Florida baseball closed the regular season with a huge 9-3 win over the Alabama Crimson Tide, giving the Gators their sixth-straight series win to finish up the schedule. The victory at home secured a 37-19 overall record and an even .500 tally against fellow Southeastern Conference peers heading into the postseason.
Freshman right-handed pitcher Aidan King — who has earned a trio of accolades so far during the 2025 campaign — once again was the hero of the day for the Orange and Blue, tossing 6 1/3 innings while allowing three runs (one earned) on six hits and two walks while striking out a solid eight ‘Bama batters. Righty Luke McNellie threw the final 2 2/3 frames, allowing no hits and no runs while walking one and striking out a hitter.
Bobby Boser went 2-for-4 with three RBI and Ty Evans went 2-for-5, both cranking home runs and amassing multiple hits as the lone representatives on Senior Day for Florida. Brody Donay once again swung a hot bat as well, going 2-for-3 with a dinger of his own.
The Gators finished with a dozen hits and five free bases against six strikeouts; they left a whopping 10 runners on base, but fortunately, they plated plenty of runs along the way.
Florida won 17 of its final 22 regular-season games — including 14 of 18 in SEC play — and by finishing with an 11-11 conference record, the Gators are the first SEC team to ever reach the NCAA Tournament after starting conference action 2-10 or worse since the conference expanded in 1992. UF began the league schedule by going 1-11.
Kevin O’Sullivan on Aidan King’s performance
“Oftentimes, you see someone makes an error and then it’s a four-pitch walk and the inning kind of gets away from you, but he just kept it together and truly remarkable, honestly, to keep his composure like that,” O’Sullivan notes.
“He’s shown time and time again that he’s beyond his years with his maturity and focus and all those types of things, so that’s two great starts in a row against two ranked teams, obviously. So really, really, really happy for him.”
Kevin O’Sullivan on going to postseason
“Well, we obviously need to get Justin (Nadeau) back and it’s really day-to-day with him, with his finger, and hopefully we get Colby (Shelton) back for the Regional and that’s kind of what we’re shooting for. It’s just been a lot of disruption, we got guys moving around, but they hung in there,” he offered.
“I told the team at the end, you probably need to take some time to reflect back on what just happened. Just to be 1-11 and end up at 15 wins in the league, no one’s ever done that since the league expanded, since ’92, but obviously our job is not finished. At least we put ourselves in at least the discussion to host, but we’ll see what happens. But can’t say enough about this group and their resiliency.”
Kevin O’Sullivan on Boser and Evans’ impact as seniors
“They’re both really similar in the sense that they’re both really, really tough competitors. I mean, they play hard and they very rarely ever make mistakes, or at least mental mistakes. They’ve been a big part of where we’re at, let’s just put it that way,” O’Sullivan said.
“Senior Day is always a little bittersweet, you want to see them get recognized, and rightfully so, but it’s like there’s a part of you that gets bummed, right? Because it goes so fast. We recruit these players as juniors or sophomores in high school and it goes by, just like that.
“Hopefully, we can have another opportunity to play at home here. I’m not quite sure what we need to do, but hopefully this isn’t the last time they play at the ballpark.”
Kevin O’Sullivan on what Coppola and Barlow have meant
“Once again, I love those guys, too. I mean there’s so many stories within this whole thing, with Billy being at Clemson last year and we had a chance to see him pitch in the Supers and I know he’s really, really enjoyed his time here,” he begins.
“And Pierce, we could talk about that all day long. Coming back from all the injuries that he’s had and goes 3 2/3 yesterday, strikes out 10, doesn’t walk anybody. Got him up to 67 pitches or so. So, for this to end the way it’s ending, and we have a bona fide starter going into the postseason, and we get five innings out of him, I think that totally changes the whole thing for us, pitching-wise anyways.”
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This article originally appeared on Gators Wire: Florida Baseball: Gators beat Alabama for 6th-straight series win
