Opis
"The fans were unbelievable tonight,'' head coach Kevin O'Sullivan said. "I've never seen the atmosphere like it was tonight, and it helped. There is no question it helped us the entire night."
In the bottom of the eighth, with the score 15-10 after Miami scored twice in the top of the inning, the Gators hit five home runs off Miami sophomore Tate DeRias, who had entered to close out the seventh. Florida's seven home runs in the game set a program record for a postseason game.
Cade Kurland started the homer party by hitting his second of the game with one out. Three batters later, Brendan Lawson hit a two-run homer to make it 18-10, before Blake Cyr and Ethan Surowiec followed with solo shots as the Gators went back-to-back-to-back. They weren't finished. Following a Caden McDonald single, Bowen connected for his second home run of the game to make it 22-10 and leave fans looking at each other, wondering if what they had seen really happened.
It had, prompting the exit of DeRias, a seldom-used sophomore only in the game because Miami was running low on pitchers.
Florida's seven-run eighth inning was the third time in the game that the Gators batted around and proved once again that you never know what you might see at the ballpark.
"I can't explain tonight. It was amazing,'' O'Sullivan said. "It's just one of those weird moments that doesn't happen very often."