Live blog results from Gators’ win

Barberi stays in to finish things off despite the lack of a save opportunity. No worries, he strikes out the first batter swinging on a sick breaking ball low and outside. But that is followed up by a one-out single up the middle to keep things alive.

Well, the game quickly ends on the next pitch on a 5-4-3 double play to wrap up Florida’s fourth victory of the 2026 campaign.

Anthony Gonzalez takes over for what should be the final inning of work for Stetson pitchers, striking out Kurland swinging for his second K this evening, giving Stetson its first out. A deep flyout by Surowiec gives him his second out after four pitches.

Cyr flies out to right-center on the very next pitch for what should be Florida’s final at-bat of the game.

Sully decides to let Lugo-Canchola start inning of work and he rewards him with a strikeout of the leadoff batter looking. However, that is all the head coach needed to see as he pulled his reliever after nine straight outs and five Ks on the evening. Give that kid a game ball.

Righty Joshua Whritenour is now in the game for his second appearance of 2026. The Hatters got themselves another bloop hit — this time to shallow right near the foul line — to get a man on with one out on the first batter he faces.

However, the next batter walks as Whritenour starts to look a little wild, putting a runner in scoring position. A wide first pitch results in a meeting at the mound as the Gators try to calm down their reliever, and the effort comes to fruition with a swinging strikeout. Two down.

Some chin music to the next batter on the first pitch was evidence of Whritenour’s continued struggles with his control; he ends up walking the batter and making way for righty Jackson Barberi. With the bases now jammed, Sully has seen enough.

Barberi’s fastball touches 99 mph as he strikes out the final batter of the inning to end the threat.

Righty Jose Roig enters the game for Stetson, getting Myers out with a grounder to third after a seven-pitch at-bat in which the batter looked a bit flustered by his offerings. Two pitches later, Jones flies out to left-center, followed by a swinging strikeout of Lawson on a disgusting 80 mph breaking ball.

The sophomore from Miami’s stuff looked pretty nasty; fortunately, Florida already has a comfortable lead.

Lugo-Canchola opens up the seventh with his fourth strikeout of the evening on three pitches of the swinging variety. The next batter softly flies out to right field on three pitches and a flyout to center gives him his second 1-2-3 inning and eight batters in a row sents down.

Gators are looking good heading into the seventh-inning stretch.

TJ Melani is now in the game for Stetson, tossing a high-80s/low-90s fastball on the corners for a five-pitch strikeout looking by Surowiec to record the first out. Cyr was not impressed with his offerings, launching the first pitch he saw down the right field line just inside the foul pole for Florida’s eighth run.

Kendall pops up to the second baseman in short right field on a nice play the Gators whiffed on twice a couple of innings earlier. Does not matter, Stanford cranked his first dinger of the year on a no-doubter to left-center than added another run to Florida’s tally.

Strayer strikes out swinging but the Gators got the damage done.

Lugo-Canchola remains in the game and strikes out the leadoff batter swinging on a backfoot slider on a three-pitch series. The lefty apparently likes this deep-cutting pitch as he offers it often to his opposition; it plays well against his high-80s fastball.

He gets the next batter out looking on a six-pitch strikeout before hanging that slider for a line-drive out on a nice snag by the third baseman to send the Hatters down 1-2-3.

Core comes out for a second frame for Stetson, and after five pitches gets Stanford to fly out to center, but Strayer slugged a triple to deep right-center to put the Gators in scoring position with one down. An infield popup from Myers after forcing a 0-3 count to start kills the sac fly opportunity but a HPB on the first pitch to Jones puts runners on the corners to keep hope alive.

Hope continues to spring eternal after Lawson is issued a base-on-balls to load the bases for the second-straight inning. A soft grounder to second kills the dream as Florida fails to score again despite packing the bases.

The leadoff hitter rips a double down the leftfield line against Reeth to open up the fifth and it is clear this Stetson team is not going down without a fight. He gets the next batter out on a fastball that eats the corner of the plate on a full count, but a single up the middle plates the Hatters’ third run of the game.

A seeing-eye single through the left side puts a runner back in scoring position and Sully is not happy, replacing Reeth with lefty Ernesto Lugo-Canchola with one out as he seeks to stop the bleeding.

A wild pitch on a breaking ball that got the batter to swing puts runners on second and third, but Ernie gets the out on another breaking ball that got the hitter to check-swing a bit too far. Two pitches later, a flyout to right ends the threat.

