Florida baseball earned another nail-biting win in the College World Series on Sunday night when it hung on to defeat the Oral Roberts Golden Eagles, 5-4. It was a weird game all around that included an arcane rule that almost derailed the Gators, but in the end after a fierce rally, the Orange and Blue prevailed.
UF starting pitcher Hurston Waldrep had a fine outing against ORU, working through some early command issues to finish the night with a dozen strikeouts and just one run allowed through six innings. The bullpen, on the other hand, wasn’t as sharp.
The top of the order struggled once again for Florida. Cade Kurland, Wyatt Langford and Jac Caglainone went a combined 1-for-12 with no runs batted in, leaving Ty Evans and Luke Heyman to do most of the work. Both players belted two-run homers, and Josh Rivera contributed a solo shot in the fourth.
Ryan Slater struggled in relief, forcing Florida to turn to the SEC’s save leader Brandon Neely in the seventh. Kevin O’Sullivan would have stuck with his All-SEC closer until the very end, but an excessive mound meeting meant that Neely had to be removed from the game.
Cade Fisher had to get out of two bases-loaded situations over the final two frames, but he navigated his way through a rollercoaster finish and secured the win for the Gators. Take a look below at highlights from the exciting College World Series action in Omaha, Nebraska.