Gators face – After Florida had a chance to sweep the Gainesville Regional for the first time since 2016, Troy erupted for nine runs in the sixth to beat the Gators 16-11 on Sunday night. With a Super Regional berth on the line, the teams meet again Monday at 6 p.m. in a wi
By the time the sixth inning hit Condron Ballpark, it stopped feeling like a baseball game and started feeling like a momentum switch that wouldn’t flip back.
Florida walked into Sunday night with a clear pathway: sweep the Gainesville Regional and do it for the first time since 2016. Instead. the Trojans kept swinging. battered Florida starter Liam Peterson for four home runs. and scored a 16-11 win that forced a rematch. Troy kept its season alive and earned a winner-take-all championship game against the Gators on Monday night at 6 p.m. with a Super Regional berth on the line.
The shock wasn’t that Troy could hit. It was how quickly that hitting turned into a runaway.
Less than 24 hours after Florida swatted seven home runs against Miami. Troy matched the intensity in a different way—long balls. timed at the exact moments Florida tried to regroup. Jimmy Janicki cleared the fence twice. Houston Markham and Blake Cavill also went deep. and Jabe Boroff capped Troy’s burst with a grand slam off reliever Billy Barlow in Troy’s nine-run sixth inning that blew the game open.
Florida’s offense didn’t disappear. It put up four home runs of its own. with Caden McDonald hitting two. Brendan Lawson adding a two-run homer. and Cade Kurland connecting for a grand slam in the eighth inning and his fourth homer of the regional. But Troy’s early lead—built on Markham’s solo homer to start the bottom of the third and Janicki’s three-run shot later in that inning—kept Florida chasing.
Cooper Ellingworth, the Trojans’ starter, held the pitching advantage over Peterson. Ellingworth won the matchup by limiting the Gators to seven hits and five runs over six innings. He struck out five and did not walk a batter in his career-high 89-pitch outing.
Florida did cut into the score when Lawson launched a two-run homer in the top of the fifth to make it 6-4. Troy answered immediately: Cavill led off the bottom of the inning with a towering 447-foot home run to center field, pushing the lead to 7-5.
Then came the inning Florida couldn’t manage.
After McDonald’s leadoff home run in the sixth trimmed Troy’s advantage to 7-5. Hayden Yost stepped in as the potential tying run with Kurland on base on a hit by pitch and two outs. On a 3-2 offering from Ellingworth—who appeared to be running on fumes—plate umpire Travis Eggert punched out Yost on an inside fastball at the knees. For Florida, it should have been a moment to steady the game. Instead, it became the start of the end.
Troy exploded for nine runs on seven hits in the bottom of the sixth to take a 16-5 lead, with the UF bullpen faring no better than Peterson after the Trojans got rolling.
For Gators head coach Kevin O’Sullivan, the frustration was direct and immediate. He described spending the whole game trying to keep pace, only to see the lead slip away again.
“Trying to manage the bullpen today was extremely difficult because obviously we were chasing runs the entire game. ” O’Sullivan said. “The sixth inning was pretty much a disaster. It got away from us obviously, but bottom line is we’ve got a chance to win the regional tomorrow. We did this in 2017, had to come back on a Monday and play.”.
Peterson’s outing stood out for Florida in the wrong way. He entered Sunday having allowed only seven home runs over 79 1/3 innings. On Sunday night. he served up four to the Trojans. departed after the first two batters in the bottom of the sixth reached. and finished allowing 10 hits. nine runs. walked one. and struck out four in five innings. Florida also received another reminder that their starting pitching has been the most fragile link in the regional—Sunday’s loss marked the second consecutive game the Gators got a less-than-stellar outing from their starter.
In the spotlight, Janicki’s swing carried the day. A Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year. Janicki flexed against one of the Southeastern Conference’s most talented pitching prospects. After his two-run homer in the first. Janicki stepped to the plate in the bottom of the third with one out and two runners on base. He drilled Peterson’s 1-2 pitch over the wall in right field for a three-run homer that put Troy ahead 6-2.
Janicki finished 2-for-4 with two homers, six RBI, and three runs scored.
Florida’s path forward is now simple, even if it’s brutal: Monday night is winner-take-all.
O’Sullivan said there’s no room for nerves, because the game comes with no alternatives.
“They will have no choice. I mean, you win: you move on. You lose: the season is over. We played a tough schedule. We have been through ups and downs. I definitely think they will be ready to play. What else do they have to lose?. The alternative is that the season is over. So they have to go out there and give their best effort and have as much energy as they possibly can. When your name is called in the pen. you do your job. and keep swinging it the way that we have been swinging it. and keep playing how we have been defensively. the rest will play out in itself.”—Sullivan.
Monday’s game takes place at Condron Ballpark at 6 p.m. Florida can advance to a Super Regional for the first time since 2024 with a victory and will host for the first time since 2023.
Inside this regional, the numbers already suggest why the winner-take-all rematch could look similar. In six games at the Gainesville Regional, teams have combined to hit 35 home runs. Florida leads the field with 16, followed by Troy with 10.
Florida also comes in with its own streak of damage. The Gators have homered in 16 consecutive games dating back to the series opener at Oklahoma on May 1. cranking 49 homers in that span for 3.1 per game. They have recorded multiple home runs in eight-straight contests. and their regional power isn’t a one-off: Florida has crushed 16 home runs in three games at the Gainesville Regional.
But Sunday made one thing clearer: power alone isn’t enough if the other side finds its timing.
Sunday’s attendance was 4,751, and Florida’s night ended with a 16-11 loss that snapped its five-game winning streak as an NCAA Regional host. The Trojans stayed alive in the first game Sunday by beating Miami in an elimination game, then returned to the same park and kept that momentum going.
For Monday, it’s not about streaks. It’s about surviving the next swing—because for Florida and Troy, that’s all the time left.
Gainesville Regional Troy Trojans Florida Gators Liam Peterson Cooper Ellingworth Janicki Condron Ballpark winner-take-all Super Regional