Friday, April 10
Athens, Ga.
6 PM
Florida Gators
26-9, 8-5
8
at
2
Georgia
28-7, 10-3
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
R
H
E
Florida
1
0
0
0
0
0
7
0
0
8
7
0
Georgia
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
2
0
2
3
3
UAA Communications photo by Madilyn Gemme
King’s Masterpiece Guides Gators to Dominant Win Over No. 4 Bulldogs
Friday, April 10, 2026 | Baseball
Aidan King took a perfect game into the seventh as Florida improved to 9-0 against ranked opponents.
ATHENS, Ga. – Taking a perfect game into the seventh inning, starting pitcher Aidan King delivered 7 2/3 spectacular innings in his Friday night debut to power Florida to a convincing, 8-2 victory over No. 4 Georgia in the series opener at Foley Field on Friday night.
Limiting the Bulldogs (28-7, 10-3 SEC) to a season-low two runs on three hits, King's masterpiece lifted the Gators (26-9, 8-5 SEC) to a perfect 9-0 record against ranked opponents including a 5-0 mark against the top five. Retiring the first 18 batters he faced in order, King gave up just two hits in 7 2/3 innings of two-run ball against the nation's top-ranked offense.
Winning their third-straight game against Georgia in Athens and their sixth in a row playing away from home overall, the Gators received back-to-back big flies from Landon Stripling (1-for-2) and Cole Stanford (1-for-5) in a seven-run seventh inning. Blake Cyr (1-for-4) smacked a three-run double that same frame en route to a team high four RBI while Karson Bowen (2-for-4) drove in one run, scored once and was the lone Gator to log multiple knocks.
Florida wasted no time striking in game one, jumping out to a 1-0 lead in the first inning. Leadoff man Kyle Jones was plunked while Ethan Surowiec reached on a fielding error at shortstop, with both runners advancing on a groundout to third base. Cyr then sent a sacrifice fly down the left field line, but it was dropped by Henry Allen as Jones raced home for the game's first run. King followed with a one-two-three inning in the home half, sandwiching a fly out to left between a pair of strikeouts.
King retired the side in order again in the second while fanning his third batter. Surowiec led off the top of the third with a single for UF's first hit, but the Gators came up empty. King took over and chucked another clean frame with his fourth strikeout in the third to make it nine up and nine down for the right-hander.
UGA starter Joey Volchko and King continued to engage in a pitchers' duel throughout the middle innings, as each retired the side in order in a quick fourth frame. The Gators produced one baserunner on a second hit-by-pitch of Jones in the fifth, but a caught stealing ended the threat. King took a perfect game through the home half of the fifth by making quick work of the UGA order while fanning his fifth Bulldog.
Still holding onto a one-run edge, Bowen collected a one-out single to center while Cade Kurland and Stripling drew two-out walks to load the bases for the Gators in the top of the sixth. Reaching 105 pitches, Volchko induced a deep flyout to left-center of Stanford to strand the bags juiced on his final offering of the night.
Siting at just 62 pitches through five, King needed just eight pitches to complete six perfect frames, picking up his sixth strikeout in the process.
In the top of the seventh, Florida busted the game open with a seven-run inning. The Orange & Blue loaded the bases again with one out, but this time the Gators cashed in beginning with a clutch RBI single to right field off the bat of Bowen. With the bags still juiced, Cyr drilled a 2-0 pitch into the right-center field gap to clear the bases for a three-run double to extend the UF lead to 5-0. Florida did not stop there, as Stripling and Stanford followed with back-to-back home runs to plate three more runs to give UF an 8-0 advantage heading into the seventh-inning stretch.
Now pitching with an eight-run lead, King's bid at perfection ended with a leadoff single to left field by Tre Phelps in the home half of the seventh. It did not faze the sophomore, as he set down the next three Bulldogs in order to complete seven scoreless, one-hit frames.
Georgia finally broke into the scoring column in the bottom of the eighth, cutting the UF lead to 8-2. With two on and two outs, Ryan Black flared a ball down the left-field line that Cyr was unable to track down, resulting in a two-run triple as the ball skirted into the corner. That marked the end of King's sharp performance, as he was lifted in favor of reliever Ricky Reeth with a man on third. In his first appearance in nearly six weeks, Reeth retired Phelps on a ground out to second base to send the matchup into the ninth.
