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    Florida uses incredible environment to bludgeon Miami: ‘I've never seen the atmosphere like it was tonight’
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    Florida uses incredible environment to bludgeon Miami: ‘I’ve never seen the atmosphere like it was tonight’

    Gainesville has been rain-soaked all weekend long, but it did not stop Gator Nation from turning Condron Family Ballpark into an insane asylum. This game just about had everything you could probably think of, but the biggest weapon Florida used was its fans.​

    “The fans were unbelievable tonight. I mean, I’ve never seen the atmosphere like it was tonight, and it helped,” Gators coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “I mean there’s no question it helped us the entire night.”​

    Attendance has not been up to par this season, but Saturday’s environment was easily the best it has been all season. Right from the jump, the crowd was loud and impactful – both while Florida was hitting and in the field.

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    They had plenty to cheer about as Florida bludgeoned its way to a 22-10 win against Miami Saturday night, improving to 2-0 and advancing to the regional final Sunday, scheduled for tentatively 5 p.m. ET.

    Florida will go for its first regional sweep since 2016 if it can win one more game.

    The 22 runs are the most runs scored by Florida since May 3 of the 2025 season when they scored 22 against South Carolina. It is also the most runs Miami has ever allowed in a single game against UF, with the previous mark coming in a 20-11 game on Feb. 13, 2000.

    There are plenty of areas you could start with this offensive outburst – first, the team launched a program NCAA Tournament record seven home runs, including five of the seven all coming in the eighth inning – a UF record.

    Looking closer into that seven-run eighth, Florida hit three consecutive homers off the bats of Brendan Lawson, Blake Cyr and Ethan Surowiec. Others to join the fun were Karson Bowen and Cade Kurland, who each hit a pair of long balls on Saturday.

    ​Kurland and Bowen continue to lead the way this weekend, using their postseason experience as a tool for Florida’s success. Both players were impactful members of former College World Series teams, and they are playing like it right now.

    Through two games, Kurland is 3-for-9 with three homers and six RBIs, while Bowen is 4-for-9 with a triple, a pair of homers and five RBIs.

    “I think the biggest thing I tried to say to a lot of the guys who hadn’t been in the postseason, I’d say, is score as many runs as you can because it makes your life a lot easier,” Bowen said. “Especially when they score 10, and then we come back and drop 22. It definitely helps you out on all sides of the ball.”

    Three separate times Florida tallied at least six-run innings, including opening the game with a six-run first that knocked out Miami starter AJ Ciscar after 0.2 innings, and a seven-run sixth inning where the Gators took full advantage of Hurricane mistakes. UF batted around in all three of those innings.

    During that sixth inning, Miami allowed seven free passes – five walks, one hit by pitch and one error – and gave up just one massive hit off the bat of Kyle Jones. With the bases loaded, Jones smoked a three-run double that at the time opened the game wide open.

    “He’s had a great year for us, he really has, and that double that he hit was a big, big hit,” O’Sullivan said. “…Anytime you drive the ball the other way over the right fielder’s head there as a right-handed hitter, it was just a really good swing.”

    But again, O’Sullivan credits the crowd for the breakout inning that Jones capped off with the lone hit.

    “I thank the fans for that, I’ll be honest with you, it was awesome,” he said.

    What will not get talked about enough was the efforts of Jackson Barberi.  After facing two batters on Friday and giving up a grand slam, he responded with an incredible effort on Saturday.

    Replacing Luke McNeillie in the fifth, Barberi delivered 3.2 strong innings in relief that helped Florida build its lead over that stretch and bridge the gap to the ninth inning, where Ricky Reeth closed it out.

    “Jackson Barberi, from bouncing back from the night before, was probably the key to that whole thing on the mound,” O’Sullivan said.

    Barberi tossed a season-high 62 pitches, giving up three hits, two runs (all earned), walked two and struck out four – including an inning-ending punchout in the eighth inning. With Miami threatening again and in a game where you do not know just how many runs were needed to score, it was a big strikeout with runners at first and second.

    “I didn’t know how many runs we needed to score because we couldn’t hold Miami down offensively tonight,” O’Sullivan said. “He just reached back and threw three of his best fastballs the entire night; that was a big moment.”

    Now Florida will look to finish things out on Sunday and punch its first ticket to a super regional since 2024. One thing for sure: the players could use the same crowd as it got Saturday for hopefully one more game.

    “It might have been the best I’ve ever seen, and it was unbelievable,” Kurland said. “So bring them out again.”

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