Florida had a five-run eighth inning to earn a 7-2 win over Miami on Friday night. Miami rallied with two runs in the sixth inning to tie Florida after the Gators scored one run in the first and one in the fourth to lead 2-0. Florida took the all-time series lead, 137-136-1 over Miami.
Florida continued its dominance of Miami under head coach Kevin Sullivan. The Gators are 44-19 overall and 19-9 on the road against Miami under Sullivan. Liam Peterson and Jackson Barberi held down the top offense nationally to earn the series-opening win.
It's a sold-out Friday night at Mark Light Field 🙌
— Miami Hurricanes Baseball (@CanesBaseball) February 28, 2026
Tonight's attendance: 3,555 🤝 pic.twitter.com/eDU4uD9w8F
Miami entered the game against Florida, first nationally averaging 15.5 runs per game and with 155 runs scored in 10 games. Derek Williams and Brylan West led Miami with two hits on Friday against Florida. Williams got Miami on the board with a single that drove in Jake Ogden.
West followed with a single to score Michael Torres. Florida opened the scoring in the first inning when Brendan Lawson homered as the second batter in the game. Cash Strayer had a fourth inning sacrifice fly to score Lawson to extend the Florida lead to 2-0 in the fourth inning.
Florida has decisive eighth inning
Jacob Kendall had a leadoff HR in the eighth inning for the game-winning hit. Three batters after the Kendall HR, Lawson singled to score Kolt Myers from second base to extend the Gators' lead to 4-2. A Strayer bases-loaded walk scored the fifth Florida run to put the Gators ahead 5-2.
Former Miami Hurricane Blake Cyr had a sacrifice fly to extend the Florida lead to 6-2 and Caden McDonald hit a sacrifice fly to cap the scoring with Florida leading 7-2 after 8.5 innings. Only one of the last 12 Miami batters had a hit with one walk over the last 2.1 innings.
Barberi pitched the final 3.1 innings, allowing two hits and a walk with three strikeouts to earn the victory and improve to two wins and one loss. A.J. Ciscar pitched 7.0 innings, allowing five hits, four runs, three earned, with no walks and six strikeouts. Florida and Miami play at 6 PM Eastern Time on Saturday.