Righty sidearmer Andrew Lepine is the next pitcher up for Stetson and quickly gets Jones out on a grounder to second, sending him back to the bench for the third time in three tries today. But Lawson was much more successful, getting his second hit of the day and reaching base for the third time thanks to a single to left center.

Kurland notches his first hit with a single to right field, and the Gators are again in scoring position. Surowiec walks on seven pitches, loading the bases for Cyr, who lined out to the shortstop for the second out, but fortunately, Stetson was unable to turn a double play.

That brings out the Hatters head coach to bring in a new pitcher — this time it is righty Joel Core, who represents the fourth hurler for Stetson tonight. It took him one pitch to induce a groundout to second from Kendall, ending the threat with no harm done.

Hoyt returns to the hill for a second inning of work and promptly surrenders a pop-up single to shallow left that the shortstop just missed on a solid fielding effort. He gets an oppo flyout from the second batter on his low-90s fastball, but the pop-up gremlin appears again in left field on a short pop-up, this time missed by the left fielder.

No errors assigned, just clean bloop plays that are tough to field. One out two on, including a man in scoring position and the next guy gets beaned above the shoulders, loading the bases and bringing O’Sullivan out for a replacement.

Moran’s low-90s fastball mixed with a low-80s breaking ball produces a routine grounder to second from Kendall to open up the bottom of the third, followed by a weak unassisted groundout to first from Stanford. But Strayer was not fooled, cranking his second dinger of the spring to deep right to reclaim a run from Stetson.

Myer strikes out swinging on a ball in the dirt and gets thrown out at first to complete the third frame.

Jackson Hoyt takes over for McNellie and gets the leadoff man out on a grounder to third after three pitches, but then he walks the next batter on four-straight throws. Stetson gets their first runs of the game on the team’s first home run of the season — a right-field jack — to cut Florida’s lead to four.

Maybe I was too hasty in hoping for the run-rule. A liner to center field gives McNellie two outs and a soft grounder to shortstop ends the frame, but the Hatters are on the board.

A leadoff single to center by Blake Cyr gives the Gators their first hit of the day and a runner on first with no outs, setting the table for Jacob Kandall’s grounder through the right side. Runner is now on second for the first time today and Florida is threatening; bullpen action is seen on Stetson’s side.

Cue the Benny Hill music after Cole Stanford’s hard grounder to the pitcher — which should have been a double play — ended up with two throwing errors, allowing Cyr to cross the plate for the first run of the game.

Cash Strayer was hit by the very next pitch to load the bases with no outs, but after running the count full on six pitches, Kolt Myers struck out. Pitching change time for Stetson!

Right-hander Dallis Moran is now on the bump for the Hatters and the error fairy strikes again, with Jones slapping a soft grounder to the pitcher that was thrown offline to the catcher at home, failing to score the out — much less starting an inning-ending double-play. Runner crosses and bases remain jammed, one out.

An opposite field double inside the leftfield line by Lawson brings two more across and keeps two in scoring position as the Gators break things open.

Kurland struck out looking after forcing a full count but Florida pushed another pair of runs across on a wild pitch, followed by a single by Surowiec on a grounder through the left. Gators have now batted around the order.

The rally ends with a Cyr strikeout, but the damage has been done. Could this be another run-rule effort for the Orange and Blue?

McNellie strikes out the first hitter on a fastball that paints the outside corner after five pitches, but the next batter gets on base with a grounder to the opposite side of the infield just outside of the second baseman’s grasp. He pounds the next guy with a heavy dose of breaking balls to get the second out of the frame.

Two pitches later, he gets out No. 3 on a weak grounder to second. Still scoreless, but Florida’s hurler has already thrown 38 pitches — something that will likely limit his outing this evening.

Kyle Jones opens the bottom half with a two-pitch, soft flyout to left to give Stetson’s starter a quick out; Kyle Lawson followed that with a six-pitch walk after drawing a full count. Cade Kurland took a couple of big hacks at breaking balls that he completely mistracked before flying out to left center for out No. 2.

Ethan Surowiec grounds out on the first pitch to give the Hatters an easy first frame. Twelve pitches, three outs.

Luke McNellie looks good against the leadoff batter, getting him to ground out on a breaking ball after starting him off with a fastball in the zone. His four-seam touched 96 mph against the second batter, ultimately getting him to pop up to the second baseman for out number two.

A slider too far inside to the third batter put a runner on first with two down, then he hung a 89 mph breaking ball in the zone for a line drive single to left by the cleanup hitter. Runner in scoring position and the designated hitter comes up, only to ground out to second to give McNellie a no-run inning.