NCAA Gainesville Regional Defined by Home Run Showcase
Over the weekend, the long balls kept coming with no end in sight.
Florida, Miami, Troy and Rider gathered together at Condron Family Ballpark to put on an impromptu home run derby during the NCAA Gainesville Regional. The four teams combined for a total of 36 home runs in the seven games from Friday to Monday.
Under Gainesville’s humid skies, the ball carried well. Games that featured Florida made up 26 of those 36 homers.
In Saturday’s 22-10 win against Miami, the Gators hit a program-record seven home runs in an NCAA tournament game, tying a season high. They also set a program record with five home runs in the eighth inning, including back-to-back-to-back tanks from the heart of the order: Brendan Lawson, Blake Cyr and Ethan Surowiec.
The offense did not end there, as the Gators carried their offensive momentum into Sunday’s game. Despite a 11-16 loss to Troy, the Gators’ bats did not go down quietly as Caden McDonald had a multi-home run, with Lawson and Kurland tallying one on each.
The afternoon game totaled 9 homers, as Troy’s Jimmy Janicki hit two off Florida starter Liam Peterson to bring in 5 runs. Trojans Blake Cavill, Jabe Boroff, and Houston Markham followed with one homer each.
“Seems like every fly ball you kinda hold your breath,” Gators coach Kevin O’Sullivan said after the game. “We don’t have a small ball park, it’s kind of head scratching a little bit honestly.”
Facing Florida pitchers,: Rider hit 3 homers on Friday, Miami hit 1 on Saturday, and Troy hit 6 with an additional one being a Boroff 3-run homer on Monday’s win or go home game.
“Home runs are fun, not when they are hit against you, obviously,” Lawson said. “It’s cool to see guys leaving the yard, it doesn’t really fly traditionally here.”
Kurland (4), Lawson (3), McDonald (3) and Carson Bowen (2) led the team at the plate with multiple homers, while Kyle Jones, Blake Cyr, Ethan Surowiec, and Landon Stripling each recorded 1.
After the 2-10 loss on Monday night to end their season, Florida will now look to replace the experienced bats of Kurland, Bowen and Cyr as their collegiate baseball careers have likely come to an end. The answers could be found with players internally or through the transfer portal which opened on Monday.
“We’ve got a really good nucleus [of the team],” O’Sullivan said. “Cash Strayer hadn’t played a whole lot, but I think he’s a middle of the order bat.”
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