No. 12/21 Florida Falls to No. 8/7 Texas A&M to Set Up Sunday Rubber Match

Saturday, April 25

Gainesville, Fla.

5 PM

Florida Gators

29-15, 11-9

Texas A&M

32-8, 13-6

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Texas A&M	0	0	2	1	2	1	0	2	0	8	15	1
Florida	0	1	0	0	1	1	0	0	1	4	9	0

UAA Communications photo by Madilyn Gemme

No. 12/21 Florida Falls to No. 8/7 Texas A&M to Set Up Sunday Rubber Match

Saturday, April 25, 2026 | Baseball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

Blake Cyr (2-for-3) and Caden McDonald (1-for-4) stayed hot with solo home runs in the loss.

By: Sullivan Bortner

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – No. 12/21 Florida dropped game two as No. 8/7 Texas A&M evened the series with an 8-4 win at Condron Family Ballpark on Saturday night.

The Gators (29-15, 11-9 SEC) threw the first punch on a solo homer by Blake Cyr (2-for-3) in the second inning, but the Aggies (32-8, 13-6 SEC) scored six runs in the third through the sixth to take control of the contest. Homering for the sixth time in the last six games, Cyr left the yard alongside designated hitter Caden McDonald (1-for-4), who smacked his second big fly in as many days.

Starting on the slab for Florida, junior Liam Peterson worked around a pair of singles in the first by striking out Caden Sorrell while backstop Karson Bowen hosed Gavin Grahovac attempting to steal second base. He followed the zero with a quick, one-two-three frame while striking out his second batter in top-two.

Florida struck swiftly in the bottom of the second inning, as Cyr hammered the first pitch over the left-field wall for a leadoff home run. The 1-0 UF lead was erased on the third pitch of the third inning, when Bear Harrison swatted a leadoff jack of his own to center field to tie the ballgame. After a walk to Grahovac, Chris Hacopian hit a two-out RBI double to right-center to give the Aggies a 2-1 advantage. Peterson stranded Hacopian on second by fanning Jake Duer for his fourth strikeout.

In the top of the fourth, Nico Partida opened the inning with a homer to right-center to extend the Texas A&M lead to 3-1. Peterson retired the next three batters to minimize the damage, picking up his fifth strikeout while shortstop Brendan Lawson made a fantastic play in the six-five hole to end the inning.

Chasing two runs, the Gators created traffic in the home half of the fourth on a two-out hit-by-pitch of Cyr and infield single by Bowen but stranded both baserunners. The Aggies then tacked on two more runs in the top of the fifth on a two-run homer to center off the bat of Grahovac, pushing their edge to 5-1.

Responding promptly, Florida cut the deficit to 5-2 as McDonald homered to left-center on the very first pitch in the bottom of the fifth. Colton Schwarz followed with a single, but the UF rally fizzled there as a three-run ballgame entered the sixth frame.

Upon Peterson's removal in the top of the sixth, the Aggies strung together a series of knocks culminating with an RBI single through the left side by Jorian Wilson to extend their lead to 6-2. Righty reliever Luke McNeillie buckled down by striking out Sorrell on three pitches with the bases loaded to escape the jam.

Refusing to back down, Florida got the run right back to make it 6-3 after six. Ethan Surowiec drew a one-out walk while Cyr stayed red hot with a line-drive single into left-center field to put Gators on the corners. Bowen capitalized by sending a sacrifice fly to left field to plate Surowiec.

Remaining on the bump for the seventh inning, McNeillie retired the side in order on 11 pitches to hold the score. Southpaw Ernesto-Lugo Canchola took over after a leadoff walk in the eighth and was greeted by Wilson, who connected for a two-run shot to give Texas A&M an 8-3 advantage. Right-hander Ricky Reeth got himself out of a bases-loaded jam to keep Florida within five runs.

After a Cade Kurland single was stranded in the eighth, left-hander Eli Blair blanked the Aggies in the top of the ninth inning. In the home half, Landon Stripling led off with a double to left-center and was plated by pinch-hitter Jacob Kendall on an RBI single through the right side for an 8-4 tally. The comeback was thwarted there as the next three Gators went down in order.

Texas A&M starter Aiden Sims improved to 8-0 behind five frames of two-run ball. The sophomore right-hander was charged with four hits allowed, zero walks and seven strikeouts.

Peterson (1-4) was dealt with the loss, pitching five innings with five earned runs allowed on seven hits and one walk. He struck out five Aggies.

NOTABLES

Florida remains a nation-best 12-4 against ranked opponents this season highlighted by the most Quad 1 wins in the country (13).
The Gators dropped to 8-2 against top-10 foes.
Over three outings as the game two starter, the Peterson has thrown 17.0 innings while striking out 14 batters against three walks.
Florida scored four runs or less for the seventh time in Peterson's 11 starts this season.
Cyr launched his sixth home run across the last six games and has now homered in five of the last six contests.
McDonald homered for the second-straight game, marking his first-two career long balls.
Florida has won 46 of its last 66 regular-season games dating back to last season.
Florida is now 15-19 all-time and 10-5 in Gainesville against Texas A&M.
The Gators are 14-13 overall and 9-2 at home vs. the Aggies under Head Coach Kevin O'Sullivan.
Saturday night's official attendance was 6,639.

FROM HEAD COACH KEVIN O'SULLIVAN
On evaluating Peterson's start…
"Didn't quite have the same fastball command. Obviously, it was an offensive day, the wind was blowing out and they took advantage of some balls that were up in the zone and had a good approach against him, but I still felt like we were in the game. Obviously, their starter did a really nice job. I think first six outs of the game were strikeouts. Really shouldn't have been any confusion. We had a really good scouting report against him. We knew what he was gonna attack us with, but he did a nice job. And then we kept it close, but they kept tacking on a run here, two runs there, a run there, and it seemed like every time we scored, we would turn around and gave up one and lost the momentum…"

On getting the rubber match this time around…
"It will come down to two things. We need to get off to a fast start offensively and we need to get a good start from Russ [Sandefer], and it really comes down to those two things and then managing the bullpen. We can stretch out Josh [Whritenour] again. Normally when we stretched him out, it's usually been the second time of a weekend that he's pitched. He should be fresh. He's had a full week off, so we can stretch him out and we need to come out and have a good offensive approach, and we need to score early, and we don't need to be playing from behind. And we need to get a good start from Russ, and then hand it over to the pen and like I said, we will be able to stretch out Josh…"

On Cyr staying red hot at the dish and other thoughts…
"Yeah, he's seeing the ball really good, think he had a couple more hits tonight. A bunch of guys had hits tonight. I think our at bats got better as the game went on. The bottom line is they're extreme strike throwers, today it was like strike-strike, it seemed like it was 0-2, 1-2 count with Sims on the mound like for the first three or four innings, it was like suffocating. But I thought our at bats got better as the game went on and they went to arguably one of their better relievers in Lyons, and we put some good swings on him. Darden, seen him a couple times now, and I thought we had some pretty good at bats against Freshcorn…"

ON DECK
The Gators and Aggies face off in the series finale on Sunday at 1 p.m. on SEC Network+.