Florida baseball wastes gem from Aidan King, opens OU series with loss
Things were going well for the Gators until the eighth inning. Then, the bullpen came in and wasted a gem from Aidan King.
Florida lost the Oklahoma Sooners , 4-3, on Friday night to open up a three-game weekend series on the road. Aidan King was dominant once again, allowing just one earned run on four hits and two walks over seven innings. King struck out a career-high 10 batters and threw 114 pitches before turning things over to Ernesto Lugo-Canchola in the eighth.
The bullpen melted down that inning, allowing three runs. Lugo-Canchola faced two batters: he struck out the first looking, but Kevin O'Sullivan went back to the bullpen after a five-pitch walk. Joshua Whritenour took over and hit the first batter he saw.
Then, Jaxon Willits tripled to right-center to tie the game. The ball got stuck in the fence, between the padding and the fence. Florida might have won a challenge to determine whether it was a ground-rule double, but the game proceeded without a review.
Willits ran into an out between third and home on a ground ball to the left side, and Schwarz came up injured on the play. Kolt Myers replaced him after Colton Schwarz left the game. Dasan Harris drove in the deciding run, a grounder up the middle just out of reach of Cade Kurland's glove at second.