Florida holds on against Oral Roberts, improves to 2-0 at College World Series

It seemed like Florida would run away with things early, but Oral Roberts chipped away at the Gators’ lead all night and nearly pulled off the upset before falling, 5-4, Sunday evening.

Hurston Waldrep was masterful once again for UF, 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.

Ryan Slater struggled in relief, forcing Florida to turn to Brandon Neely in the seventh. Kevin O’Sullivan would have stuck with his All-SEC closer until the very end, but brain a fart led to a meeting that forced Neely out of the game.

Enter true freshman Cade Fisher.

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 Florida.

The top of the order struggled once again. 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.

Although Florida was the superior team on the field, Oral Roberts proved that non-SEC clubs can play some of the best baseball in the country. Florida finds success by being a blue-blood program, but you can’t help but tip your cap to a smaller program that wins just as much by being scrappy.

The Golden Eagles will have to take down TCU on Tuesday for a chance to rematch with the Gators.

For more on the game, Gators Wire has inning-by-inning notes from the game tonight below.

Top 1

After going 0-for-5 (with an RBI) on Friday, Cade Kurland wasted no time getting on base in Sunday’s contest. He rocketed the ball off the third baseman’s glove for a base hit. Wyatt Langford sent a ball 332 feet to left field, but the fence was 335 feet deep. Close, but just a long out for Florida.

Jac Caglianone and Josh Rivera struck out on 90-mph heaters to end the half inning on a more embarrassing note. Good start, bad finish.

Bot 1

Hurston Waldrep gave up a leadoff single to Jake McMurray and walked Justin Quinn. With no outs and two on, Jonah Cox failed to get down a bunt and fanned at one of Waldrep’s signature cutters for the first out.

Matt Hogan grounded out to second base, but both runners moved into scoring position. Kevin O’Sullivan came out to talk with Waldrep, and he promptly induced a ground ball from Mac McCroskey to shortstop, stranding a pair.

Top 2

Oral Roberts starter Harley Gollert cruised through the first two batters he faced in the second inning — striking out BT Riopelle and getting Luke Heyman to fly out to center field — but Tyler Shelnut worked an eight-pitch at-bat into a walk, which proved costly for ORU.

Ty Evans, the man who doubled and homered as a pinch hitter in Friday’s win, came through again. He homered to right field, giving Florida an early two-run lead.

SCORE: Florida 2, Oral Roberts 0

Colby Halter struck out to end the frame.

Bot 2

Waldrep gave up another single to start the second, a rocket off the bat of Holden Breeze that Rivera couldn’t handle at shortstop. Drew Stahl lined the first pitch he saw but it went straight to Halter at third.

Jacob Godman drew a walk thanks to Waldrep’s shaky fastball command, but Blaze Brothers couldn’t resist the splitter and struck out. McMurray drew a full count and walked, Waldrep’s third in two innings, and Quinn hit a soft ground ball back to the mound to move everyone up and keep the bases full.

SCORE: Florida 2, Oral Roberts 1

Cox struck out on another splitter, leaving the bags juiced.

Top 3

Kurland grounded out to shortstop, and then Langford hit a foul ball that looked like maybe it was a home run. The umpires reviewed it and changed the call on the field to review it some more, only to confirm the changed call that the ball was indeed foul as everyone else knew, including Langford.

Sigh.

Langford got back in the box and struck out. Caglianone also fanned, giving Gollert half a dozen punchouts in three innings.

Bot 3

Waldrep struck out the side — Hogan, Breeze and Stahl — with his splitter. Oral Roberts made another challenge, asserting that Hogan was hit by a pitch, but the umpires confirmed the call on the field.

McCroskey singled up the middle to interrupt an otherwise dominant inning for Waldrep.

Top 4

Rivera got ahold of one to start the fourth, his 18th home run of the year. The solo shot obviously shook up Gollert as he missed badly and hit Riopelle in the back for a free base. Luke Heyman knocked him out of the game with a no-doubter to deep right-center field.

SCORE: Florida 5, Oral Roberts 1

The Golden Eagles turned to Dalton Patten, a right-hander, out of the bullpen. He struck out Shelnut and Evans before getting Halter to fly out, restoring some order to the game.

Bot 4

Waldrep struck out the side again, increasing his game total to nine punchouts. He went to the splitter for the first two and showed off a fastball with some nice cut on it at 97 mph.

“They’re being awfully aggressive on the first pitch of the at-bat,” Kevin O’Sullivan of ORU’s approach against Waldrep. “They probably don’t want to get down two strikes and deal with the split, but (Waldrep’s) really settled in during the second half.

He had three walks through the first two. That (third) was a really important inning for him to put a zero up on the board after we scored.”

