Florida defeated South Carolina 9-5 on Friday night, taking game one of the series and improving to 31-16 (9-13 SEC) on the 2025 season. The Gators have won 11 of their last 13 games and can clinch their fourth consecutive SEC series with a win over the Gamecocks tomorrow.
It was a frustrating start to game one as five pitches into Florida ace Liam Peterson’s start the contest was delayed due to weather in the area. After a three plus hour delay, we resumed play at Founders Park in Columbia, South Carolina, only Peterson didn’t retake the mound. Head coach Kevin O’Sullivan is known for protecting his pitching staff and has never been one to put his guys back on the mound after a lengthy delay. South Carolina’s head coach Paul Mainieri didn’t operate under the same philosophy, using original starter Brandon Stone after he already pitched one inning.
O’Sullivan, Peterson, and the Gators’ staff were understandably frustrated with the highly questionable decision to even start the contest knowing there was bad weather in the area. With four bullpen arms already out for the game, Florida knew it would be a challenging night having to use their already limited bullpen from start to finish.
“Obviously questionable about the start, just unfortunate,” O’Sullivan said postgame.
To make matters worse, South Carolina jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first. RHP Alex Philpott was removed after recording just one out. Just like that, Florida was on their third arm before they even got out of the first inning.
Trailing 4-1 in the 4th inning, sophomore outfielder Hayden Yost got the Gators back into the game with his second home run of the season, a two-run shot to right field. This settled Florida down in what was an emotional game.
In the next inning, junior catcher Luke Heyman blasted his 11th homer of the year and 8th in SEC play to tie the game at four. After a pair of walks and a dropped fly ball, senior outfielder Ty Evans destroyed a 426-foot grand slam to center field, breaking the game wide open. Evans hadn’t played since April 8th vs FSU until making an appearance against Arkansas last Sunday. He has three hits in seven at bats since returning to the lineup with two home runs, five RBI, and three runs scored. He’s finding the barrel in nearly every at bat.
“It’s not how you start; it’s how you finish. The grand slam tonight was really the difference in the ballgame. I’m really happy for him,” O’Sullivan said on Evans.
Florida called upon closer Jake Clemente for his signature nine out save, and while it didn’t come easy, he delivered. The Gamecocks worked the bases loaded in the 7th before Clemente struck out three straight batters to keep them scoreless. Clemente also stranded runners on the corners in the 8th with a pair of pop outs. In total, Clemente tossed three scoreless innings, allowing four hits while striking out six.
The most important thing that happened tonight was the Gators victory, but it didn’t come at a cheap price. Florida used six pitchers in the contest including their two best options in Jake Clemente and Luke McNeillie, who threw 51 and 49 pitches respectively. While that might not shut them down for the entire weekend, it certainly limits their availability for the remaining two games.
This could have easily been a frustrating loss after the three-hour delay and Peterson unable to retake the mound, but the Gators stuck with it and provided enough offense to win them the game.
O’Sullivan claimed that Liam Peterson will ‘probably’ start on Sunday but noted that would shuffle their weekend rotation around with the Texas series next weekend and Alabama on a short week after that. It’s imperative that the Gators get two good starts from Aidan King and Liam Peterson in the final two games as Florida’s bullpen just had to throw nine innings.
Tomorrow’s game has been moved up to 1:00 p.m. due to weather.