Florida Gators News: Baseball pulls a 180, Softball loses in a heartbreaker

This time last week, Florida Baseball was coming off getting swept by Alabama, and it felt like the ghosts of 2025 were about to return. Kevin O’Sullivan ripped into the Gators both publicly and behind closed doors in an attempt to spark the team.

Whatever he said worked as Florida pulled off an unexpected sweep this weekend of No. 4 Arkansas in Fayetteville. It’s Florida’s first sweep at Arkansas since 2016, and it's the first time Florida has swept a top-five opponent on the road since the top-25 poll began in 1998.

The crazy part is that Florida was far from perfect on the weekend. The Gators had six errors over the three games, and the furthest any of their starting pitchers went was the 5.2 innings Russell Sandefer made it on Sunday after Liam Peterson made it just 4.0 innings on Friday and Aidan King went 3.2 innings on Saturday.

But Florida’s approach at the plate was a complete 180 compared to last weekend, and the Gators stayed patient to draw 21 walks on the weekend as the Gators scored at least seven runs in all three games.

Ethan Surowiec had two home runs during the series, and Brendan Lawson had four hits and four walks. Blake Cyr and Karson Bowen both had six hits as well.

Florida will have a midweek game against Jacksonville on Tuesday before hosting a series against Ole Miss that starts on Thursday.

Florida Softball winds up one out short of winning series

Florida Softball was also in Arkansas this weekend to take on the No. 9 Razorbacks, and after dropping game one, the Gators came back to win game two 12-6 with a 15-hit, five walk offensive explosion.

In the rubber match, Florida shot out to an early 4-0 lead. Kenleigh Calahan had a two-run home run, and Jocelyn Erickson and Kendall Grover both had RBI singles. Taylor Shumaker was 0-1 but did draw three walks.

Arkansas scored three runs in the 5th off a three-run home run, but Florida still had control heading into the bottom of the 7th with a 4-3 lead. The Gators got the first hitter out, then gave up a single and a walk before striking out the next batter for the second out.

But one out away from winning the series, Arkansas took Keagan Rothrock deep for a walk-off three-run home run to win the game 6-4 and the series two games to one.

Coming off its series win over then No. 1 Tennessee, dropping this series was a disappointment, but it shouldn’t derail Florida too much. The Gators will turn around to face Stetson in a mid-week game before hosting Mississippi State this weekend.