The Miami Hurricanes knotted the series at one after defeating the Gators 14-6 on Saturday evening.
After a two hour and 50-minute weather delay, Hurston Waldrep fired the first pitch of the ball game for the Gators. The Southern Miss transfer was outstanding on Saturday night, despite his unattractive stat line.
Waldrep completed six innings, allowing five runs, seven hits, two walks, and one HBP while striking out 14 batters, a career high for Waldrep. Through the first five innings, Waldrep had only allowed one run on a solo home run off the bat of Carlos Perez. Waldrep found himself in sticky situations throughout the contest, but seemingly always found his way out of it. Nothing fazed Waldrep early on in the game.
Jac Caglianone put the Gators (9-3) on the board in the bottom of the first. After a one-out walk by Langford, Caglianone connected for his ninth home run of the season, giving Florida a 2-0 lead.
Four innings later, Colby Halter laced an RBI triple, which was followed by a sacrifice fly to right by Wyatt Langford. Putting an exclamation point on the frame, Caglianone homered to straightaway center for his nation-leading 10th home run of the season to make it 6-1.
This is where things fell apart for Florida. Waldrep gave up a quick two-run home run in the top half of the sixth inning, cutting the Gators lead to just three runs.
Waldrep trotted back out to the mound in the seventh inning, sitting at 93 pitches. It was clear that Waldrep had lost his touch as he hit the leadoff batter in the foot and gave up a frozen rope single on a 2-0 count to the next batter.
Those two base runners would come around to score along with one more run that was credited to Nick Ficarrotta, who faced two batters after taking over for Waldrep.
Ryan Slater took over for Ficarrotta, but also only lasted a third of an inning, allowing one run on one hit and one walk.
Fisher Jameson was the third call to the bullpen in the seventh inning. The length right-hander was beat up by the Canes, pitching just 1/3rd of an inning, allowing three runs on three hits. Jameson was throwing the ball over the plate, but Miami was crushing it.
The Hurricanes grabbed hold of their first lead of the night with a four-run eighth. Renzo Gonzalez led off with a solo homer to right while Cyr drew a bases-loaded walk from RHP Clete Hartzog. Dominic Pitelli then drove in a pair with a double down the right-field line for a 10-6 Miami lead.
Miami tacked on four more runs in the ninth, highlighted by a three-run homer off the bat of Cyr to make it 14-6.
Florida was outhit 16-7 in tonight’s contest.
It’s not all sunshine and rainbows for the Florida Gators right now, but it’s important to remember that taking 2/3 games from the No.22 Miami Hurricanes would be considered a success.
The Gators have a chance to do that tomorrow at 12:00 PM in the rubber-match.