While SEC Media Days were going on and football was getting all the hype, the Florida Gators baseball team was making recruiting moves too. According to Jacob Rudner of Baseball America, DII flame thrower Ernesto Lugo-Canchola jumped out of the transfer portal and into the swamp to become the next Florida Gator. He was previously at Northwest Nazarene University in Idaho and has decided to play his true senior season at the University of Florida.
Lugo-Canchola is a 6’5”, 230lb left-handed pitcher and two-way player from Pleasant Grove, Utah, who throws absolute heat. He has a three-pitch repertoire that consists of a fastball that averages around the high-80s to low-90s, and he also has a slider and a changeup. He used that repertoire of pitches well in 2025 in his redshirt senior season at Northwest Nazarene University in Idaho, finishing the year 13-0 with three no-decisions, and a 2.00 ERA. In 94 innings pitched Lugo-Canchola gave up just 21 earned runs on 23 hits; he walked 44, but struck out 103 batters on the season. He gave up just 23 earned runs on 53 hits in a very dominant season
His 2.00 ERA ranked first in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference, while he also ranked first in opponents' batting average against him (.164), strikeouts (103), wins (13), batters struck out looking, and third in innings pitched. His ERA was ranked fifth in all of NCAA baseball, 12th in strikeouts, and 14th in WHIP.
Over the course of the 2025 season, he earned a plethora of accolades, including:
- D2 Baseball pitcher of the year
- D2 Baseball First Team All-American
- NCBWA First Team All-American
- D2CAA Second Team All-American
- ABCA Second Team All-American
- NCBWA First Team All-Region
- D2CCA First Team All-Region
- ABCA First Team All-Region
- GNAC Newcomer of the year
- GNAC First Team All-Conference
The Gators’ hope is that the DII standout can now adjust at the next level against not just DI hitting, but Southeastern Conference hitting.
Lugo-Canchola becomes the fourth pitcher to join the University of Florida baseball program via the NCAA tranfer portal.