Kyle Jones is doused with water bottles by his teammates following his walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth early Saturday morning at Condron Ballpark. (Photo: Maddie Washburn/UAA Communications)
Carter's Corner: A Comeback That Could Mean More Than One Win
Saturday, May 9, 2026 | Baseball, Scott Carter
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By: Scott Carter, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — They will remember this one.
Gators shortstop Brendan Lawson will recall how he tried to avoid falling asleep during the three-hour weather delay on Friday night at Condron Ballpark. Lawson did everything he could to stay active as rain and dark clouds loomed over the opening game of a three-game series against Kentucky.
Lawson paced back and forth between the clubhouse and batting cage for extra BP, coming into the game in a 4-for-37 slump.
"I went into the cage like five times," he said.
Lawson remained a man in motion. He put on a hoodie and strolled around the outfield, signing autographs and talking to the hearty souls who waited out the delay. He walked out to his car. He spent half an hour chatting with the security staff. He visited the dugout and called his dad.
Whatever it took.
"I couldn't sit down,'' Lawson said.
Meanwhile, center fielder Kyle Jones took the opposite approach. He said he mostly chilled in the clubhouse as teammates played pool or ping-pong.
"It's been a long day for everybody,'' he said.
At the end of a Friday evening that morphed into Saturday morning, Lawson and Jones both played pivotal roles in Florida's 7-6 comeback victory over the Wildcats, the Gators' fourth consecutive win. When the bottom of the eighth inning started, Florida trailed 6-1, and many in the announced crowd of 5,937 had long headed for the exits.
The Gators gave those who stayed a memorable finish.
As Lawson stepped to the plate in the eighth with two out and the bases loaded, he represented the tying run after Jones walked with the bases juiced to make it 6-2. On a 1-2 pitch from Kentucky reliever Nile Adcock, Lawson stroked a double down the left-field line to bring home two runs. When Wildcats outfielder Scott Campbell Jr. misplayed the ball and allowed it to roll under his glove, Jones raced home, and Lawson ended up at third. Moments later, Lawson scored on Adcock's wild pitch to tie the game.
Condron Ballpark sounded like the place was full.
"I don't think our bats were very good the first six, seven innings,'' Florida coach Kevin O'Sullivan said. "A ton of people stayed around. That helped us."
The eighth-inning comeback set up a chess match between O'Sullivan and Kentucky head coach Nick Mingione in the bottom of the ninth after UF reliever Joshua Whritenour tossed a scoreless top of the ninth.
Shortstop Brendan Lawson steps on home after a wild pitch allowed him to score the tying run in the bottom of the eighth inning. (Photo: Maddie Washburn/UAA Communications)
A one-out double by Karson Bowen ignited the winning rally. After Landon Stripling stuck out for the second out, lefty Jackson Soucie, Kentucky's sixth pitcher of the game, intentionally walked Cade Kurland. When O'Sullivan called on pinch-hitter Colton Schwarz to hit for left-handed batter Hayden Yost, Mingione responded by bringing in right-hander Ryan Mullan. O'Sullivan countered by calling Schwarz back to the dugout and using left-handed pinch-hitter Jacob Kendall.
Mullan's full-count pitch to Kendall was called ball four, and the bases were loaded for Jones.
"That 3-2 pitch he took was a close pitch," O'Sullivan said. "It was a walk, but it was a crucial walk at the right time."
Jones stepped into the batter's box 0-for-4 with a walk, far from a performance he envisioned storing away in the memory bank. But having never had a walk-off hit in college or high school, Jones took a deep breath and focused on the opportunity.
"I was getting beat on fastballs the whole night,'' he said. "I was just trying to get my eyes out front. He threw me a slider I could do something with."
Jones did just that on Mullan's 0-1 pitch, lining the pitch through the left side for a walk-off single that scored Bowen. The Gators erupted from the dugout to celebrate, dousing Jones with water and eventually ripping off his jersey in left field to cap a long day at the ballpark.
"All I remember is I hit first base, and there was a huge cooler full of water splashed in my face,'' Jones said. "It was awesome. I've never got to experience that. You get to see them all the time on TV, so pretty cool.
"Putting up five runs in the eighth inning is not easy. Huge credit to the team. It shows who we are, a lot of fight."
In the aftermath, there was a lot to unpack.
You had Kurland's towering home run in the third for Florida's first run, a gutty start from Aidan King, reliever Schuyler Sandford's debut in a conference game, Kurland reaching on a wild pitch after striking out with two down in the eighth to keep the inning alive, and, of course, Lawson's much-needed breakthrough.
"I've been through slumps or tough times in this game before,'' Lawson said. "I didn't really make any huge adjustment. I was really just trying to simplify and go up there and give the team the best I can as I step into the box. It felt absolutely amazing. Even through the stretch, I've been putting the ball in play. I was just trying to simplify, put a good swing on the ball, and it worked out."
It worked out for Lawson. And later, it worked out for Jones.
"You forget about the 0-for-4. Now he's the hero,'' O'Sullivan said.
And it worked out for the Gators, who remain in contention for a national seed and to be a regional and super regional host. It was the kind of win that, if the Gators make a postseason run, they'll look back on as a pivotal point.
"It was a good win for us, it really was. Everybody is playing for something at this time of year,'' O'Sullivan said. "There are so many things at stake, and it seems like all these games are magnified. So, to be able to come back on this one when we were kind of not very good offensively for the first seven innings, it should make that locker room feel pretty darn good. It's a big win for a lot of reasons."
A victory that, after fighting to stay awake before the first pitch, likely left Lawson too wired to sleep afterward.