Top 5

Kurland struck out swinging, but Langford drew a walk, which ended Patten’s night. Oral Robert coach Ryan Folmar wanted to go with the lefty-lefty matchup against Caglianone, and it paid with a strikeout. Rivera also struck out to end the inning.

Jacob Widener’s funky sidearm delivery clearly baffled Florida early on.

Bot 5

Cox finally put a ball in play, singling to left field against Waldrep, but he eventually got picked off for the final out of the fifth inning. Hogan and McCroskey each popped out, marking a rare zero-strikeout inning for Waldrep.

Watch Riopelle closely in the video above. He flips his glove down while looking over toward first to signal when Waldrep should throw over to get Cox. They knew he was going and had him read like a book.

Top 6

Widener returned for the sixth and picked up right where he left off in the fifth. He struck out Riopelle (lefty-lefty) and also punched out Shelnut after walking Heyman. Evans flied out to center field for another quiet inning.

Bot 6

Waldrep got back to making batters look silly with his splitter, striking out the side as he crossed the 100-pitch threshold. Things started rough for the future first-rounder, but he had to have impressed scouts by the end of the night after six innings of one-run ball and a dozen punchouts.

Top 7

Halter singled over the shortstop’s head to start the seventh and moved to second on a balk. Florida hadn’t solved Widener, though. Kurland barreled a ball to right field, but Hogan made a circus catch to save a run (above). Halter moved to third on the tag, but the top of the order couldn’t bring him home.

Langford ate a pitch and took first, but Caglianone fouled out to the third-base side and Rivera grounded out to end the threat.

Bot 7

With Waldrep done for the night, Ryan Slater took over in the seventh. He got McMurray to ground out on two pitches, but a four-pitch walk to Quinn brought Riopelle out to the mound. They talked things over, but Slater still couldn’t find the zone. He should have gone down 3-0 against Cox, but the umpire granted him a strike on the 2-0 count which allowed him to battle back and even the count.

Cox lined a ball straight to Langford in center for a massive second out. Hogan hit an inside-the-park home run with some help from Florida’s defense. Shelnut couldn’t make a play on the ball in left, and Langford bobbled the ball on the backup. When Rivera got the relay from him, he had no idea he was supposed to go home with it.

SCORE: Florida 5, Oral Roberts 3

Florida closer Brandon Neely came in for the presumed seven-out save, and he got the first with three pitches after a challenge confirmed that Caglianone held on to a 4-3 groundout. Phew.

Top 8

Riopelle got hit for the second time to start the eighth and had some words for the ORU players as he walked to first. The umpires had a meeting and warned Florida, which was scary because they had already warned Oral Roberts earlier and Riopelle could have been ejected.

Widener came out of the game at that point in favor of right-hander Evan Kowalski. That proved to be a good move as Kowalski got Heyman to roll over to third for a double play. A strikeout against Shelnut brought a somewhat disappointing end to a dramatic half-inning.

Bot 8

Speaking of drama… Neely got the first two outs quickly in the eighth, but an error by Rivera at short extended things. Brothers singled and McMurray walked to load the bases. Riopelle almost got Brothers at first with a back pick, but a replay confirmed the tag was just a hair late.

With the bases loaded, Sully went out to talk to Neely, but it was Florida’s seventh meeting of the game and a pitching change had to be made. Sully was obviously unaware of how many meetings the team had taken, but it was as costly of a brain fart as one could imagine in a high-leverage moment.

Forced to come out cold, true freshman Cade Fisher got ahead of a red-hot Quinn, 0-2, and then worked the count full. Quinn hit a hard line drive to left field, but Wyatt Langford was standing there for the catch after moving over from center. Michael Robertson came in as a defensive replacement after Shelnut’s strikeout in the top of the eighth.

Top 9

https://twitter.com/GatorsBB/status/1670616236399419392

Kowalski hit Evans to lead off the ninth, but Florida couldn’t score its right fielder and stayed at a two-run lead heading into the ninth. CAglianone warmed up, but Fisher came back out to close it out.

Bot 9

Cox grounded out to third for the first out No. 1, but Hogan doubled on a ball that just stayed fair down the left-field line and bounced into the stands. Fisher got ahead of McCroskey, 1-2, but he gave up a liner to center, putting men on the corners. Breeze walked, loading things up, and Stahl reached on a fielder’s choice. Florida traded a run for an out, and Sully left Fisher in to finish it (or not).

SCORE: Florida 5, Oral Roberts 4

The freshman let Godman hit it, but Robertson ran the ball down and Florida moves to 2-0. The Gators are now in the driver’s seat of their bracket and can advance to the championship series with a win on Wednesday.

FINAL: Florida 5, Oral Roberts 4

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Story originally appeared on Gators Wire