After a scoreless top-half of the ninth from the UF offense, Reeth returned to the hill to finish off the Bulldogs in the bottom of the frame. Reeth struck out Daniel Jackson and then got Rylan Lujo to fly out after issuing a one-out free pass. The senior right-hander got the final out when Jordy Oriach hit a hard groundball into teammate Michael O'Shaughnessy running from first to second base, cementing the 8-2 win for the Gators.
King (5-2) won his second-straight start while completing seven frames for the second time in as many outings. He finished with 7 2/3 innings of two-run ball, allowing just two hits and two walks for a total of four baserunners. King also fanned six Bulldogs.
Georgia starter Joey Volchko (6-1) was saddled with his first loss of the season. The junior right-hander surrendered one unearned run on two hits, two walks and seven strikeouts across six innings.
NOTABLES
FROM HEAD COACH KEVIN O'SULLIVAN
On King's stellar pitching performance…
"That's about as well pitched of a game as I've seen in a long time. He commanded both sides of the plate, he used all of his pitches, in total command, and it was tight there for six, 'cause we had only scored one in the first and we had some other opportunities to score. But credit their pitchers, they got some good arms. Obviously, Aidan was the story of the game, and it was great to get Ricky Reeth back out there, too. You could see how valuable he is, strike after strike after strike. You know the seven-run seventh was huge for us, put together some really good at bats and Blake Cyr, with his double into right-center field, was a big at bat of the game. And I thought Landon Stripling had a really good game at the plate, too. All in all, great first win on the road, and we got two noon games back-to-back moving forward. But certainly this was a big one to get, against a really good Georgia team."
On the seventh-inning outburst…
"Yeah, that's just really uncharacteristic of Georgia. They've just been playing great defense the entire year, so it obviously helped us. You know, the main thing moving Aidan to Friday was to hopefully get some length. We certainly got that from him tonight and got a chance to save our pen for tomorrow. We had an opportunity for that big seven-run seventh, so really proud of our guys. Because this has been a really tough stretch for us going on the road on Tuesday night and then going on the road against a top-five team again here in Georgia, and being able to maintain our composure in front of two hostile crowds. Looking forward to getting Liam back out there tomorrow and we'll see how this thing turns out."
On holding Georgia to a season-low two runs…
"I mean, we all knew what our pitching staff is capable of doing when they're on their game and I have confidence in all three of those starters. Getting Coop [Cooper Walls] back going on Tuesday night like I said, getting Ricky back out there tonight… We just gotta get healthy. We just gotta get a couple of these position players going again and when we have Barbs [Jackson Barberi] back in the mix when he's healthy, we should have a pitching staff that should be able to keep us in close games when they're on the top of their game."
ON DECK
The Gators and Bulldogs face off in game two on Saturday at 12 p.m. on ESPN2.
Limiting the Bulldogs (28-7, 10-3 SEC) to a season-low two runs on three hits, King's masterpiece lifted the Gators (26-9, 8-5 SEC) to a perfect 9-0 record against ranked opponents including a 5-0 mark against the top five. Retiring the first 18 batters he faced in order, King gave up just two hits in 7 2/3 innings of two-run ball against the nation's top-ranked offense.
Winning their third-straight game against Georgia in Athens and their sixth in a row playing away from home overall, the Gators received back-to-back big flies from Landon Stripling (1-for-2) and Cole Stanford (1-for-5) in a seven-run seventh inning. Blake Cyr (1-for-4) smacked a three-run double that same frame en route to a team high four RBI while Karson Bowen (2-for-4) drove in one run, scored once and was the lone Gator to log multiple knocks.
Florida wasted no time striking in game one, jumping out to a 1-0 lead in the first inning. Leadoff man Kyle Jones was plunked while Ethan Surowiec reached on a fielding error at shortstop, with both runners advancing on a groundout to third base. Cyr then sent a sacrifice fly down the left field line, but it was dropped by Henry Allen as Jones raced home for the game's first run. King followed with a one-two-three inning in the home half, sandwiching a fly out to left between a pair of strikeouts.
King retired the side in order again in the second while fanning his third batter. Surowiec led off the top of the third with a single for UF's first hit, but the Gators came up empty. King took over and chucked another clean frame with his fourth strikeout in the third to make it nine up and nine down for the right-hander.
