Florida walks off Rider to win Game 1 of Gainesville Regional
By Andrew Olson
Published:
No. 8 national seed Florida avoided disaster, rallying to walk off Rider 8-7 in a game filled with back-and-forth drama over the final two innings. Brendan Lawson was the hero on Friday, hitting a solo home run to end Game 1 of the Gainesville Regional.
It was a 7-7 game entering the bottom of the 9th. On a 2-1 count, Lawson called game, taking the fourth pitch of the at-bat to deep center field.
B-LAW CALLED BALLGAME
— Florida Gators Baseball (@GatorsBB) May 29, 2026
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Lawson’s home run allowed Kevin O’Sullivan and the Gators to exhale after an uncomfortably dramatic final four frames in Gainesville that saw 2 ties and 3 lead changes.
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For much of the game, it appeared Florida was cruising to victory. O’Sullivan started Russell Sandefer, the No. 3 man in the weekend rotation. Sandefer gave the Gators 5.2 shutout innings, allowing just 2 hits and striking out 5. He left the game with a 3-0 lead that became 4-0 in the bottom half of the 6th.
O’Sullivan initially turned to two-stay standout Caden McDonald. McDonald tossed 1.1 scoreless frames, allowing just 1 hit. He was pulled, however, with the hopes of being saved for later in the Regional. The move backfired.
It was 4-0 Florida to begin the top of the 8th inning when Ernesto LugoCanchola took over for McDonald on the mound. LugoCanchola walked 2 and retired 2 batters before he was pulled for Jackson Barberi.
Barberi walked his first batter faced, loading the bases. The next Rider batter, Anthony Paskell, hit a grand slam, tying the game 4-4.
This led O’Sullivan to turn to closer Joshua Whritenour in the 8th inning. Whritenour is the game’s winning pitcher, but with a line of 1.1 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 2 K over 27 pitches against 7 batters faced.
Whritenour’s outing got off to a rough start with a leadoff double and wild pitch before a 2-run homer that gave Rider a 6-4 lead.
The Gator bats responded in the bottom of the 8th. Though no longer pitching, McDonald hit a solo homer as the designated hitter to make it 6-5. Later in the inning, Cade Kurland hit a 2-run homer to give the lead back to Florida, 7-6.
Whritenour, though, was unable to get the save in the top of the 9th. He allowed a 1-out solo home run that made it a 7-7 ballgame. Thanks to Lawson, though, the Gators avoided the loser’s bracket despite the bullpen meltdown.
Florida will play the winner of Troy vs. Miami in Saturday’s winner’s bracket game.
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
