Big players make big plays in big-time moments, and it doesn’t get any bigger than a Sunshine State rivalry showdown in front of a record-breaking Condron Ballpark crowd.
With a weekend series victory hanging in the balance, the Florida Gators entered the bottom of the eighth inning sporting a narrow 4-2 lead over the Miami Hurricanes.
Enter UF junior catcher Luke Heyman, who came into the day bearing the lowest batting average of any UF batter with seven or more starts (.227). But, none of that mattered as he took to the plate on Saturday. Having already gone yard once earlier in the evening, Heyman hammered a ball over the left field wall and onto Hull Road. The record-breaking crowd of 9,303 fans roared in approval as he completed his trot around the bases and back into the dugout.
“All year, I feel like I’ve been hitting the ball hard, just right at some people,” Heyman said. “I’ve been feeling good leading up to this week, and it felt great to help my team get a couple runs across the board – and that big one in the eighth… that was huge.”
Heyman’s pair of homers proved to be all Florida needed to cruise to a 6-2 win over Miami Saturday evening. Florida’s bullpen came through with an impressive performance on the mound, keeping the Hurricanes off the board for most of the night, until it proved to be too late.
Despite redshirt junior Pierce Coppola leaving the game with an apparent injury in the third inning, freshman Aidan King came through with a stellar performance in relief for his second win of the season. King pitched 3 1/3 innings and only gave up one hit, one walk and no runs.
Freshman Frank Menendez and sophomores Luke McNeillie and Alex Philpott combined to pitch the final three innings for Florida. Each gave up a run in the final two frames but kept the Hurricanes at bay long enough to secure the win.
“I think this is just a byproduct of them working hard,” UF head coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “They’re a year older, and you start to see the reason why we recruited a lot of these guys.”
In addition to Heyman’s pair of home runs and four RBIs, sophomore designated hitter Landon Stripling chipped in with a 3-for-3 performance at the plate. Stripling and Heyman combined for five of UF’s nine hits on the day.
Florida was a man down for most of the afternoon after junior second baseman Cade Kurland suffered a left arm/shoulder injury in the top of the first inning. Kurland made a leaping grab on the basepaths before tossing the ball to first to retire the side. But as the ball left Kurland’s hand, he crumpled to the ground in pain. As the noise at Condron Ballpark abruptly went from roaring applause to anxious silence, Kurland eventually walked off the field with the assistance of a trainer.
The injury bug bit Florida yet again in the top of the third – this time, on the mound. After sitting down the first two batters he saw in the frame, Coppola let up a pair of back-to-back walks. Something seemed to be amiss, as his velocity had gone down and he appeared to be in pain.
After a lengthy discussion on the bump, Coppola walked off the field with a trainer, as King began his trot over from the bullpen.
O’Sullivan confirmed after the game that Coppola was taken out for precautionary reasons and he believes it isn’t “anything serious.” He didn’t have any updates regarding Kurland’s status.
It wasn’t until the fourth inning that momentum started to shift in Florida’s favor. Senior third baseman Bobby Boser took the first pitch he saw and smashed it over the right field wall.
Boser’s team-leading fifth home run of the season gave the Gators a narrow 1-0 cushion, which they held onto as the day gradually turned into night. UF left a combined five runners on base in the fourth and fifth innings.
No matter what the Gators had cooking at the plate, Miami starting pitcher Griffin Hugus seemingly always had an answer. The junior right-hander sat down 10 UF batters on strikes through five innings of work, all while limiting Florida to just one run in that span.
However, the floodgates opened for Florida in the bottom of the sixth, as sophomore designated hitter Landon Stripling drilled an RBI double down the left field line to bring Wilson home.
“When you get to two strikes, the at-bat becomes for the team,” Stripling said. “In that at-bat, I was just trying to do my job of moving that guy over. I just got a good pitch to hit, was able to hit it the other way.”
Two at-bats later, junior catcher Luke Heyman came up to the plate looking to keep Florida’s hot bats alive. He did exactly that with a two-run homer, his first long ball of the night, giving the Gators a far more comfortable 4-0 edge by the end of the sixth inning.
As it turned out, Heyman’s insurance runs quickly came into play in the top of the eighth. After Menendez surrendered a four-pitch walk, Florida opted to send McNeillie onto the bump in his place. Miami sophomore third baseman Daniel Cuvet swiftly welcomed the latter into the game with a two-run blast past the scoreboard, in turn cutting his squad’s deficit to 4-2.
Philpott eventually closed the door on Miami with a swinging strikeout to close out the top of the eighth. Stripling led off the bottom of the frame with a single up the middle, setting Heyman up for his aforementioned second homer that sealed Florida’s win.
The Gators, who are now up to a 136-135-1 all-time series lead against the Hurricanes, will go for the season sweep against Miami on Sunday afternoon. First pitch at Condron Ballpark is set for 1 p.m.
Contact Jack Meyer at jmeyer@alligator.org. Follow him on X @jackmeyerUF.
Jack Meyer is a fourth-year journalism major and the Sports Editor for The Alligator. In his free time, he enjoys reviewing music, spending time with friends, playing video games and going to the gym.