UGA starter Joey Volchko and King continued to engage in a pitchers' duel throughout the middle innings, as each retired the side in order in a quick fourth frame. The Gators produced one baserunner on a second hit-by-pitch of Jones in the fifth, but a caught stealing ended the threat. King took a perfect game through the home half of the fifth by making quick work of the UGA order while fanning his fifth Bulldog.
Still holding onto a one-run edge, Bowen collected a one-out single to center while Cade Kurland and Stripling drew two-out walks to load the bases for the Gators in the top of the sixth. Reaching 105 pitches, Volchko induced a deep flyout to left-center of Stanford to strand the bags juiced on his final offering of the night.
Siting at just 62 pitches through five, King needed just eight pitches to complete six perfect frames, picking up his sixth strikeout in the process.
In the top of the seventh, Florida busted the game open with a seven-run inning. The Orange & Blue loaded the bases again with one out, but this time the Gators cashed in beginning with a clutch RBI single to right field off the bat of Bowen. With the bags still juiced, Cyr drilled a 2-0 pitch into the right-center field gap to clear the bases for a three-run double to extend the UF lead to 5-0. Florida did not stop there, as Stripling and Stanford followed with back-to-back home runs to plate three more runs to give UF an 8-0 advantage heading into the seventh-inning stretch.
Now pitching with an eight-run lead, King's bid at perfection ended with a leadoff single to left field by Tre Phelps in the home half of the seventh. It did not faze the sophomore, as he set down the next three Bulldogs in order to complete seven scoreless, one-hit frames.
Georgia finally broke into the scoring column in the bottom of the eighth, cutting the UF lead to 8-2. With two on and two outs, Ryan Black flared a ball down the left-field line that Cyr was unable to track down, resulting in a two-run triple as the ball skirted into the corner. That marked the end of King's sharp performance, as he was lifted in favor of reliever Ricky Reeth with a man on third. In his first appearance in nearly six weeks, Reeth retired Phelps on a ground out to second base to send the matchup into the ninth.
After a scoreless top-half of the ninth from the UF offense, Reeth returned to the hill to finish off the Bulldogs in the bottom of the frame. Reeth struck out Daniel Jackson and then got Rylan Lujo to fly out after issuing a one-out free pass. The senior right-hander got the final out when Jordy Oriach hit a hard groundball into teammate Michael O'Shaughnessy running from first to second base, cementing the 8-2 win for the Gators.
King (5-2) won his second-straight start while completing seven frames for the second time in as many outings. He finished with 7 2/3 innings of two-run ball, allowing just two hits and two walks for a total of four baserunners. King also fanned six Bulldogs.
Georgia starter Joey Volchko (6-1) was saddled with his first loss of the season. The junior right-hander surrendered one unearned run on two hits, two walks and seven strikeouts across six innings.
NOTABLES
- Florida limited Georgia, the nation's top-ranked offense, to a season-low two runs on three hits.
- The Gators improved to a program-record 9-0 against ranked teams.
- Florida is 6-0 vs. top-10 foes and 5-0 against the top-five.
- The Gators have won eight of their last 10 SEC series, going 22-9 across their last 31 SEC games dating back to last season.
- Florida has won five-straight road games and six in a row away from home (road or neutral).
- King retired the first 18 batters of the game in order, including six strikeouts while taking a perfect game into the seventh inning.
- Phelps' leadoff single in the seventh snapped King's perfect game bid.
- King completed at least seven innings in each of his last two starts, going a combined 14 2/3 frames.
- After 7 2/3 innings of two-run ball tonight, King now owns a 1.82 ERA on the season.
- King pitched his team-high fifth quality start of the season – matching his total from his freshman 2025 campaign.
- Across his last 14 starts dating back to last season, King is 9-3 with a 1.27 ERA and 76-to-21 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 85 1/3 innings pitched (12 earned runs allowed).
- Florida starting pitchers have now allowed just two home runs in 144.0 innings pitched.
- Jones reached base three times in his Athens homecoming, going 1-for-3 with a team-high two runs scored and two hit-by-pitches.
- Florida plated seven runs on five hits in the top of the seventh and left zero men on base.
- Stripling swatted his second homer of the season in the seventh while Stanford made-it-back-to-back jacks with his sixth home of the campaign.
- The back-to-back homers marked Florida's third set of the season and first since Brendan Lawson and Surowiec did so in the fifth inning at Arkansas on March 29 of this season.
