SARASOTA, Fla. (WWSB) – Saturday held major implications for several Florida-based teams on the professional and collegiate level. The Tampa Bay Rays, Tampa Bay Lightning, Florida Gators, Miami Hurricanes, Florida State Seminoles, and the USF Bulls were all in action.
All of these teams but one collected big wins, with the lone exception being the Seminoles, who played a competitive ball game on the road in Miami Gardens, falling in double overtime to the third-ranked Hurricanes.
The Rays were up in Cleveland, taking on the Guardians in Game 4 of the ALCS. The game was postponed from Friday due to rain.
Tampa Bay was down 2-1 in the series, and Cleveland struck first on Saturday with a Chase Delauter RBI single to drive in Steven Kwan in the bottom of the first for a 1-0 lead.
The Rays answered in the third after a two-out double from Yandy Diaz, Jonathan Aranda hit an RBI single to center, his first hit of the series. Diaz rounded from second, and the game was tied at 1-1.
Moving to the sixth inning, Junior Caminero doubled to left to score Aranda, giving Tampa the 2-1 edge. In the top of the seventh things got sloppy for Cleveland. Aranda was able to drive in Richie Palacios and Taylor Walls after some defensive errors helped to contribute.
Aranda later scored on a Chandler Simpson sacrifice fly to make it 5-1 Rays. They went on to win 7-3 with a late two-run homer from Diaz, evening the series at 2-2. Game 5 is slated for a 5:08 p.m. start time in Cleveland on Sunday.
We now know there will at least be a Game 6 on Monday evening at Tropicana Field, regardless of what happens on Sunday evening.
The Lightning were also in action at home on Saturday, taking on the Vancouver Canucks. Tampa wanted a second-straight win, but were down 2-0 early on.
In the second frame, Nikita Kucherov came to play, netting a goal on the power play to cut the deficit in half.
Later in the second off a face off, Kucherov showed great relexes and snap a second goal in to tie things up at 2-2.
From there, the Lightning added two more goals from Jake Guentzel and Pontus Holmberg for the 4-2 win. Tampa Bay will look for a hat trick of consecutive wins when they take on the Golden Knights in Las Vegas on Tuesday night.
It was a huge day in the college football world on Saturday as well, including a major upset from the former USF Football Head Coach Alex Golesh-led Auburn Tigers, along with former Bull QB Byrum Brown, knocking off top-ranked Georgia on the road.
Florida State was hoping for another upset over third-ranked Miami at Hard Rock Stadium. The Seminoles did have the lead throughout much of this one, but were down late, 28-21…
In the final minutes, Ashton Daniels connected with Duce Robinson for 75 yards, and tied things up at 28-28 to force overtime.
In the extra frame, Seminoles struck first to go up 35-28, but Miami answered with a Javion Mallory rushing score from 25 yards out, forcing double overtime.
From there, the Canes’ Darian Mensah passed to Malachi Toney for a three-yard score. Miami converted a two-point attempt, then held off FSU for the 43-35 win at home.
Florida meanwhile was in Austin, Texas, locking horns with the seventh-ranked Longhorns. The Gators after starting the season 4-0, had dropped their previous two games to Missouri and South Carolina.
Florida was down 17-3 in the final seconds of the first half, when Tramell Jones Jr. rolled left and found an open Lacota Dippre for a seven-yard passing score, down 17-10 at the break.
In the third, the Gators were in position, when Jones spotted Dippre again, wide open in the endzone for six. Florida tied things up at 17-17.
In the fourth, after a Patrick Durkin field goal, they found some more separation in the form of a Jaden Baugh 11-yard rushing score for the 27-17 advantage.
With under five minutes remaining, Texas had brought the lead down to three at 27-24, and were looking to tie or take the lead, when the Gators forced a strip sack of Arch Manning to help secure the win.
It was the Gators first victory over an AP-Top 10 opponent on the road since 2012.
The USF Bulls were also in action on Saturday at Raymond James Stadium in their homecoming game, taking on Kent State.
The Golden Flashes were up 2-0 in the second quarter, and at the doorstep looking to go up two scores. Kent State fumbled near the goal line, and CJ Hicks was able to scoop up the ball and take it the length of the field.
The 96-yard score was the beginning of 29 unanswered points for the Bulls, as they downed Kent State 29-2 to improve to 5-2 on the season.
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