Heyman’s Two Home Runs Clinch Series Against Miami

The No. 8 Florida Gators defeated the Miami Hurricanes 6-3 Saturday to clinch the series and move to 11-0 on the season. With a Florida record 9,033 in attendance at Condron Ballpark, the Gators overcame early injuries with clutch home runs by Luke Heyman.

Early Inning Injuries

Not even three innings into the game, Florida watched two huge pieces leave the field with the athletic trainer.

As fans were still settling into their seats, second baseman Cade Kurland dove to his left and made a great play to end the top of the first. Following the out, the athletic trainer rushed to the field to attend to an injured Kurland who appeared to be in a lot of pain. Kurland walked off the field with the trainer holding his left shoulder up in the air. He was later seen in the dugout wearing a sling for the rest of the game.

It was later revealed that Kurland’s shoulder had popped out and they were able to pop it back in.

The trainer was back on the field with two outs in the third inning to attend to starting pitcher Pierce Coppola, who had walked consecutive batters to draw UF coach Kevin O’Sullivan to the mound. Coppola, covering his face in his glove, left the field with the trainer walking next to him.

O’Sullivan did not seem concerned about the situation, saying it might have been more out of caution than anything else.

“His stuff was fine for the first two innings, it just didn’t quite look right,” O’Sullivan said. “Went out there and asked him how he was feeling and he said he felt fine. But I just felt that it didn’t look right.”

 Long Ball Carries Florida Again

The long ball was in full effect again, with three more Gator home runs on Saturday.

Bobby Boser began the third inning with a leadoff home run to give Florida a 1-0 lead. Boser’s five home runs this season are tied for the team lead.

Junior catcher Luke Heyman has had a tough start to the year. He came into this one hitting .227, with five hits and zero home runs. He squared one up in the fourth inning, but right at the left fielder with the bases loaded. Heyman did not miss in his next at-bat. Following a Landon Stripling RBI double, Heyman crushed one over the left-field wall to put Florida up 4-0.

His night did not stop there. After Miami finally got on the board after Daniel Cuvet hit a two-run home run to close the gap to 4-2 in the top of the eighth. Heyman, in the bottom half of the inning, hit a no-doubter to push the lead back to 6-2.

“We’ve been working on certain things and you know I felt good leading up to this week,” Heyman said. “It felt great to help my team get a couple of runs across the board, that big one in the eighth was definitely huge.”

The Hey-Maker 🥊 🥊 #GoGators pic.twitter.com/lJz7uDeGpg

— Florida Gators Baseball (@GatorsBB) March 2, 2025

King Keeps Rolling

Freshman Aidan King (2-0) has been dealing on the mound. King came in earlier than he probably anticipated, relieving Coppola and once again delivered. His fastball had life and he used it to attack these Miami (8-3) hitters. King is on a  seven-and-a-third scoreless streak and has not allowed an earned run since his first outing against Air Force.

King finished the day going 3 1/3 innings, one hit, zero runs, one walk and three strikeouts. He now has a team-best 0.87 ERA (Min.10 innings).

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Florida Leads Miami

Florida now leads the all-time series against Miami 136-135-1 and has won 10 of the last 11 series vs. the Hurricanes, includes a 24-8 mark across the last 32 games.

O’Sullivan is 43-18 all-time against Miami, but mentioned postgame that he really doesn’t think about it too much. Called it more of a talking point and nothing more than that.

Saturday’s attendance is the largest on-campus crowd for a baseball game in the history of the state of Florida.

Up Next

Florida will go for the sweep Sunday with the first pitch scheduled for 1 p.m. You can watch on SEC Network+ or listen live at ESPN 98.1-FM/850-AM WRUF.

Florida is scheduled to start right-hander Jake Clemente (1-0, 1.80 ERA) vs. UM’s righty Brian Walter (2-0, 0.82).