Florida lost the Oklahoma Sooners, 4-3, on Friday night to open up a three-game weekend series on the road.
Aidan King was dominant once again, allowing just one earned run on four hits and two walks over seven innings. King struck out a career-high 10 batters and threw 114 pitches before turning things over to Ernesto Lugo-Canchola in the eighth.
The bullpen melted down that inning, allowing three runs. Lugo-Canchola faced two batters: he struck out the first looking, but Kevin O’Sullivan went back to the bullpen after a five-pitch walk.
Joshua Whritenour took over and hit the first batter he saw. Then, Jaxon Willits tripled to right-center to tie the game. The ball got stuck in the fence, between the padding and the fence. Florida might have won a challenge to determine whether it was a ground-rule double, but the game proceeded without a review.
Willits ran into an out between third and home on a ground ball to the left side, and Schwarz came up injured on the play. Kolt Myers replaced him after Colton Schwarz left the game. Dasan Harris drove in the deciding run, a grounder up the middle just out of reach of Cade Kurland’s glove at second.
Florida’s offense reached safely in five innings, but pushing runs across proved difficult until late in the game. The Gators loaded the bases in the second on three straight singles, but an interference call on Cade Kurland sliding into second turned into a double play and brought the runner who scored back to third base. Schwarz grounded out to end the threat without scoring a run.
Blake Cyr broke the 0-0 tie with a sacrifice fly in the third. He drove in Hayden Yost for an unearned run after a leadoff error and Kyle Jones single. Florida didn’t record another base hit until the seventh, when Schwarz sent one through the right side to advance McDonald, who walked. Yost reached on another error, loading the bases, and Jones walked on four pitches to make it 2-1.
King’s lone run allowed on the day came in the fifth on a groundout to second base, where there was no play to get the runner going home.
Cyr led off the eighth with a solo home run, giving the Gators some insurance…
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This article originally appeared on Gators Wire: Florida baseball wastes gem from Aidan King, opens OU series with loss
Reporting by David Rosenberg, Gators Wire / Gators Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
