King Delivers Again as No. 7/20 Gators Claim Opener vs. No. 6/13 Tigers

Thursday, April 16

Gainesville, Fla.

7 PM

Florida Gators

28-11, 10-6

Auburn

25-12, 8-8

Auburn

Florida

Aidan King celebrates a strikeout during Thursday night's win. / UAA Communications photo by Jordan Perez

King Delivers Again as No. 7/20 Gators Claim Opener vs. No. 6/13 Tigers

Thursday, April 16, 2026 | Baseball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)Photo Gallery

Aidan King fired six innings of one-run ball for his third-straight victory and quality start while Blake Cyr swatted a go-ahead, three-run shot in the third.

By: Sullivan Bortner

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – No. 7/20 Florida rode another outstanding start from ace hurler Aidan King to post a 6-3 victory over No. 6/13 Auburn in the series opener at Condron Family Ballpark on Thursday night.

Facing off for the first time since 2023, the Gators (28-11, 10-6 SEC) took down the Tigers (25-12, 8-8 SEC) thanks to six phenomenal innings of one-run ball from King to move within one game of first place in the conference. Rising to 6-2 on the campaign with his career-high sixth quality start, King allowed just five baserunners while fanning eight batters to give Florida a 1-0 edge in the series heading into game two on Friday at 5:30 p.m. He did not surrender a base hit after the first inning and now totes a 1.71 ERA on the year.

The big swing in the series opener came from outfielder Blake Cyr (1-for-3), who bashed a go-ahead, three-run homer in the third that gave the Orange & Blue the lead for good. Eight of nine UF starters logged hits led by Ethan Surowiec (2-for-5), who was the lone Gator with multiple knocks. Brendan Lawson (1-for-3) singled, scored twice and walked twice in the winning effort, which was secured via redshirt freshman closer Joshua Whritenour's seventh save of the season.

Auburn opened the scoring with one run in the top of the first, as Chase Fralick hit a one-out double and moved to third on a misplayed pop-up in shallow right field off the bat of Eric Guevara. King then fanned Bub Terrell for the second out, but Logan Gregorio followed with an RBI single through the left side to give Auburn a temporary, 1-0 edge.

Florida punched right back in the home half to knot the contest at 1-1 through one frame. Lawson smoked a one-out single to right off the Auburn second baseman, advancing to third on a wild pitch and groundout to shortstop. With two men down, Karson Bowen came through with an RBI double down the left-field line for a brand-new ballgame.

King followed suit with a one-two-three top of the second inning before the Gators stranded Hayden Yost on third base on the heels of a two-out single in the home half. King tossed another clean frame while notching his second strikeout in the third, giving him seven-straight Tigers retired.

In the bottom of third, Florida broke the game open with three runs to take its first lead at 4-1. Lawson led off with a walk and Surowiec singled to center to set the table for the middle of the UF order. With one out, Cyr demolished an 0-1 offering over the left-field wall for a go-ahead, three-run shot.

By striking out the side in order in the top of the fourth, King set down 10-consecutive Tigers. His streak ended via a leadoff walk in the fifth, but King eventually rallied to strand two on base by fanning back-to-back batters for his sixth and seventh strikeouts of the night.

The Gators returned to the scoring column in the bottom of the fifth frame with a pair of two-out runs to push their lead to 6-1. Landon Stripling led off with a single off the pitcher and Cade Kurland drew a four-pitch walk. After a strikeout and groundout to second that moved both Gators into scoring position, Kyle Jones flared an 0-1 pitch into right field, which caromed off a diving Ethin Bingaman for a two-out, two-run double.

Completing the sixth inning for his third-straight start, King used just nine pitches to retire the side in order while registering his eighth strikeout. That marked the end of his evening, as right-hander Ricky Reeth took over pitching duties in the top of the seventh. Auburn struck for two runs in the frame to cut the UF lead to 6-3 on a pair of two-out, RBI singles to center from Mason McCraine and Fralick.

Holding a three-run advantage through seven, southpaw Ernesto Lugo-Canchola chucked a clean top of the eighth inning while striking out two Tigers. Florida then called on Whritenour to close it out in the ninth inning. The UF closer navigated around a one-out single, striking out Chris Rembert to secure the save and the series-opening victory.

