No.10 Florida baseball run-ruled Dayton 13-1 after seven innings on Friday night, taking game one of the three-game series. The Gators are 5-0 to start the 2025 season for the first time since 2020 (16-0).
The air was cold but Florida’s bat were not. The Gators scored 13 runs in six trips to the plate, totaling 10 hits, three doubles, and one home run from third baseman Bobby Boser, who launched his third big fly of the season to give the Gators an early 2-0 lead in the first inning.
Eight of Florida’s nine starters recorded at least one hit, while every batter that logged three plate appearances found a base knock. Cade Kurland (1-for-3) led the charge with three RBI while Brendan Lawson (2-for-3) and Blake Cyr (2-for-3) each collected a pair of hits and drove in two runs apiece.
Situational hitting
The Gators were really good at situational hitting on Friday, which is part of the reason they scored three more runs than they had hits. While Florida hit just 4 for 14 (.286) with runners in scoring position, they excelled at moving runners over with productive outs and aggression on the base paths, creating plenty of scoring opportunities by simply putting the ball in play. Florida recorded two sac flies and two RBI ground outs to third base. In total, the Gators were a perfect 6-6 on scoring opportunities with a runner on third base and less than two outs.
Florida also walked five times and stole five bags, putting a lot of pressure on Dayton’s pitching staff. While everyone wants to see the long ball or the big hit in the gap, sometimes you need to play situational baseball and do your job for the team. The Gators did their jobs in game one.
“I thought our situational hitting was outstanding,” head coach Kevin O’Sullivan said postgame. “The first couple innings especially. We moved some runners over to third with less than two outs, we stole some bases again. I think seven different players had RBIs, so we had production up and down the lineup. It was a good night for us.”
The Gators wanted to create a more balanced and versatile offense in 2025, and you saw that on full display Friday night.
Liam Peterson’s start
It was in the low 40’s in Gainesville tonight with a wind chill at 36 degrees, which is not necessarily ideal pitching weather. For having never pitched in these conditions, Peterson handled the cold fairly well. The 6’5 right hander earned the win after tossing four shutout innings while allowing two hits and two walks in 83 pitches. Peterson ran into some trouble in the 4th, but left the bases loaded after his third strikeout of the frame. Peterson struck out five batters in his four innings pitched.
“Honestly, it was not an easy night to hit or pitch. I thought he handled it good. Last year, if we had games like this, a lot of times they got away from us. It was almost like he made some big pitches when he needed to,” O’Sullivan said on Peterson’s outing.
Through two starts on the season, Peterson has yet to allow a run in ten innings pitched while posting a 16-3 strikeout to walk ratio.
Collegiate debut for Christian Rodriguez
After missing all of 2024 due to injury, redshirt freshman RHP Christian Rodriguez took the mound in the 7th inning for his collegiate debut. He wasted no time recording his first-career strikeout on the first batter he faced. Rodriguez used a second strikeout and flyout to center field to pitch a scoreless frame and cement the 13-1, run-rule victory for the Orange & Blue. The only base runner Rodriguez allowed was a slow rolling infield single to third base.
Florida’s pitching staff did work into quite a few full counts on Friday, but they only walked two batters in seven innings, a continued improvement from last season.
On the 2025 season, UF pitchers have allowed just six earned runs on 24 hits and nine walks, equating to a 1.32 ERA and .167 batting average against. All 16 pitching appearances have featured at least one strikeout.
UP NEXT
Florida and Dayton face off in game two on Saturday, scheduled for 4 p.m. on SEC Network+. The Gators can take the series with a victory on Saturday.