Gators Blow Out Air Force on Opening Night
College Baseball is here, and the Gators are well and truly back. The Gators constantly worked the Air Force silly, putting up a strong solid performance. The game ended 7-0 in the favor of the Orange and Blue on a great night for Gators baseball. Today was a mix of good pitching, defense, and batting as Florida fought to beat the Air Force. New and old players alike came together and put up a quality performance worthy of opening nights Gators baseball.
The game started on two scoreless innings, before the Gators open the floodgates in the third. On the very first pitch of the bottom of the third, Brody Donay sent a ball 400 yards to left field to open the 2025 Gators account. Interestingly enough, Donay also scored the first home run of spring training. Donay last season played a mix of catcher and first baseman, but this year he seems set to play Designated Hitter. Left fielder Blake Cyr, shortstop Colby Shelton, third baseman Bobby Boser, and second baseman Cade Kurland all got on base while the Gators scored four runs during the inning. Through a mix of monster at-bats and poor Air Force defense, the Gators got enough runs to have won the game by the end of the third.
A few more scoreless innings later, the Gators roared back to life in the fifth. Excellent team play and smallball resulted in the Gators loading up the bases, and every single runner scored before Air Force was able to close out the inning. Especially impressive was a perfectly placed bunt by Bobby Boser, who not only was able to advance the runners but was also able to get on-base purely from the bunt. The inning could’ve seen more runs, but catcher Luke Heyman unfortunately grounded into a double play.
The Gators pitching was impressive, with Liam Peterson putting up seven strikeouts from his first nine outs. Peterson ended with 11 K’s on the night across six innings, a showing worthy of being the opening day starter. He only gave up two hits and a single walk across those six innings, and put up a display worthy of Omaha.
Air Force themselves put up an alright performance. Obviously any team that plays the Gators has a fierce challenge in front of them and no easy outs, but they composed themselves with dignity. There were a couple defensive errors: a dropped foul ball that could’ve been an out, a dropped line drive that was right in front of the third baseman, and the outfield miscoordinating on a high popup were all separate incidents that cost the Falcons. Either way, they put up a performance their fans should be proud of.
Notably, the Gators themselves were not immune to error. A pickoff attempt by Liam Peterson went wide of first, with the Air Force runner advancing to second before being thrown out trying to get to third. Miami transfer Blake Cyr didn’t particularly impress on the bases, getting stuck in a pickle twice. The first time he was bailed out on an interference call against Air Force that put him on second, while the second time he was tagged out. The second time could have been a run had he not gotten out, considering that Bobby Boser hit a double on the next at-bat. Cyr partially made up for his errant baserunning with an outstanding catch late in the game that let us all get home a bit earlier.
It was an opening day to be proud of for the Gators, and hopefully the start of a very special season
While the boys did us proud, it’s also worth mentioning that the Gators softball team destroyed #14 Duke by mercy rule just across the street from Condron Family Ballpark. The softball team is arguably the best in the country this year, and across both batting sports the Gators are currently undefeated.
