Florida baseball vs High Point live blog updates, score, highlights

Kyle Jones opened the bottom of the ninth with a groundout to shortstop, but it was anything but routine. Ponce made a nice backhand stop and rifled it over to beat a speedy runner.

Lawson hit his second home run of the day, inching Florida closer toward a walk-off opportunity. The Gators need two more runs this inning to keep the game alive.

Dom LaDuke took over for Polk with a 2-0 count against Surowiec. His first few pitches weren’t anywhere near the striek zone as he walked both Surowiec and Bowen. High Point changed pitchers again, bringing in Dalton Hitt.

He didn’t have the answers either. Caden McDonald pinch hit for Strayer and singled to right field. Hitt walked Sam Miller and Stanford with the bases loaded to tie the game.

Colton Schwarz got the final at-bat of the game, and all he ahd to do was not swing. Hitt fell behind 2-0, prompting a mound visit. High Point decided to stick with him, and he worked a full count. Schwarz won the battle, though, patiently waiting for ball four. He got it; Gators win.

Whritenour gave up a one-out single to Clark, but he was otherwise dominant. Credit to Clark for jumping on a 98-mph fastball and taking it through the 5-6 hole. Whritenour struck out Kohler on a 92-mph slider, induced a line out to right field against Kelly and struck out Ponce on a 93-mph slider. Five outs in 17 pitches is just fine for the redshirt freshman.

Landon Stripling hit a two-out home run to chip away at High Point’s lead, but Florida continues to hit the ball in the air for easy outs. Kendall popped out to short and Stanford flied out to right before the homer, and Nadeau popped up to shallow center field to end the inning.

Hoyt stayed out for the eight after a 10-pitch seventh, but he only recorded one out. Johnson struck out swinging, but Hoyt walked Smith after going up 0-2 in the count. Kevin O’Sullivan brought out Joshua Whritenour, Florida’s closer, to hold the score at 11-7.

Whritenour needed just five pitches to strand the runner at first. McCarter flied out to right field and Oh fouled out Lawson on the left side.

Jones spammed his breaking balls to Lawson, who chopped it to second base for the first out. He lost control after that, though, and walked Surowiec on four straight pitches.

Bowen got a hold of one to right-center, but the ballpark held it for an out. High Point went to the bullpen after that, replacing Jones with Howell Polk, who got Strayer to fly out to center field.

Jackson Hoyt did his best Jack Carey impression in the seventh, inducing three consecutive flyouts for a clean inning. The freshman southpaw saw all three balls go to right field and only needed 10 pitches to get through the frame. That’s two good outing for Hoyt this weekend. At least some good is coming out of these losses. Florida may have found its No. 2 lefty specialist out of the bullpen.

Florida finally got to Carey in the sixth, ending its streak of flyouts with a pair of ground balls. Kendall’s didn’t end up as a hit thanks to a great backhand play and strong throw from KJhler at third, but Stanford beat out his grounder up the middle for a single. Stripling almost left they yard witha double to right-center, putting a pair of runners in scoring position. Nadeau hit a sacrifice fly to center to get back a run.

Jones came to the plate with a chance to do some damage agaisnt Charlie Jones — the new pitcher — but he came up empty after seeing nine ptiches. Jones’ breaking balls didn’t look great, though.

Lugo-Canchola returned to the mound for Florida to face a pair of lefties. He got Johnson to ground out up the middle, although Nadeau had to make a sliding backhand stop to get the out. Smith struck out on a slider in the dirt, but Stanford’s throw down to first tipped off Bowen’s glove. Smith ended up at third base as a result.

Sully decided to pull Lugo-Canchola after 23 pitches. They’ll need him for Florida State on Tuesday, so the move had nothing to do with his execution. Russell Sandefer took over and gave up an RBI single up the middle on his first pitch. McCarter was looking for a fastball, and Sandefer gave it to him.

Oh did the same thing, pushing it throug the ledt side of the infied, before Sandefer finally recorded his first out by striking out Kohler on a 94-mph heater. He ran it up to 96 mph to get Clark swinging.

Florida has yet to record an out on the ground agaisnt Jack Carey. The Gators went down in order again. Surowiec and Bowen both took the ball for a ride, but High Field’s outfielders tracked it down because they are playing so deep. Strayer’s out was made a bit tougher since it didn’t go out as far, but one could still call it routine.

Lugo-Canchola started strong with a strikeout on Clark. His breaking ball looked exceptional on the swing and miss, but Kelly used the left-hander’s motion to his advantage in the next at-bat. Because Lugo-Canchola finishes his motion toward third, Kelly pushed a bunt toward first base for an easy single.

Lugo-Canchola struck out Ponce with another breaking ball, and Stanford made it a double play with a throw down to second. However, High Point challenged the play, and the call was reversed. Sully tried arguing batter’s interference, but the crew chief wasn’t budging.

That delay led to some control issues for ELC, but he receovered for a 2-0 popout to end the inning.

