Boser, Evans Lead Florida Baseball To Series Win

Seniors Bobby Boser and Ty Evans led No. 23 Florida to a series win against No. 18 Alabama 9-3 on Saturday to clinch its sixth straight series. The two seniors led an offensive explosion, highlighting a Senior Day celebration that honored four players before the game.

Boser, who transferred from USF to Florida (37-19, 15-15 SEC) in the summer, had another strong day at the plate in going 2-for-4 with a home run and three RBIs.

He finished the weekend going 6-for-13 with a homer and seven RBIs. Evans, who has been with the program since 2022, went 2-for-5 with a home run in his final regular-season game at Condron Family Ballpark.

“They’re both really similar in the sense that they’re both really, really tough competitors. They play hard and they very rarely ever make mistakes or at least mental mistakes. They’ve been a big part of where we’re at, let’s just put it that way,”  UF coach Kevin O’Sullivan said.

While Boser only got to play in front of Gator Nation for one season, he had nothing but good things to say about his time in Gainesville.

“It means a lot, [Florida] welcomed me with open arms, and they’ve given me what I needed to thrive in this environment and I can’t appreciate them enough,” Boser said.

SENIOR DAY BOSER BOMB #GoGators // SECN+ pic.twitter.com/G74L07uYiG

— Florida Gators Baseball (@GatorsBB) May 17, 2025

Boser wasted no time putting the Gators on the board in launching a leadoff home run to give Florida a 1-0 lead. That home run tied Brody Donay at the time for the team lead in home runs, but Donay (16th homer) took back the lead with an opposite-field home run later in the inning to make it 2-0.

Evans joined Boser with a senior day solo shot of his own to lead off the third inning to extend the Gators lead to 3-1.

” I was honestly more happy about his than mine,” Boser said. ” Ty [Evans] is a real dude; great guy off the field and a baller on the field, can’t have any more respect for him.”

BOTH SENIORS HAVE HOMERED ON SENIOR DAY‼️#GoGators // SECN+ pic.twitter.com/f6MbRyeeCQ

— Florida Gators Baseball (@GatorsBB) May 17, 2025

Wilson led off the fourth inning with a single, stole second and scored on an RBI single by Landon Stripling.

After Alabama (40-15, 16-14) cut the lead back to two, Florida answered in the bottom of the fifth with a five-spot to put this one out of reach. The inning started with Donay walking and Blake Cyr hitting his eighth double of the year to put runners at second and third.

Both Donay and Cyr came around to score, and  Blake Brookins walked to load the bases, and Boser stepped back in with a chance to blow the game open and did just that. On the first pitch of the at-bat, Boser blooped a single into right field, that brought two more in to score to push the lead out to 8-2.

With runners at the corners, Boser not only stole second but drew the throw his way, which gave Brookins enough time to score off a throwing error to put the game out of reach at 9-2.

Plays like that have been one of the many reasons this team has turned it around. No matter who has been on the field for Florida, it continuously pressures the opposition to make plays or suffer the consequences.

“I’m confident with whatever lineup [Florida] throws out there; we’re gonna battle and give it our best,” Boser said.

With Florida working with such a big lead, it made things easy for freshman pitcher Aidan King, who pitched another gem on Saturday. King (6-2) was able to build off his strong start last week against Texas where he went seven innings and struck out nine.

It was not the easiest outing for King, who had to work around four Florida errors. Still, King pitched 6.1 innings, allowed three runs (only one earned) and struck out eight.

“Oftentimes you see someone make an error and then it’s a four-pitch walk and the inning kind of gets away from you, but he just kept it together and, truly remarkable honestly, to keep his composure like that,” O’Sullivan said. “He’s shown time and time again that he’s beyond his years with his maturity and focus and all those types of things, so that’s two great starts in a row against two ranked teams, obviously. So really, really, really happy for him.”

King remains the one constant in a pitching staff plagued by injuries and inconsistency. O’Sullivan praised him for his recent success and key contributions to the team’s overall performance.

“You could probably point to one thing, Aidan King,” said O’Sullivan. ” He gave us two great starts, seven complete last week, six and a third [on Saturday]; every time I tell him he’s done, he doesn’t want to be done.”

Following King was Luke McNeillie, who closed out the final 2.2 innings by giving up no runs or hits. With McNeillie able to finish the rest of the game, Florida preserved its bullpen ahead of the SEC tournament that starts Tuesday at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium in Hoover, Ala.

” I told Luke [McNeillie] that after he came out in the eighth, and before he went out for the ninth, I said ideally not using Jake [Clemente] tonight was valuable for us because we got a short turn-around, and got to play on Tuesday; we can use him now for multiple innings if we need to,” O’Sullivan said.

https://twitter.com/SEC/status/1923899803433349596

When asked about the pitching plan for the conference tournament, O’Sullivan confirmed it would not be any of the three-weekend starters, but said the Gators would go with the best option based on their first-round opponent.

The 10-seeded Gators, winners of 17 of their final 22 regular-season games, including 14 of 18 in SEC play, take on No. 15 seed South Carolina (28-28, 6-24) at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday (SEC Network). Florida is in contention to host as a top-16 seed in the NCAA Tournament, but will likely need to win a game or two in the league tourney to secure that.

Notes: In addition to Boser and Evans, the Gators honored pitchers Billy Barlow and Pierce Coppola in Senior Day festivities. … Florida finished the season at .500 in SEC play (15-15) after starting 1-11, meaning the Gators would become the first SEC team to reach the NCAA Tournament after starting conference games 2-10 or worse since 1992 expansion. … The Gators finish the regular season at No. 12 in RPI with the No. 3 strength of schedule. … Florida is now 72-60 all-time against Alabama, including 37-20 in Gainesville. … UF swept South Carolina in Columbia earlier this month.