![Florida's infielder Cade Kurland (4) with a home run against Rider in Game 1 of the NCAA Gainesville Regional at Condron Family Ballpark in Gainesville, Florida, Friday, May 29, 2026. The Gators beat the Broncs 8-7. [Cyndi Chambers/ Gainesville Sun] 2026](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_crop,x_0,y_0,w_6404,h_3602/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/images/ImagnImages/production/213/01kstvcamh7ybesgpcfd.jpg "Florida's infielder Cade Kurland (4) with a home run against Rider in Game 1 of the NCAA Gainesville Regional at Condron Family Ballpark in Gainesville, Florida, Friday, May 29, 2026. The Gators beat the Broncs 8-7. [Cyndi Chambers/ Gainesville Sun] 2026")
The big storyline for Florida heading into its opening round game against Rider was whether or not to start Russell Sandeder instead of Aidan King or Liam Peterson was the right call. The theory is that Florida should be able to defeat Rider without throwing its ace, and the Gators would be set up well for this weekend.
As things played out, Sandefer wound up becoming a footnote as the Gators took a comfortable lead, blew it, retook the lead, blew it again, only to put Rider away for good in walk-off fashion to move on in the winner's bracket of the Gainesville Regional.
Florida beats Rider with a walk-off home run
Sandefer did his part and went 5.2 innings of scoreless baseball before making way for Caden McDonald. The Gator wasn't exactly pulling away, but they had scratched out a 4-0 lead heading into the 8th inning, and it felt like this would be one of those games Florida just needed to survive.
And even after Rider loaded the bases in the 8th, Florida was still just one strike away from getting out of the inning with their 4-0 lead intact.
Oops.
Rider caught up to a Jackson Barberi fastball at the top of the zone and sent it over the fence for a game-tying grand slam.
But wait, there's more.
Two batters later, Rider hit a two-run home run to take a 6-4 lead.
Deep breaths.
But the Gators fought back and after a Caden McDonald solo home run in the bottom of the 8th, Cade Kurland hit a two-run home run to retake a 7-6 lead.
Game over, right?
No.
Rider tied things up with a solo home run of their own to make it 7-7 heading into the bottom of the 9th.
Brendan Lawson had had enough of this back-and-forth that would have broken the momentum meter in NCAA 07 and took a 2-1 pitch over the center field fence to give Florida the walkoff 8-7 win.
Florida survives and advances
There are a couple of ways to look at Florida's roller coaster afternoon. The main one is that Florida's bullpen imploded, and it's not like Kevin O'Sullivan was scrapping from the bottom of the barrel as it did so.
If Florida's bullpen can't hold up against Rider, we shudder to think what is going to happen down the road.
But when considering that the NCAA Tournament for baseball is as chaotic and volatile as any of the major tournaments in college athletics, the name of the game is just keep swimming.
And ultimately, Florida's gambit to start Sandefer and save Peterson and King for Saturday and Sunday has paid off, and the Gators are set up well to try and win two more games to advance to Super Regionals.
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