Florida Baseball Surges Past Mississippi State In Series Opener

The Florida baseball team dominated Mississippi State 13-3 in the series opener Friday night at Dudy Noble Field in Starkville.

Mississippi State (23-15, 5-11 SEC) started out hot by scoring two runs in the first two innings, including a leadoff home run. However, it was not enough against a red-hot Florida (26-14, 5-11) team now on a six-game winning streak after the run-rule win in eight innings. The Gators scored 12 unanswered runs from the fifth inning on after trailing, 3-1, after four innings.

Brody Donay put the Gators first run on the board in the top of the second when he cranked a dinger over right field. Florida then went through two scoreless innings until Colby Shelton scored on a wild pitch.

Sixth-Inning Stretch

Most of Florida’s offensive magic occurred in the sixth inning when it scored seven runs. Hayden Yost, Justin Nadeau, Bobby Boser and Shelton all had runs batted in. Later in the inning, Luke Heyman blasted a three-run homer to extend Florida’s lead to 9-3. It is his eighth homer of the season.

The Gators stayed hot the rest of the game. In the seventh inning, both Boser and Brendan Lawson added runs. With their last opportunity on offense, Donay launched a two-run homer, his second of the game and 11th for the season.

Overall, all batters in the lineup produced as Florida had 17 hits. Shelton had three hits, including his SEC-leading 19th double for his 22nd multi-hit game of the year, to finish with two runs scored and one RBI. Donay tied his career high in hits with a 4-for-5 showing, three RBI and three runs scored.

Florida coach Kevin O’Sullivan said the game had a lot of positives.

“Obviously, Brody Donay had a terrific night at the plate with a couple of home runs, and I think eight of the nine guys got hits tonight and everybody reached base — so it was a group effort,” O’Sullivan said.

On the mound, only three Gators were used. Liam Peterson (6-2), started the night out slow, but got more comfortable and struck out six batters in six innings. Billy Barlow and Caden McDonald each struck out two when they relieved for an inning each without allowing a run

“Really, really pleased with Liam,” O’Sullivan said. “He had some misfortune there early in the game with some ground balls that were just out of reach and weren’t hit particularly hard, but he grinded it out and went six full for us, obviously.” 

Winning Series

Florida is expected to send right-handed pitcher Aidan King (4-1, 2.68 ERA) to start Game 2 scheduled for 8:30 p.m. ET on ESPN, 98.1-FM/850-AM WRUF + WJXL 1010-AM. MSU is expected to go with RHP Evan Siary (0-1, 3.91).

Game 3 has a 3 p.m. ET start Sunday (ESPN2).