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Gators beat No. 5 Arkansas behind Peterson's pitching, Heyman's homer

On3 imageby:Zach Abolverdi•04/25/25•

ZachAbolverdi

Liam-Peterson-Florida-Gators
Florida pitcher Liam Peterson. (Photo by @GatorsBB/UAA Communications)

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — No. 5 Arkansas entered the series opener at UF with 23-1 record when scoring first this season. The Florida Gators dropped that mark to two losses on Friday night.

UF rallied from a two-run deficit with six straight runs, including a four-spot in the fifth to take the lead, and excellent pitching from Liam Peterson and Jake Clemente to beat the Hogs 6-4.

After the team’s pregame meal, Florida coach Kevin O’Sullivan asked Peterson to come sit in his office. They watched the sixth inning of his start at Mississippi State last Friday.

Peterson tossed his second 1-2-3 frame of the game with two strikeouts, finishing with six Ks in the 13-3 win against the Bulldogs.

“His presence, his stuff, just looked different. That was the best inning that he had thrown the whole night,” O’Sullivan said in his postgame radio interview. “So, we just sat there and watched it for a couple of minutes, and I said, ‘This is what is supposed to look like all the time.’ And obviously he was able to do that tonight.”

Like he did in Starkville, Peterson gave up two homers against Arkansas but was lights out the rest of the night. He more than doubled his strikeout total from a week ago, finishing with a career-high 13 Ks.

And once again, Peterson hurled a pair of 1-2-3 frames, including another clutch sixth inning for his 12th and 13th punch-out after the Gators took a four-run lead.

Peterson threw 114 pitches with 72 strikes before he was pulled after giving up a leadoff walk in 6.0 innings. O’Sullivan regretted sending him out in the seventh after the game.

“What do you say about Liam’s performance? I mean, that was as good as he’s ever pitched here,” O’Sullivan said. “We fell behind, obviously with the two solo home runs in the first and second. It’s a credit to the Arkansas hitters, but obviously we battled back. … The top of the six was obviously really important because we’ve had a tendency of giving up rebound runs.

“So, the only thing I wish I had back, I probably wouldn’t have ran him back out in the seventh. But he convinced me, and I probably shouldn’t have done that. So, that’s my fault. But he was still throwing 95, 96 there in the six, so it’s not like he lost any velocity. But awfully proud of the way he pitched tonight and Jake, of course. … He got the save with the two-two-thirds.”

Clemente earned his fourth save of the season with three strikeouts in 2.2 innings and only threw 31 pitches. Arkansas pitcher Zach Root had a strong start to the game, striking out eight batters in 4.1 frames.

The Gators didn’t get their first hit until the third before scoring a run in that inning and the fourth to tie the game. Their bats came alive in the fifth with three straight singles by Bobby Boser, Colby Shelton and Brendan Lawson, who drove home Boser for the go-ahead RBI.

The Razorbacks then replaced Root with Dylan Carter and the first batter he faced was Florida’s Luke Heyman, who launched a three-run bomb to extend the lead to 6-2. It marked Heyman’s 10th homer of the season and his second multi-run dinger in as many games after his walk-off grand slam against Georgia Southern on Tuesday.

“We scored that odd run in the third with the wild pick at first. But obviously the big swing of the bat tonight was the three-run homer by Luke,” O’Sullivan said. “The first two of bats (Boser) struck out and he was a little bit frustrated with himself, but obviously that was a key at-bat during the game. And credit Zach Root. That was as good a four innings that I’ve seen in a long time. I mean, he had all four pitches working. And for Colby and for Brendan to go back-to-back singles in that same inning, certainly was really impressive.”

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