Weird night also highlights Florida's ceiling in 2026

One of the real problems the Gators have had over the years, at times, has been their inability to win mid-week games. Oftentimes, these are brushed off because teams aren’t throwing their main guys on the mound, and typically the weekend series are a better indication of how a team will do in the postseason.

But on a night when ranked teams all around the country were upset during their respective mid-week game, Florida overcame the voodoo vibes from early on from FIU and, in the process, raised the ceiling for what 2026 could look like.

Florida Baseball beats FIU 17-11 to move to 8-1 on the season

The seeds were planted early on for Tuesday to be “one of those nights” as Florida hosted FIU. Luke McNeillie got the start for Florida, and he promptly loaded the bases. After getting a strikeout, McNeillie induced a ground ball to Ethan Surowiec at first that should have been a 3-2-3 double play.

Instead, Surowiec hesitated, stepped on first, which in turn took off the force at home. When he tried to throw home, it went straight to the backstop, and two runs came home to give FIU an early 2-0 lead.

Then, in the bottom of the second, Cade Kurland was called out on strikes, even after a video review, when the umpires deemed Kurland leaned into a pitch that hit him in the elbow. That got Florida associate head coach Tom Slater ejected between innings for arguing with the call.

Florida did tie it at 2-2 in the bottom of the third, only to fall back behind 4-2 in the top of the fourth when FIU got a sacrifice fly, followed up by a double where Cash Strayer had a shot to end the inning but didn’t take the best of routes to the ball.

Now it’s my turn

Heading into the bottom of the fourth, it felt like a night where nothing was going right. But then Florida exploded for seven runs in the fourth and seven runs in the bottom of the fifth to take a 4-2 deficit to a 16-4 lead. 

Throughout the course of the rally, Kyle Jones had a triple in the fourth and took a bases-loaded walk in the fifth. Surowiec redeemed his fielding mistake with a double. Perhaps most impressive is that Florida staged its fourth-inning rally after its first two hitters made out, only for Kurland to get things going with a double.

Blake Cyr ended the night 2-2 with two walks and three runs scored.

Kevin O’Sullivan won’t like the fact that Florida had a shot to run-rule the game, only for the back end of the bullpen to give up seven runs, but it also doesn’t change the ceiling for this team.

Nine games into the 2026 campaign, the Gators are mashing, and one of the reasons we don’t always buy into the “mid-week games don’t matter” narrative is that things like your hitting should be transferable. Florida hasn’t scored fewer than six runs in any one game and has scored at least nine runs in seven of their nine games.

Now, Florida will have far tougher pitching to face on its horizon. But considering Florida was 67th last year in runs per game, the early offensive explosion is encouraging to see.