King (6-2) produced a victory and quality start for the third-straight outing, allowing just one run across six stellar innings. The sophomore scattered three hits and two walks and finished one strikeout shy of his career high with eight.

Auburn starter Andreas Alvarez (6-2) was charged with the loss, surrendering four earned runs on six hits and two walks across 2 1/3 frames. He struck out three in his shortest appearance of the season.

NOTABLES

The Gators (10-6) now sit one game behind Georgia (11-5) for first place in the SEC.
Florida rose to a nation-best 11-1 on the season against ranked opponents while picking up its country-leading 12th Quad I win of the campaign.
The Gators have won nine of their last 11 SEC series, going 24-10 across their last 34 SEC games dating back to last season.
Making his second-career game one start, King fired 6.0 innings of one-run ball on three hits, two walks and eight strikeouts for his third-straight win and quality start.
King set a career high with his team-leading sixth quality start of the season after pacing the squad with five as a true freshman one year ago.
King retired 10-straight batters from the first inning through the fourth frame and did not allow a hit after the first inning.
King has completed six innings in each of his last three starts, going a combined 20 2/3 frames with just three runs allowed to give him a 1.71 ERA on the season.
Across his last 15 starts dating back to last season, King is 10-3 with a 1.28 ERA and 84-to-23 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 91 1/3 innings pitched (13 earned runs allowed).
Cyr swatted a three-run shot to give UF a 4-1 lead in the third for his fifth homer of the season.
Lawson swiped his 10th base of the season and now has double-digit steals and homers (11).
Florida first-eight hits came from eight different starters.
Whritenour…
Florida starting pitchers have allowed three home runs in 160.0 innings pitched, featuring just one homer surrendered in 84.0 SEC frames.
Florida has won 45 of its last 61 regular-season games dating back to 2025.
The Gators are now 122-135-2 all-time and 69-51 at home against Auburn.
Florida is 22-12 overall and 13-6 in Gainesville against the Tigers under Head Coach Kevin O'Sullivan (all at home).
The Gators have won 32 of the last 46 meetings in the head-to-head series.
Thursday night's official attendance was 5,199.

FROM HEAD COACH KEVIN O'SULLIVAN
On King's performance and other contributions…
"He had really good fast ball command. He had two walks in one inning, probably ran out of gas. He actually came up to me and said he wanted to go back out for the seventh. I said, 'Absolutely not, but I appreciate you asking.' It was a short week, and he did exactly what he needed to do. We had a fresh bullpen. The most positive thing about the bullpen is Ricky threw 19 pitches, Ernie threw 18 and Josh threw 17. We kept our pitch count down, so they will have a chance to have multiple outings this weekend. The big swing of the night was Blake's three-run homer. The play he made in the first was a game-changer because that would have scored another run or two. Honestly, Aidan probably shouldn't have given up a run. The ball was in the air and I think the hang time was over six seconds. Other than that, we played good defense. Kyle got a big knock with two RBIs. It was one of those games where it kind of felt like we were letting it hang around a little bit. We left some runners on; I don't know exactly how many. We were really one hit away from opening it up a little bit, but credit to their pitchers. They did a nice job."

On getting Alvarez out of the game early for Auburn…
"He just didn't have his normal command. He's really good. It was just one of those nights. We all have them. It just so happened to be tonight. We knew going in there's a reason why he's starting on Fridays. You guys will see another outstanding arm tomorrow and then you'll see another outstanding starter on Saturday… You'll see, this is going to be a very challenging weekend, especially for our hitters. We're going to face as good of a rotation as we're going to see all year long. I'm sure people say that about us when we're going good. I said that about Ole Miss. There's plenty of others in our league that have really good starters, but Auburn is one of them."

On what makes King so elite…
"I mean, I was talking to the guys that are doing the game tonight and I think I was talking to Gregg Olsen about it and he's like a throwback. He just pitches, you know. 91 to 94 with command. I mean, that's the reason why he was a Freshman All-American. He throws any pitch at any time and he throws the fastball at both sides. His misses are small. He pitches and he never gets rattled. He's got great poise…"

ON DECK
Florida and Auburn face off in another ranked battle on Friday evening, scheduled for 5:30 p.m. on SEC Network. Junior righty Liam Peterson (1-2, 3.60 ERA) toes the slab against Tigers southpaw Jake Marciano (3-2, 1.88 ERA).