Semifinal-Bound Gators Throttle Crimson Tide in Quarterfinals

Thursday, May 21

Hoover, Ala.

~4:30 PM ET

Florida Gators

39-18

Alabama

37-19

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Florida	0	0	0	2	5	0	4	2	13	16	0
Alabama	0	0	0	0	1	0	2	0	3	9	1

Ethan Surowiec celebrates his fourth-inning home run with the team during Thursday's win against the Crimson Tide at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium in Hoover, Ala. / UAA Communications photo by Madilyn Gemme

Semifinal-Bound Gators Throttle Crimson Tide in Quarterfinals

Thursday, May 21, 2026 | Baseball

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Florida tallied 16 hits as every starter had a base knock behind five strong innings from Liam Peterson.

By: Sullivan Bortner

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – No. 9/18 Florida scored the first seven runs of the game as all nine UF starters collected hits en route to a 13-3 run-rule drubbing of No. 15/15 Alabama in eight innings in the SEC Tournament quarterfinals at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium on Thursday evening.

Advancing to take on No. 1-seed Georgia in the semifinals on Saturday at 1 p.m. ET, starting pitcher Liam Peterson pitched the No. 5-seeded Gators (39-18) past the No. 4-seeded Crimson Tide (37-19) with five dominant innings of one-run ball, eight strikeouts and zero walks before passing the baton to the bullpen. Brendan Lawson (2-for-4) and Ethan Surowiec (4-for-5) stayed red hot at the dish with multi-hit games and solo homers in the fourth, with Surowiec pacing the squad with four hits and three RBI. Florida racked up 16 total hits in the victory highlighted by nine that went for extra bases.

Also instrumental in the win was two-way standout Caden McDonald (2-for-5), who smacked two doubles and drove in three runs while providing two innings of relief on the mound. The trio of Peterson, McDonald and Ricky Reeth combined for 14 strikeouts while issuing just one free pass, which was backed up by a second-straight errorless performance from the UF defense.

Florida and Alabama exchanged zeros in the first inning, as Peterson fanned John Lemm with a 100mph fastball to strand a pair of two-out singles on base. Surowiec then led off the top of the second with a base hit to left-center off Crimson Tide starting hurler Tyler Fay, but was erased on a double play ball in a scoreless frame.

Working around a one-out walk, Peterson struck out two batters en route to a zero in the home half of the second. The junior right-hander blanked the Tide again in the third by fanning Jason Torres to end the inning.

With one out in the top of the fourth, Lawson put the Gators on the board with a 441-foot, solo homer to right-center field. Two batters later, Surowiec uncorked a 447-foot shot to left to extend the Florida edge to 2-0.

Pitching with a two-run lead, Peterson retired the first two batters of bottom-four via a groundout and his fifth strikeout before stranding a two-out single on first base. Florida then tacked on five two-out runs to push further in front at 7-0 in the top of the fifth, beginning with a leadoff single from Karson Bowen. After moving to second on a one-out groundout, Hayden Yost cashed in with a clutch RBI double to right field. Kyle Jones followed with an RBI single to center while Cyr hit a two-run triple to right field. Cyr came home on a fielding error at shortstop on a scorching ground ball off the bat of Surowiec to complete the five-run outburst.

In cruise control through the first four frames, Peterson surrendered his first run in the home half of the fifth via a sacrifice fly to center field from Brady Neal. Peterson fanned three batters in the inning to maintain a 7-1 lead after five, finishing with back-to-back strikeouts to strand runners at the corners.

Following five strong innings and 94 pitches, Peterson was replaced by McDonald on the hill. McDonald needed just 12 pitches to strike out the side in order in the bottom of the sixth.

Leading off the top of the seventh, Lawson doubled to right-center off Tide reliever Ashton Crowther while Blake Cyr drew a walk. Surowiec and McDonald barreled back-to-back doubles down the right and left-field lines, respectively, to make it a 10-1 ballgame, with Surowiec plating a pair of Gators. Bowen added a sacrifice fly to center to score McDonald for a 10-run UF lead.

