TOP OF THE NINTH
– Fright hit with a swing to end the game. Florida won 6-3 and improved to 44-13 this year. The Gators will next play on Saturday.
– Diaz hit swinging
– Bradfield struck and looked
DOWN IN THE EIGHTH
– Schiekofer ended up in second place
– Thomas struck and looked
– Heyman hit swinging
TOP OF THE EIGHTH
– Austin ended up in second place
– SCORE: Vastine hit a solo shot on Ryan Slater. 6-3 Gators M8
– Polk finished second
– LaNeve hit swinging
Down in the seventh
– Shelnut was relegated to third place
– SCORE: BT Riopelle is going crazy. He just hit a Grand Slam to break the tie. 6-2 Gators B7
– Josh Rivera left
— Caglianone was struck by bad luck. Kurland is second.
– Langford hit swinging
— Courland went
– Pinch scored for Ty Evans, Schiekofer won first
ABOVE THE SEVENTH
– Bulger struck and looked
– Ryan Slater comes in with two outs and runners in second and third place at the start of seventh place. He has an ERA of 1.54 in May.
– Noland doubled to the left. Schreck with two outs to third place.
– Schreck grabbed one for first place and the Gators caught Bradfield in second place but didn’t manage to take second place.
– Diaz flew out to the right
– Enrique Bradfield hit a single down the middle
DOWN IN THE SIXTH
– Thomas hit swinging
– Heyman hit swinging
– Tyler Shelnut slammed and looked
TOP OF THE SIXTH
– Austin jumped back to the hill
— Vastine went to load the bases
— Polk hit a single for third place
– LaNeve hit swinging
– Bulger caught a fielding error from Josh Rivera
– Noland threw one back up the hill for the first time
DOWN IN THE FIFTH
– Riopelle struck and looked
– Rivera left
– Kurland stole second
– Caglianone flew into the middle
– Langford flew into the middle
— Kurland was struck by bad luck
UP OF THE FIFTH
– Fright hit swinging
– SCORE: Davis Diaz hit a single to the left and scored Jonathan Vastine from third place with two outs. 2-2 T5
– Bradfield ended up in second place. Vastine ended up in third place with two outs.
– Austin grounded too briefly. Vastine ran and made it to second place safely.
– Vastine emphasized the middle
DOWN IN THE FOURTH
– Evans landed on a fielder’s decision to end the inning
— Thomas left
– Heyman hit swinging
– Shelnut struck and looked
– RESULT: BT Riopelle hit his second home run of the SEC tournament, this time a solo shot to the right that went into the woods behind the walls of the Hoover Met. 2-1 Gators B4
ABOVE THE FOURTH
– Polk hit swinging
– LaNeve flew to the center
— Bulger flew to the left
– Noland hit a single to the left
DOWN IN THE THIRD
– Rivera was eliminated first
– Caglianone hit swinging
– Langford jumped out first
ABOVE THE THIRD
– Schreck ended up in third place
– Diaz hit a single to the right. Austin in third place.
– Bradfield struck and looked
– Austin hit a single in the middle
– Vastine was eliminated first
DOWN IN THE SECOND
– Kurland hit swinging
– Evans hit swinging
– Thomas struck and looked
– SCORE: Luke Heyman sent one straight into midfield to end the game. He is the sixth Florida player to hit 10 homers this year, setting a program record. 1:1 without B2 failing
ABOVE THE SECOND
– Polk was eliminated in third place
– LaNeve hit swinging
– Bulger hit swinging
BOTTOM OF THE FIRST
– Shelnut hit swinging
— Riopelle was hit in the helmet by bad luck, but he’s fine and stays in the game. Florida loaded the bases for Tyler Shelnut.
– Rivera scored a two-out walk to put BT Riopelle runners in the corners
– Caglianone was eliminated first. Langford moved up to third place
– Wyatt Langford doubled to the left
— Kurland flew out to the right
TOP OF THE FIRST
– Noland ended up in second place to finish the inning
– Fright flew straight into the middle
– SCORE: A leadoff triple by Enrique Bradfield turned into a run two batters in the game. 1-0 Vanderbilt with an out and nobody on T1
– Enrique Bradfield leads the game with a three-pointer to the left
FLORIDA POSITION
2B Cade Kurland
CF Wyatt Langford
1B Jac Caglianon
SS Josh Rivera
C BT Riopelle
LF Tyler Shelnut
DH Luke Heyman
3B Dale Thomas
RF Ty Evans
SP Brandon Sproat (RHP)
VANDERBILT LINEUP
CF Enruique Bradfield
3B Davis Diaz
RF RJ Fright
1B Parker Noland
C Jack Bulger
DH Troy LaNeve
LF Matthew Polk
SS Jonathan Vastine
2B RJ Austin
SP Hunter Owen (LHP)
FOREPLAY
– No. 1 seed Florida (43-13) meets No. 4 seed Vanderbilt (38-17) in Hoover, Alabama Thursday night. The contest begins at 8:50 p.m. ET and will be broadcast on the SEC network.
– The Gators clinched a stunning 7-6 win over Alabama, scoring four runs at the bottom of the 11th inning to secure their 18th comeback win of the season. You can read about it here.
— Florida made a significant lineup change before Thursday’s game, removing routine midfielder Michael Robertson from the lineup, moving left fielder Wyatt Langford to center, Tyler Shelnut from right to left and Ty Evans in right field started. The contest marks Evans’ first game appearance since May 6 and his first start since April 22.
QUOTES FROM KEVIN O’SULLIVAN
On Florida’s ability to make late comebacks and pick up wins:
“It gives you the belief that regardless of the score, you have a chance to get back in the game.” I felt like I was going to hit the winning run and Chuck also had the worst case scenario of us getting some momentum and get some good bats together and if we lost the game then at least we can pick up some momentum tomorrow. And Wyatt had a great shot, started with two shots and Jack did a great job. And obviously her closer came in, and he’s got an electric arm. And he stayed on the left , and BT put in a good swing down the field. Josh had a great shot. Everyone had really good shots and the game actually lasted seven, eight throws. It’s just one of those games. But you have to have those experiences all season long to believe you can do it. It’s one thing to sit there as a coaching staff and say, ‘We can do this, we can come back into this thing,’ but when you do it multiple times over the course of the year, the belief becomes a reality, and that’s exactly what it is happened tonight.
On Wednesday night’s Florida walk-off win:
“I’m not going to lie, that was exciting. You very rarely come back from a three-run deficit in the 11th and have the ability to bounce back from a hard top in the 11th. Obviously all the momentum was in them.” Dugout. But there are a lot of positives in this game. We wanted to keep Hurston at about 85 pitches. I think he threw 87 because he had a short break. Ryan Slater continues to do exactly what we ask of him. Philip Abner came He moved in and did his job. And we have extended Neely. Given that he has the ability to do that, he likely is – he’ll obviously be unavailable for the next two days, probably three days, but we’ve extended him in case we need to get in the postseason. We’ve had a resilient group all year and that’s just another example, but it was certainly an exciting win.”