In their own words: Florida baseball players describe walk-off win in Omaha

OMAHA, Neb. — Luke Heyman was shaking as Jay Woolfolk jogged across the right field grass heading toward the mound. The freshman was 1-4 at the plate but the largest stage in college baseball had somehow become even bigger for the 19-year-old.

The Florida baseball team had given up a late lead, but Heyman would now walk to the plate with the game knotted at five and the bases loaded. The weight of the game and, potentially, his team’s season weighed on him.

“At the beginning, I was shaking a little bit,” Heyman told Gators Online in the clubhouse after the game. “I was trying to take deep breaths.”

How did they get here?

It started with a BT Riopelle solo home run in the bottom of the eighth inning. The 24-year-old catcher was 2-3 on the night but his last hit would bring the Gators to within one. Virginia would extend its lead back to two with an insurance run in the top of the ninth.

The stage for a thrilling comeback was now set.

Ty Evans gets the Gators going

Ty Evans started the season as the everyday right fielder. He entered a slump when the Gators hit conference play and had played in just three games since May 5. He got the nod in the sixth inning to start getting loose.

“I got to get some swings in the cages and move my legs around,” he said. “I had a little time.”

Evans doubled in his first at-bat and would lead off the bottom of the ninth inning. With his team trailing by two runs, his run didn’t mean much at the time.

“Honestly there, we’re down two runs. I’m really just trying to put an at-bat to get on base,” Evans said. “I’m not worrying about myself, just worrying about the guys. We had the top of the lineup coming up, who are fantastic at the plate. I was just trying to get on base there.” 

Evans didn’t get on base, he touched them all though.

Evans tagged a ball 418 feet that found a lucky fan with a glove above the left field bullpen. 

That’ll do. 

“I don’t think I’ve landed yet, still. It was amazing. It’s everything you could possibly dream of as a kid.”

Wyatt Langford’s record blast for the Florida baseball team

Evans’ homer closed the gap but a Cade Kurland strikeout meant Florida had just two outs to work with. In a lineup full of guys who can turn baseballs into violent projectiles, there may not be a single other player Florida would want in the box other than Wyatt Langford.

“Going up to the plate I was thinking the same thing I always do,” Langford said. “I was going up there to compete and get on base and pass the torch for the next man to eventually lead us to winning the game.”

Langford watched a ball. The next offering was just 82 miles an hour but left Langford’s bat at 112 miles an hour. It rocketed into the night sky, clearing even the farthest bleachers outside of left field. The estimated 456-feet makes it the longest home run in the history of the College World Series.

More importantly, the game was now tied.

Heyman delivers

Jac Caglianone singled, Josh Rivera, walked, and BT Riopelle happily wore a pitch to load the bases. Without much depth left in the bullpen, the Virginia Cavaliers turned to Jay Woolfolk, who also plays quarterback for the football team.

Woolfolk has electric stuff but he’s struggled with his command, walking 20 batters over 33 innings on the season. That played into Heyman’s advantage when the right-hander’s first two offerings failed to find the strike zone.

With the game tied and a 2-0 count, Woolfolk had to throw a strike.

“It was pretty much, a 2-0 count,” Heyman told Gators Online. “I know he has to throw me something across the plate, he didn’t want to go down 3-0 and walk in a run. I was sitting heater.”

The heater came. Heyman ambushed it and lined a ball into center field that would be caught but wouldn’t matter. It was far enough to plate Caglianone, to give the Gators a 6-5, comeback win, their 21st of the season.

“It’s just embedded in us. It’s been drilled to us or preached to us since the first day we got on campus with the group of guys that we have this year, that we’re always bringing the attack to our opponent,” Riopelle said after the game. “We don’t let the opponent dictate the pace of the game or the way we play or whatnot, we dictate that.”

Friday night, as they’ve done 51 times this season, the Florida baseball team dictated the outcome to their opponent.