The Florida Gators improved to 2-0 in the Men’s College World Series following a narrow 5-4 victory over Oral Roberts in front of a sold-out crowd at Charles Schwab Field.
“Obviously, a well-played game came down to the last out in the ninth and started on the mound with Hurston,” Head Coach Kevin O’Sullivan said in his opening statement. “He was outstanding, struck out 12 over six. And offensively we hit some home runs early to get to a 5-1 lead.”
“We knew Oral Roberts was going to be really difficult to deal with,” O’Sullivan added. They’ve got an older lineup, but Cade came in shut down things for us. We’re excited about being 2-0 and looking forward to playing on Wednesday.”
In the top of the second inning, Friday night’s hero Ty Evans did it again, smacking a two-run blast to right center field to get the Gators on the board early. The long ball marks Evans’ second home run in the CWS, making him the first Gator in program history to hit a home run in each of the first two games of the CWS.
Evans’ blast marked the 133rd home run of the 2023 season, breaking Florida’s all-time single season home run record, passing the 1998 squad (132).
Oral Roberts immediately responded with a run of their own after Justin Quinn singled to the pitcher, plating Holden Breeze from third base in the bottom of the second.
Leading 2-1, shortstop Josh Rivera sent a missile down the left field line to start the 4th frame, giving Florida a 3-1 lead. The long ball marked Rivera’s 18th of the season and first of the CWS.
“I didn’t want to get beat with the heater,” Rivera said on his approach in that at bat. “I took that first-pitch changeup and I was sitting dead red heater because that’s what he beat me on my first at-bat for the strikeout. Luckily a got it, caught it out front and kept it fair.”
Later in that inning, freshman designated hitter Luke Heyman delivered in the clutch, clubbing a no doubt home run to left center field, scoring BT Riopelle and extending Florida’s lead to 5-1.
“I didn’t want to get beat the heater, Heyman said. “I was reacting to the off-speed but sitting on the heater and was able to get the heater over the plate and drive it.”
Just when it looked like Florida was going to cruise to victory, things got a little dicey.
With RHP Ryan Slater in to pitch, right fielder Matt Hogan sent one off the left-center field wall, making the trip all the way around the bases for a two-run inside the park home run, cutting Oral Roberts’ deficit in half. After taking a hard hop off the wall, Wyatt Langford bobbled it before getting the ball in to Josh Rivera, who failed to realize the runner was taking off for home plate.
“The only thing can you do in those moments is push them to the back of your mind and just focus on what’s next,” Rivera said. “For instance, that inside-the-park home run, you’ve got everybody going crazy. And this wonderful, loud stadium, it’s tough to figure out what’s going on.”
“We made some mistakes defensively setting up that play,” Rivera said on the inside the park home run. “We’ve got to learn from that and move on. And just like my error, when I missed the ball and they got closer to tying the game up and stuff like that, you’ve got to move forward because you can’t dwell on what happened in the past. If you do, bad things are just going to come rolling down. We’ve just got to keep our head on a swivel and move on to the next play.”
RHP Brandon Neely took over in the 7th inning in attempt to shut the door on the Golden Eagles.
After getting out of the seventh, Neely ran into some trouble in the 8th after an error, single, and walk with two outs in the inning. Following a strong two-out rally, Florida’s star closer Brandon Neely was removed from the game due to a violation of mound visits, forcing Kevin O’Sullivan to turn to freshman left hander Cade Fisher.
Fisher would snag the final four outs of the game, recording his 2nd save of the season.
“That totally falls on my shoulders,” O’Sullivan said on the mound visit violation. “I’m just glad Cade picked up that save. That is a mistake I have never made in my career. It certainly put [Fisher] in a tough spot. He had to make some pitches and he did. It was an unfortunate situation he was put it, but he did figure a way to get out of the game. These games are not easy. You want to win the first game, you want to win the second game. It’s hard for me right now because of the mistake I made. I’m still kicking myself about it.”
“Cade comes in from Friday night and is put in a really tough position,” O’Sullivan said. “Probably has never pitched in an environment like that or in a situation like that. So the one positive there is, he should feel really good about himself. I know the team was fired up.”
Florida’s starting pitcher Hurston Waldrep had his swing and miss stuff once again, striking out 12 batters in his six innings of work while allowing just one run.
“Overall the end result was good. And that’s all that matters,” Waldrep said on his outing. “But took me a little bit to settle in. It’s a big stage. And obviously a lot of feelings — a lot of adrenaline and emotions that come with this game.
“Obviously didn’t have the best feel for my fastball, command of my fastball,” Waldrep added. “So to be able to have the three off-speed pitches and rely on those and work with B.T. really well, just to be able to control the game from there.”
Waldrep became the fourth UF pitcher to strike out double-digit batters at the CWS, joining Alex Faedo (twice), Jackson Kowar (twice) and Brady Singer (once).
Over his three starts in the NCAA Tournament, Waldrep has combined for 21 innings pitched, allowing just two runs (0.83 ERA) while striking out 37 batters.
“You can’t get to this spot without having Sproat and Waldrep and now Cags has to follow up on Wednesday and we have a guy to the back end of Neely,” O’Sullivan said on his pitching staff. “And I mean, when we’ve been in this position and we’ve won the first two, or we’ve gotten to the finals, the starting pitching has been really good, and both Brandon and Hurston have been just outstanding.”
UP NEXT
The Gators are in the driver’s seat on their side of the bracket by winning their first two games. The Gators will play the winner of Tuesday’s elimination game between TCU and Oral Roberts on Wednesday at 2 p.m. ET with an opportunity to advance to the best-of-three championship with a victory.