Mother Nature made sure to be in attendance for the grand opening of the $65 million dollar Florida Ballpark on Friday night. After a nearly three-hour rain delay, the No. 1 Florida Gators opened their new home with a 7-5 win over No. 21 Miami.
Florida opened the scoring in the first inning with a solo home run in the first inning, marking the first hit and run in the new stadium.
Miami got after Mace in each of the next two innings.
Yohandy Morales doubled to start the frame and Mace walked Toral to put two on with no outs. Christian Del Castillo singled through the right side to tie the game before Mace would get out of the jam. He found himself back in trouble in the third, once again allowing the first two runners to reach base before recording an out. The Canes would load the bases with one out but Mace got a line out and struck out Toral looking to get out of the third inning.'
"I was excited to get that out for the team," Mace said after the game. "I put myself in that jam but I don't want to put that on the team. I was excited to not let those runs score."
Florida kept attacking the Miami pitching staff. In the fifth inning, with the score still knotted at 1 the Gators' offense went back to work. Josh Rivera and Kendrick Calilao kicked things off with singles to open the frame before Cory Acton struck out. Jacob Young singled through the right side to break the tie. Young's single extended his hitting streak — which dates back to the final game of 2019 — to 19 games. Hickey came back up and hit a two-run ground-rule double that just found the foul line in right field, giving the Gators a 4-1 lead.
Florida added to the lead in the sixth inning. Josh Rivera tripled and scored off of a Kendrick Calilao single that drilled Miami pitcher Jake Garland. Kris Armstrong added two more runs with a mammoth home run that cleared the grass berm in right field.
The Gators went into the ninth inning with a comfortable 7-1 lead. Christian Scott, who had replaced Mace in the sixth inning was lifted in favor of freshman Chase Centala. Scott had been cruising through three scoreless innings but O'Sullivan wanted to get him out of the game to potentially have him be able to throw again this weekend.
Centala immediately ran into trouble.
The freshman gave up a single and walked the next two batters he faced before being lifted in favor of Ben Specht.
"In retrospect would I do it again? I probably would have," Kevin O'Sullivan said after the game. "You make decisions based on what you see in practice and he's been throwing the ball really good. He's probably not happy with himself right now but I'll run him back out there again when we get a chance."
Specht wasn't able to shut the door either, allowing three more runs to cross the plate and the Canes' brought the tying run into the box. Florida turned to junior college transfer Franco Aleman, who was able to get the final out.
The Gators have won 18 of the last 22 over Miami. Kevin O'Sullivan is 35-13 against the Canes.
Florida will look to take the series on Saturday at 1:00 pm. Jack Leftwich will get the start for Florida and Miami will counter with freshman Alejandro Rosario.