Florida didn’t fight back much in the bottom of the fourth. Nadeau popped one foul behind third base for the first out. It took some maneuvering from Kohler at third to make the play. The wind blew the ball back toward the line, and he had to make an over-the-shoulder catch.

Jones struck out swinging despite working the count full, and Lawson was robbed of a hit on a leaping grab in right field.

Blair couldn’t get out of the fourth inning after giving up a leadoff double to Kohler and hitting Kelly two batters later. He retired Clark on a lineout to left, but a passed ball moved both Kelly and Kohler up a base while Ponce hit.

Ponce kept the ball fair down the right field line. Bowen knocked it down, but stumbled and couldn’t make the throw to first to at least get a second out as the run scored. Blair didn’t get to the bag in time anyway, which is the second time that’s happened this week.

Billy Barlow relieved Blair, but couldn’t stop the bleeding. Allen laced a double out of Kyle Jones’ reach in right-center, scoring both runners with relative ease. Ponce can fly, so the throw ended up coming home late.

Barlow induced a ground ball in the gap between first and second. Nadeau should have been the one to make the play, but Bowen slid to cut it off and promptly threw it away. The throw was nowhere close. Allen scored on the play, but it’s an unearned run thanks to the error.

Smith tried to bunt, but Barlow ran one in too inside on the lefty and caught his knuckles as he pulled back. Stanford went to talk to him, but it didn’t do much to calm Barlow down.

McCarter hit it up the middle, and Nadeau made the play this time. He slid toward his backhand and popped up with the ball. Nadeau’s throw was short, and Bowen couldn’t make the pick, loading the bases. Sully trotted back out there to pull Barlow, and in comes Ernesto Lugo-Canchola in an emergency situation.

ELC has been lights out most of the year, but he couldn’t stop the Panthers from scoring more runs. Oh lined one into right field, scoring a pair of runs. Strayer’s throw was way off line to home plate.

Mercifully, a double play bailed Florida out of the inning.

High Point sent Carey back out there after the break. He had only thrown eight pitches before the rain came. He retired Kendall, Stanford and Stripling on 12 pitches. All three Florida batters skied balls into the air for outs. Carey had a 53.8% fly ball rate at Pepperdine in 2024, but he was down to 38.9% through 7 2/3 innings this year.

Rain and lightning led to a 2-hour and 10-minute delay at Condron Family Ballpark.

Walls got Allen to ground out on three pitches and struck out Johnson with an inside changeup. Smith doubled to right field, and Walls walked McCarter to put two on before the stoppage.

Eli Blair took over for Walls after the delay. He struck out Oh on a full-count slider and gave a big fist pump. The park has emptied out a bit, but there were still plenty of fans to cheer in that moment.

The ball is flying out to right today. Justin Nadeau hit his first of the year after Landon Stripling made the first out of the inning.

Karson Bowen gave Florida the lead with a three-run shot to right; this one didn’t need the wind to help. Jones and Lawson both scored on the home run after singling to shortstop and walking, respectively.

That knocked High point starter Aidan Paul out of the game after just five outs — he struck out Surowiec before giving up the home run to Bowen — and brought in Jack Carey, who won an eight-pitch battle against Cash Strayer to end the inning.

Walls gave up a pair of hits in the inning, both singles, but Florida’s defense helped him face the minimum.

Jack Clark poked one into right field before Frank Kelly grounded into a 5-4-3 double play. Ethan Surowiec made a nice defensive play to get the turn going. Ponce singled through the right side, but Cole Stanford caught him stealing by a mile.

Florida’s offense responded immediately. Kyle Jones worked the count full and went deep to left field for a leadoff solo homer.

Lawson followed up with his seventh home run of the year, also on a full count. The wind took this one over the right-center wall; it didn’t look like it was going to get out at first.

Ethan Surowiec made it three straight hits for Florida with a single to center field. Karson Bowen walked to put the tying run on base, but the next three batters couldn’t score either runner.

Cash Strayer grounded out to first, advancing both runners, Jacob Kendall popped up to third in a poor at-bat and Cole Stanford flied out to right to end the inning. Still, Florida got Aidan Paulto throw just short of 40 pitches in the innning, which should force the bullpen out early.

Cooper Walls got a Willie Ponce to fly out to left, but it was all downhill from there. Lane Allen reached on a throwing error by Brendan Lawson on a tricky grounder up the middle, shaded toward shortstop. Landen Johnson singled up the middle, and both men advanced on a wild pitch.

Then, High Point started teeing off. Christian Smith and Jake McCarter both took the ball to the wall for extra bases. Smith’s was out of Jacob Kendall’s reach in left field and scored two runs. McCarter was inches away from a home run in left-center, which turned into an RBI triple.

Seojun Oh brought in McCarter on a sacrifice fly before Jace Kohler grounded out to third to end the inning.

Walls is working 93-94 mph with the fastball, but High Point is seeing it well.