventually score five runs in the inning for the eventual 7-2 win.
Game two will be today at 6 PM with Aidan King getting the start.
Florida Softball proves mortal
We had said all season for the Gators that while they were off to a 21-0 start, there was the elephant in the room that Florida had yet to play a ranked opponent. So while Florida had won its first two games of the Judi Garman Classic over Cal 8-0 and East Texas A&M 28-0 on Thursday, it was the showdown with UCLA on Friday that would go a long way in telling us what the ceiling for the 2026 Gators would be.
The bats showed up, and Florida scored 12 runs against UCLA.
Unfortunately, the pitching did not go as Florida lost 15-12 for their first loss of the season.
Keagan Rothrock gave up six runs in the first inning and was chased having gotten just two batters out. The conga line of pitchers who followed couldn’t keep a lid on things as Florida then gave up three runs in the second inning, a run in the third inning, and another five runs in the fourth inning.
To Florida’s credit, they did keep swinging a hot bat. Taylor Shumaker was 4-5 with two home runs. Kendall Grover was 3-4, and Ella Wesoloski was also 3-4.
Florida then came back and beat LMU 7-5, and needed a two-run seventh-inning home run from Madison Walker to pull away for good.