Drawing within one out of ending the contest early via the run rule, Neal hit a two-run homer to right field in the bottom of the seventh to cut the Florida advantage to 11-3.

In the top of the eighth, the Gators went back up by 10 runs with a 13-3 lead. Cyr singed while Surowiec doubled for his fourth knock of the day, allowing McDonald to drive home both runners on a one-out, RBI double down the left-field line.

Reeth put the finishing touches on the run-rule victory by holding the Crimson Tide in check in the bottom of the eighth.

Peterson (3-5) won his second-consecutive start behind five innings of one-run ball. He scattered seven hits, striking out eight without issuing a free pass.

Fay (9-4) was saddled with the loss in his second start of the season against Florida. The junior righty was charged with five earned runs on six hits while striking out five across 4 2/3 frames.

NOTABLES

The Gators have won 10 of their last 11 games while outscoring opponents, 110-47.
Florida improved to a nation-best 15-6 against ranked opponents and repping the second-most Quad 1 wins in the country (16).
Peterson won back-to-back starts for the first time this season, improving to 3-5 with five innings of one-run ball and eight strikeouts against zero walks.
Lawson opened the scoring with his team-leading 16th homer of the season in the fourth inning.
Lawson has now homered in five of the last seven games including back-to-back contests.
Surowiec swatted his 11th home run of the campaign in the fourth.
Surowiec recorded his sixth three-hit game and third four-hit effort of the season.
Surowiec leads the team with 21 multi-hit games this year.
Finishing 4-for-5, Surowiec totaled nine bases, one homer, two doubles, three RBI and three runs.
All nine UF starters logged hits while five turned in multi-hit efforts.
The Gators finished with 16 hits including nine extra-base knocks.
Florida is 80-70 across 44 SEC Tournament appearances including a 33-25 mark under Head Coach Kevin O'Sullivan.
The Gators are now 73-63 all-time and 11-9 at neutral sites against Alabama.
Florida is 32-11 overall and 6-1 at neutral sites vs. the Tide under O'Sullivan.
Thursday night's official attendance was 11,146.

FROM HEAD COACH KEVIN O'SULLIVAN
Opening statement…
"Just a great game by us today. Obviously, we're swinging the bats as well as we have all year long. We knew going into the game that Tyler [Fay] was going to be difficult to deal with. Obviously, he no-hit us a few months ago. But we tried to be a little bit more aggressive early in the count, because I felt like the last time we played him, he was 0-1 the entire night. And we just never could get anything going, obviously. But dugout kind of got excited, I think, in the second when we got our first hit. But Liam pitched outstanding. I think this is his third or fourth start in a row that he's been outstanding. And our relief pitching was solid. And what can you say when you have 16 hits and I think nine extra base hits? Obviously, it was a great day for us offensively. Through all that, I think one thing that gets kind of lost in the shuffle is we made no errors today again. So I think our defense is certainly heading in the right direction."

On whether these are the cleanest games they've stacked back-to-back all year…
"It's hard to say. I mean, this season, for everybody, and every coach I talk to, it's so up and down, you can't predict this many hits against somebody's number one. It was just one of those days for us. And obviously we have been playing better. I think we've won nine of our last 10. I think somebody said that today. I'm just pleased, obviously, with the continued improvement offensively throughout the year, the continued improvement on the pitching side of things. And like I said, we've had our struggles defensively, but I really believe that we've cleaned up a lot of that."

On the rematch against Georgia in the semifinals…
"Quite honestly, I think the success we had will have no bearing on Saturday. They're playing with a ton of confidence. To win the league, especially this year, I mean, is an unbelievable accomplishment. I say it every year, seems like the league gets more difficult every year. The players get better. And what they've been able to accomplish and the way they're playing with energy and they're pitching as good as they have all year long, it's certainly going to be a difficult task for us. But what happened during the regular season is going to have no bearing on Saturday."

ON DECK
The Gators advance to the SEC Tournament Semifinals where they will face No. 1-seed Georgia on Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. ET on SEC Network.