Florida Softball crushes Kentucky while Gator Baseball escapes late drama

Florida Softball swept Missouri last week, but all three games were probably closer than the Gators were hoping for. Five innings into their series opener against Kentucky, Florida was getting dragged into another close contest. The Wildcats hit a solo home run in the bottom of the 5th inning to make it 3-1 in favor of Florida.

Then Florida’s bats exploded in the 6th inning for seven runs to put Kentucky away 10-2 in six innings. In the 6th inning, Florida sent 11 batters to the plate. Jocelyn Erickson broke things open with a three-run home run, and Cassidy McLellan put Kentucky away for good with a two-run double later in the inning.

Keagan Rothrock went six innings with just two earned runs allowed.

Coming into the weekend, Kentucky represented a step up in competition for Florida. The Gators had only had two games against teams in the top 30 of RPI prior to this series (Michigan and UCLA). So to pull away for a run-rule win against a top 30 opponent continues to showcase the ceiling this squad has in 2026.

The series will continue through Sunday.

Florida Baseball wins ugly over South Carolina

Following their series loss to High Point last week, it seemed like Florida had gotten some good vibes back after beating FSU 6-3 in the middle of the week. For now, we’ll state the vibes are neutral as Florida did open SEC play with a 10-inning 1-0 win over South Carolina in a game that everyone besides Florida’s pitchers would like to forget.

Liam Peterson got the start and continued to look sharp. He went 6.0 innings with just one hit and two walks while striking out 10 Gamecock hitters. The conga line of Jackson Barberi, Ernesto Lugo-Canchola, and Joshua Whritenour all combined for 4.0 innings with zero hits allowed and three walks.

But Florida itself committed another three errors, which was a continuation of the four errors they had in the finale against High Point. 

Then there is the pesky little detail that Florida had zero hits heading into the 9th inning before a Sam Miller single broke up the no-hitter bid. The Gators did have eight walks on the night, and they finally pieced things together when Kyle Jones got Florida’s second hit of the night when he doubled to open the 10th inning. He eventually made his way to 3rd on a sacrifice bunt, and while Cash Strayer didn’t get his sacrifice fly attempt as far as he would have liked, the throw got away, and Jones was able to walk it off.

There are two ways to look at a win like this:

• It was a gritty win, and the Gators found a way.
• Florida got away with one, especially after committing three errors.

We’ll see how the rest of the series shakes out. Game two is on Saturday at 6:30.