Behind a career outing from sophomore right-hander Aidan King, No. 21 Florida baseball defeated No. 7 Texas A&M, 9–2, in Game 1 of a three-game series.
Florida improved to 29–14 (11–8 SEC), while Texas A&M fell to 31–8 (12–6 SEC).
The Gators recorded 13 hits, including six for extra bases, while King tied his career high with eight innings pitched.
Aidan King sets the tone
Aidan King delivered another gutsy outing against one of college baseball’s top lineups, tossing eight innings of two-run ball while allowing just four hits and striking out six.
The first few innings weren’t exactly smooth for King. He opened with a 1–2–3 frame, though two balls were hit hard. He then allowed a sharply hit single in the second. In the third, King left a pitch over the plate to one of the nation’s top hitters, Gavin Grahovac, who belted a two-run shot to left. It was one of four hits King allowed through the first three innings.
From the fourth inning on, King was masterful. The sophomore did not allow another hit, retiring 16 of his final 17 batters faced, including 13 straight to close out his outing.
The Jacksonville, Florida, native induced plenty of weak contact down the stretch and finished his eight innings with no walks or hit-by-pitches. King had total command of his fastball throughout, working it effectively to both sides of the plate.
“He was just throwing strike after strike after strike. He did a really nice job getting the leadoff hitter. I mean, their lineup is potent. It’s as good of a lineup as there is in the entire country,” head coach Kevin O’Sullivan said postgame. “It was just an awesome performance.”
King’s velocity never dropped off, one of the reasons Kevin O’Sullivan decided to send him back out for the eighth inning at 101 pitches. King finished with a career-high 121 pitches in an outing that will be remembered for a long time.
“He gets upset with me every time I take him out,” O’Sullivan shared with a laugh. “It was just a gut feel.”
“I was watching. Usually you can tell, when he starts getting tired, he falls behind in the count a little bit. He didn’t fell behind in the seventh and he did not have any drop in his velo. That did play into it a lot.”
King not only secured Florida a huge victory but also set the Gators up well for the remainder of the series. By going eight innings while the offense scored nine runs, Florida avoided using its top bullpen arms to close out the game.
Caden McDonald delivered
It’s no secret that Florida has struggled to get production from the bottom of its order. In an effort to shake things up, redshirt sophomore Caden McDonald made just his second start of the season (and his career), and he delivered in a big way.
Entering the contest 2-for-8 on the season, McDonald went 3-for-4 at the plate with two RBIs, a double, and his first career home run, a 426-foot bomb to left-center field.
“Caden McDonald. What a great story that is,” O’Sullivan said. “He continued to work hard. If you’ve watched all of our games, like most people in here have, we’ve struggled with the bottom half of the order, so we tried to do some different things today and obviously it worked out. The underlying message is, you continue to work hard and you’re a good teammate, when you get your opportunity, things like this tend to happen. So I’m pleased with him and obviously he’ll be in the lineup again tomorrow.”
McDonald is a two-way player that’s pitched to a 3.56 ERA this season across 30.1 innings.
Florida didn’t just get production from McDonald. Eight of nine starters recorded at least one hit, while four players logged multi-hit games. Senior outfielder Blake Cyr is seeing the ball as well as anyone in the country, recording yet another multi hit game, which marks three straight.
Cyr is riding a seven-game hitting streak and has homered five times in his last five games. During that five-game stretch, Cyr has recorded 12 RBIs and nine runs scored.
UP NEXT
Florida can’t get comfortable. After all, the Gators won Game 1 against Auburn last weekend before dropping the final two games. But this was about as good of a start as they could have hoped for.
The Gators look to clinch the series tomorrow at 5:30 p.m. They’ll face RHP Aiden Sims (7–0, 3.44 ERA), while Florida will counter with Liam Peterson (1–3, 3.42 ERA).