A wild ninth inning helped the No. 21 Miami Hurricanes even the series with No. 1 Florida. The Gators walked five batters and hit one helping Miami push across three runs without a single hit on the way to a 10-9, extra inning win.

The Gators opened the game with a five-spot in the first inning against Miami freshman Alejandro Rosario.

Jacob Young reached on a fielding error and then a trio of hits from Nathan Hickey, Kirby McMullen, and Jordan Butler gave the Gators a 3-0 lead. Josh Rivera doubled home Butler and scored on Sterlin Thompson's first career hit. The 5-0 lead would hold for a while, but Rosario settled down. The right-hander allowed just one hit over the next three innings.

"Credit their starter, too," Kevin O'Sullivan said after the game. "He gave up five in the first and then put up three of four zeros in a row. Most freshmen, give up five in the first and his day is probably done, he's not going to regroup. He regrouped."

Miami got one back in the second inning and two more in the fifth before the Gators' bats came back alive. Jordan Butler led the fifth off with a walk before Kris Armstrong and Rivera hit back-to-back doubles to extend the Florida lead to 7-3.

Nathan Hickey hit his second home run in as many days and Jacob Young extended his hitting streak to 20 games.

The story of the game was the complete collapse of the bullpen in the ninth inning. O'Sullivan identified junior college transfer, Franco Aleman, as the guy he wants to close games but Aleman had a game he'll soon want to forget Saturday. Aleman entered the game in the eighth inning, walked one, gave up a hit but struck out three to move on. The ninth is where he fell apart. Aleman walked three of the first four batters he faced in the frame, would eventually walk five in the inning and hit a batter.

I asked Kevin O'Sullivan after the game why he left Aleman, who couldn't find the strike zone, in the game as long as he did.

"He's been throwing great up to this point," O'Sullivan said. "I've never seen him do that. I trust him. He's our guy at the end of the game. We had a three run lead and I trust him. We're going to use him in that role. I don't know what else to tell you other than he's our guy at the end. If you start making changes or making quick decisions this early in the season and if that's going to potentially be his role then that's not sending the right message to him. He's gotta be the guy at the end of the game for us. Today was just not his day. Simple as that."

The Gators will look to take the series against Miami, which would be the seventh-consecutive series they've taken over the rival Hurricanes on Sunday afternoon at 1:00 pm.