Florida Baseball Wins Series At Mississippi State

Florida backed up its offensive performance from Friday night with an impressive one Saturday. The Gators had 11 hits and put 11 on the board in Game 2 for an 11-8 win against Mississippi State at Dudy Noble Field that clinched the series.

That’s 24 runs on 28 hits in two games for Florida (27-14, 6-11 SEC) to extend the winning streak to seven games. Scoring runs in five of the nine innings, with most coming from a six-run seventh. During that inning, five of the first six batters reached base. And saw the bases loaded twice before an out was recorded.

The Gators were 8-for-27 with runners on and 6-for-21 with runners in scoring position to complete their 11th comeback win of the season, including the fourth in a row.

“The seventh was obviously huge, and we faced arguably their best relievers,” UF coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “We had some really good at-bats. There were a lot of things that happened in that game that we need to do a better job of (like0 situational hitting. We had about four or five situations where we had runners at third with less than two outs and didn’t put the ball in play.”

The difference between the first two games of the series is that Mississippi State (23-16, 5-12) fought back this time. It felt like two heavyweight boxers trading blows in the ring. Each time one team scored, the other would counter with a run of its own.

It felt like every time the Bulldogs had momentum, Florida would steal it right back with a big inning. Both teams had chances to put crooked numbers up, but Florida took advantage of the Bulldogs’ mistakes was the difference.

 Florida got the scoring going early on Saturday night. With two outs and nobody in the first, Brendan Lawson hit what seemed to be an inning-ending fly ball into left field. A defensive blunder from the Mississippi State outfield let the ball drop right in front of them, allowing Lawson to reach second base. He came around to score on a Blake Cyr single to give the Gators the 1-0 lead.

Mississippi State responded in the bottom half of the inning with a towering two-run home run from Noah Sullivan to make it 2-1. The Bulldogs threatened again in the second with the bases loaded and nobody out. But starting pitcher Aidan King escaped the jam.

https://twitter.com/HailStateBB/status/1913758383364014434

Florida answered in the fifth when Luke Heyman gave the Gators a 3-2 lead with a groundout to third. But the Bulldogs countered in the bottom half, scoring four runs on six singles. Ace Reese delivered a two-run single during the rally, and King was pulled after giving up an infield single to Sullivan.

The Gators called on reliever Alex Philpott (3-3) to get out of the mess. He struck out the first batter he saw, but walked the bases loaded and hit the next batter to make it 5-3. Mississippi State tacked on one more with another infield single to stretch its lead to 6-3.

Florida quickly loaded the bases in the seventh. Lawson landed the next blow with a two-run double to cut the MSU lead to 6-5. With nobody out, Florida loaded the bases again. This time Cyr delivered a two-run double to give the Gators the 7-6 lead. They added two more in the inning to make it 9-6.

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The story of the game continued as the Bulldogs responded with a Reed Stallman two-run homer that cut the UF lead to 9-8. It looked like Mississippi State was about to tie it on a single into left field. But Cyr delivered a strike to the plate to cut off the runner and preserve the lead. Florida loaded them up again in the eighth but failed to score.

Cyr cuts down ✂️ the potential tying run!#GoGators // ESPN pic.twitter.com/Ou5DJ97OK4

— Florida Gators Baseball (@GatorsBB) April 20, 2025

Sloppy defense to begin the ninth hurt Mississippi State. It allowed the first two batters to reach and score in extending Florida’s lead to 11-8.

Jake Clemente, who entered the game in the seventh inning, closed things out in the ninth with a 1-2-3 inning to secure the Gators’ second-straight SEC series. All three of Clemente’s saves have come in Florida’s winning streak. He fanned six against zero walks in his three innings of relief.

The Gators have won nine of their last 10 against Mississippi State and five in a row in Starkville.

Up Next

The Gators will go for the sweep Sunday afternoon. The first pitch is scheduled for 3 p.m. ET and can be seen on ESPN2. You can listen live at ESPN 98.1-FM/850-AM WRUF + WJXL 1010AM.

Florida is expected to start sophomore right-hander Luke McNeillie (3-1, 4.24 ERA), while MSU goes with senior right-hander Karson Ligon (3-4, 5.13).