- Making his first pitching appearance since Feb. 28 at Miami, Reeth threw 1 1/3 scoreless innings with one hit allowed, one walk and one strikeout.
- Cyr drove in a team-high four runs thanks to his three-run double in the seventh inning.
- Florida has won 43 of its last 57 regular-season games dating back to 2025.
- The Gators are now 196-119-2 all-time and 89-65-1 in Athens against Georgia.
- Florida is 33-21 overall including 14-11 on the road vs. the Bulldogs under Head Coach Kevin O'Sullivan.
- Friday night's official attendance was a sellout crowd of 3,622 fans.
FROM HEAD COACH KEVIN O'SULLIVAN
On King's stellar pitching performance…
"That's about as well pitched of a game as I've seen in a long time. He commanded both sides of the plate, he used all of his pitches, in total command, and it was tight there for six, 'cause we had only scored one in the first and we had some other opportunities to score. But credit their pitchers, they got some good arms. Obviously, Aidan was the story of the game, and it was great to get Ricky Reeth back out there, too. You could see how valuable he is, strike after strike after strike. You know the seven-run seventh was huge for us, put together some really good at bats and Blake Cyr, with his double into right-center field, was a big at bat of the game. And I thought Landon Stripling had a really good game at the plate, too. All in all, great first win on the road, and we got two noon games back-to-back moving forward. But certainly this was a big one to get, against a really good Georgia team."
On the seventh-inning outburst…
"Yeah, that's just really uncharacteristic of Georgia. They've just been playing great defense the entire year, so it obviously helped us. You know, the main thing moving Aidan to Friday was to hopefully get some length. We certainly got that from him tonight and got a chance to save our pen for tomorrow. We had an opportunity for that big seven-run seventh, so really proud of our guys. Because this has been a really tough stretch for us going on the road on Tuesday night and then going on the road against a top-five team again here in Georgia, and being able to maintain our composure in front of two hostile crowds. Looking forward to getting Liam back out there tomorrow and we'll see how this thing turns out."
On holding Georgia to a season-low two runs…
"I mean, we all knew what our pitching staff is capable of doing when they're on their game and I have confidence in all three of those starters. Getting Coop [Cooper Walls] back going on Tuesday night like I said, getting Ricky back out there tonight… We just gotta get healthy. We just gotta get a couple of these position players going again and when we have Barbs [Jackson Barberi] back in the mix when he's healthy, we should have a pitching staff that should be able to keep us in close games when they're on the top of their game."
ON DECK
The Gators and Bulldogs face off in game two on Saturday at 12 p.m. on ESPN2.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: King, Aidan (5-2)
L: Joey Volchko (6-1)
Batting:
2B: Cyr, Blake 1
HR: Stripling, Landon 1 ; Stanford, Cole 1
RBI: Bowen, Karson 1 ; Cyr, Blake 4 ; Stripling, Landon 2 ; Stanford, Cole 1
SF: Cyr, Blake 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Jones, Kyle 2 ; Surowiec, Ethan 1 ; Bowen, Karson 1 ; Cyr, Blake 1 ; Stripling, Landon 1 ; Stanford, Cole 1 ; Myers, Kolt 1
CS: Jones, Kyle 1
HBP: Jones, Kyle 2 ; Stripling, Landon 1
Batting:
3B: Ryan Black 1
RBI: Ryan Black 2
Base Running:
RUNS: Henry Allen 1 ; Kenny Ishikawa 1
Game Leaders
AB
4
R
1
H
2
RBI
1
AB
3
R
2
H
1
RBI
0
AB
3
R
1
H
1
RBI
0
Players Mentioned
RHP
/ BaseballC
/ BaseballOF
/ Baseball
RHP
/ Baseball
INF
/ Baseball
INF
/ Baseball
RHP
/ Baseball
C
/ Baseball
INF
/ BaseballINF
/ Baseball
RHP
/ BaseballRussell Sandefer Postgame Press Conference | April 4, 2026 | Ole Miss
Sunday, April 05
Kevin O'Sullivan Postgame Press Conference | April 4, 2026 | Ole Miss
Sunday, April 05
Aidan King Postgame Press Conference Apr. 3, 2026 | Ole Miss
Saturday, April 04
Kyle Jones Postgame Press Conference Apr. 3, 2026 | Ole Miss
Saturday, April 04
