Heyman’s Walk-Off Slam Lifts Florida Baseball To Run-Rule Win

For the third straight home game, the Gators ended the night in walk-off fashion — and this time, they did it with a bang.

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Luke Heyman launched a grand slam in the bottom of the seventh to give Florida a 12-1 run-rule victory against Georgia Southern on Tuesday night at Condron Family Ballpark. The Gators have now won eight of their last nine games and improve to 28-15 overall.

“Any time we can play a seven-inning game in the midweek, it obviously saves your pitching for the weekend, UF coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “This is an important weekend series for us for sure.”

Offense Pours It On

Florida jumped ahead early with a three-run second inning. After back-to-back singles and a Georgia Southern (23-18) error, Justin Nadeau opened the scoring with an RBI knock. Bobby Boser followed with another RBI hit. Then Heyman was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to force in the third run.

The Gators started to pull away in the fifth. With the bases loaded and one out, Brendan Lawson ripped a two-run single before being thrown out trying to stretch it into a double. Heyman then delivered again with an RBI single to push the lead to 8-1.

B-Law plates ✌️!#GoGators // SEC Network+ pic.twitter.com/QeskLnVYM3

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In the seventh, after a hit-by-pitch and two walks, Heyman crushed a no-doubt grand slam over the left-field berm to end the game early via the run rule. He finished 3-for-4 with six RBIs.

“I think we’re finally getting back to who we are as an offense,”Heyman said. “I felt great, everyone was feeling great, so just keep building off that going into the weekend.”

Pitching Staff Stays Steady

Alex Philpott started on the mound, went two innings and gave up one run on three hits and struck out three. Caden McDonald (3-0) followed with two scoreless frames to earn the win.

Jackson Barberi, McCall Biemiller and Christian Rodriguez combined to allow just three hits over the final three innings to keep the Eagles quiet.

Up Next

The Gators host No. 5 Arkansas (35-7, 13-5 SEC) in a weekend series starting on Friday at 6:30pm. The game can be streamed on SEC Network+ as well as on ESPN 98.1-FM/850-AM WRUF + WJXL 1010AM.