Canes attack Florida Gators freshmen pitching, even series

CORAL GABLES, Fla. — The Miami Hurricanes scored a flurry of runs off of two freshmen pitchers that the Florida Gators couldn’t match. Miami scored five runs on two swings of the bat in the first two frames on the way to a 10-6 win, which evened the series with the Gators (7-3).

Cade Kurland started the game with a leadoff double. Jac Caglianone drew a walk to keep the inning going before Luke Heyman struck out swinging. Miami starter Rafe Schlesinger was able to get Florida shortstop Colby Shelton to ground into a double play, ending the inning and whatever threat the Gators had brought.

Miami wouldn’t waste that momentum. Freshman starter Liam Peterson walked Blake Cyr and with one out and freshman Daniel Cuvet pounded a chopper to third that he was able to leg out for a single. Jason Torres worked a 2-0 count and hit the next offering over the wall in left-center field for his second home run in as many days.

The Canes would tack on two more runs via the long ball in the second inning. It was another 2-0 count, this time to Edgardo Villegas, who sat fastball and got it, sending it over the wall in center field.

The Gators did no go quietly, responding for three runs in the eighth. Following hit-by-pitches of Luke Heyman and Evans, Shelnut smacked a two-run double to left to bring Florida within four. Albert then singled to left to move Shelnut to third, allowing Thomas to drive him in with a deep sacrifice fly to center.

Players of the Game

Dale Thomas: The senior third baseman went 2-3 with 4 RBI, including a 3-run home run which drew the game from 5-0 to 5-3.

Notes:

NOTABLES

• Saturday’s official attendance was another sellout crowd of 3,555 fans.
• Florida dropped to 133-135-1 all-time vs. Miami.
  • The Gators are 52-82 in the series on the road.
• The Gators fell to 40-18 vs. the Canes featuring a 17-9 away mark under Kevin O’Sullivan.
• Florida is 21-8 against Miami across the last 29 meetings.
• Thomas hit his second home run of the season (third at UF).
  • He finished 2-for-3 while driving in four of Florida’s six runs.
• Peterson’s seven strikeouts tied his career high.
• Menendez made his career debut on the mound.
• Newcomers Blake Brookins and Landon Collins made their debuts as well.
• Florida is 35-12 in weekend series since 2023 and 44-15 across the team’s previous 20 series.
• Dating back to last season, Florida is 29-6 in regular season non-conference games and has won 20 of its last 23 such contests.

Quotes from the game

Kevin O’Sullivan

On Liam Peterson’s start

“He just looked out of sorts from the beginning. I had to take a visit in the first.  The pace was really slow. It didn’t look anything like the other times he had pitched this year. The positive is he came back and put three zeroes on the board after that. Dale (Thomas) had the three-run homer there in the top of the fifth. Obviously, the seventh inning kind of got away from us. We hit the leadoff man in the bottom half of the order. It was just unfortunate because if I did feel that if it stayed where it was we would have a chance there at the end.”

What happened with the pitch clock violation?

“The umpire just said he wasn’t in the box at 10 seconds. I don’t know. I don’t know who’s keeping the clock or what. In that situation it’s unfortunate that that would be called in a game like this today.”

Using this game as a learning experience that you can’t walk batters

“Yeah, it goes a little bit further than that. We got into a lot of fastball counts. That’s what happened to Liam. He couldn’t command his secondary pitches today. You get in those 2-0, 3-0 counts, you don’t locate your fastball and things like that happen. The first two innings for sure.”

On Miami starter Rafe Schlesinger

“Yeah, I thought our guys the second time through got a much better look at him. It is a different look, not something you see every day, a low angle lefty like that throwing low 90s. Offensively we did what we were supposed to do today. We scored six runs on nine hits against a really good starter. It was just unfortunate that we threw four freshmen today and they unfortunately they pitched like freshmen.”

Tomorrow is a big game as we talked about. It will challenge us. The winner of tomorrow’s game obviously wins the series. We’ll see how we can bounce back and be ready to play.”

What’s next for the Florida Gators

The Florida Gators and Miami Hurricanes will meet at Mark Light Field at 1:00 pm for their rubber match. Last season, in Gainesville, the Gators won the Friday night matchup with Miami before dropping game two on Saturday. Florida would go on to win the series on Sunday with a 14-4 run-rule victory over the Canes. The Gators are 40-18 vs. the Hurricanes featuring a 17-9 away mark under head coach Kevin O’Sullivan. Florida is 21-8 against Miami across the last 29 meetings.