GAINESVILLE REGIONAL: Troy 10, Gators 2 — Florida's Season Ends

Monday, June 1

Gainesville, Fla.

6 PM

Florida Gators

41-21

Troy

36-30

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Troy	2	0	0	0	0	5	0	3	0	10	9	0
Florida	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	2	7	1

Trouble signs arrived early Monday when the Gators made a pitching change in the top of the second inning. (Photo: Hannah White/UAA Communications)

GAINESVILLE REGIONAL: Troy 10, Gators 2 — Florida's Season Ends

Monday, June 1, 2026 | Baseball, Scott Carter

Box Score

The Gators fell to Troy in the Gainesville Regional Championship Game to see their season come to a close.

By: Scott Carter, Senior Writer

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — In a winner-take-all championship game in the Gainesville Regional, the Gators had home-field advantage. Troy seemed to have everything else, cruising to a 10-2 victory at Condron Ballpark on Monday night.

The No. 3-seed Trojans advanced to host a Super Regional next weekend, and in their wake, the No. 1-seed Gators are left mulling what went wrong the past two games after beating Rider and Miami in their first two games of the regional. But the Trojans outscored Florida 26-13 the past two days to force the Gators to go on summer vacation earlier than they planned.

"They outplayed us,'' UF head coach Kevin O'Sullivan said. "They deserve to move on."

Florida started right-hander Cooper Walls, and he lasted only one batter into the second inning. When Caden McDonald took over in the top of the second, Troy led 2-0. McDonald settled into a groove and kept the game close until an RBI single in the fifth inning by Gators center fielder Kyle Jones cut the lead to 2-1.

McDonald came out for the sixth, but after retiring the first batter, O'Sullivan took him out of the game, a move that proved disastrous as Russell Sandefer came in and immediately walked the next three hitters to load the bases.

O'Sullivan addressed his reasoning afterward.

"It's always easy to second-guess, but here's the deal, I saw [Caden] in the dugout, and he looked gassed," O'Sullivan said. "I think the most number of pitches he has thrown this year was 52, and that was against Oklahoma. I know people will second-guess taking him out, but he had pitched twice in this tournament and was being asked to be a position player as well.

"As I said, 50 pitches is about his max. I made the decision, and unfortunately it didn't work out."

McDonald had thrown 48 pitches when O'Sullivan went to the bullpen with the bases empty in a one-run game. A two-way player who emerged late in the season, McDonald was instrumental in Florida earning a No. 8 national seed and hosting a regional.

The Trojans were glad to see McDonald leave. They broke open the game with five runs on three hits in the sixth, with Drew Nelson's two-run single and Jabe Boroff's two-run double the key blows.

The turn of events over the past two days left the Gators stunned.

"We worked our tail off at the end of the season to get that top-eight seed,'' UF outfielder Blake Cyr said. "We just fell short. It sucks to lose. There's no other way to put it."

Everyone who watched knew what cursed the Gators.

"We just didn't pitch well enough in this tournament,'' O'Sullivan said.

Meanwhile, the Trojans play on as an unlikely Super Regional host after beating the Gators twice and Miami once.

"There's no part of us that thinks Cinderella,'' Troy coach Skylar Meade said. "I'm not joking. We do everything strategically at Troy University to give ourselves a chance to win a national championship."

McDonald, Caden (2026 vs. Troy) — **Caden McDonald**'s pitching performance was the highlight for the Gators in Monday's loss to Troy. (Photo: **Hannah White**/UAA Communications)

PLAYER(S) OF THE GAME

Trojans catcher Jimmy Janicki, the Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year, once again set the tone early with a two-run double in the top of the first inning. Troy never trailed after Janicki's one-out hit, and after his two-homer, six-RBI game against the Gators on Sunday, Janicki got help on Monday from designated hitter Jabe Boroff, who went 3-for-5 with five RBI in the regional-clinching win.

IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Florida's struggles on the mound will dominate the conversation around the team's regional woes for the next couple of days. There's no doubt UF did not get it done consistently on the mound in their four games, allowing 43 runs and serving up 10 homers. The two best outings for the Gators in the tournament were Sandefer's 5 2/3 shutout innings against Rider on Friday night, and McDonald's 4 1/3 scoreless innings in relief in Monday's loss to Troy. Otherwise, it was a lot of walks to the mound for O'Sullivan.

KEY MOMENT

When Troy third baseman Josh Pyne grounded out to start the top of the sixth inning against McDonald, many were surprised to see O'Sullivan exit the dugout to make a pitching change. McDonald had thrown 48 pitches in 4 1/3 shutout innings and appeared in control. Still, Sandefer replaced McDonald and walked all three batters he faced before O'Sullivan made another change. A 2-1 Troy lead quickly blossomed into a 7-1 advantage by the end of the inning, and that spelled doom for the Gators. "I had all the trust in the world in Russ," O'Sullivan said. "He had just come off a great start. We were just looking for five outs. I thought if we were going to use Russ on short rest that was the best spot to do it."

QUOTE OF NOTE

"It's hard to put into words, honestly. You go into these things feeling fully confident that you're going to win. It's going to take a while to fully digest it." — O'Sullivan on the massive swing of emotions for his team in the Gainesville Regional

UP NEXT

Florida's season ends in regional play for the second consecutive season, following back-to-back trips to the College World Series in 2023 and 2024. The Gators went 2-2 in the regional and finished 41-21 in O'Sullivan's 19th season. He said the team has roster spots to address in the offseason, but he is comfortable with the overall talent. "We've got a really good nucleus,'' O'Sullivan said.

NOTABLES

Florida finished the season at 41-21 with the program's nation-leading, 18th-straight NCAA Tournament appearance.
The Gators competed an NCAA Regional Game 7 for the fourth time in the last five seasons.
The Gators won 12 of their last 16 games while outscoring opponents, 160-101.
Florida finished 26-14 against unranked teams while going nation-best 15-7 against ranked opponents.
Florida crushed 16 home runs in the first four games at the Gainesville Regional but did not connect for a big fly on Monday night as the team's 16-game homer streak was snapped.
McDonald pitched 4 1/3 scoreless, two-hit innings with three strikeouts out of the bullpen, recording 13 outs on 13 batters faced thanks to two double play balls.
Kurland notched his 200th-career hit in his second-to-last at bat of the season in the seventh inning.
Florida is 140-92 across 41 NCAA Tournament appearances including a 93-56 mark at Regionals.
- Florida has claimed 16 Regional titles.
Florida is now 7-3 all-time against Troy – all of which have been played in Gainesville.
The Gators are 3-2 in the head-to-head series under Head Coach Kevin O'Sullivan.
Monday night's attendance was 4,637.

FROM HEAD COACH KEVIN O'SULLIVAN
On the team heading into next season…
"I mean, we've got a really good nucleus. Aidan King is back, Lawson is back, we'll get Jadan Bastian back who has been injured the whole year. I don't know what's going to happen with Cade Kurland. We'll see with the draft. Ethan's got a chance to be drafted, but who knows? Hopefully he's back. Stripling's back, and so there's some other good players like Cash Strayer, I think he's a middle of the order bat. You start mentioning names, you start missing some people, but to answer your question, I do feel good about it. We get Josh back on the mound and Barberi back on the mound, so I like the nucleus for sure."

— Sullivan Bortner contributed to this report.