Florida Baseball Drops Fifth Straight Game, Remains Winless In SEC

Florida dropped its fifth straight game Thursday by losing to No. 15 Ole Miss 7-5 and remain winless in SEC play, the Gators’ worst league start in program history.

While the offense finds its footing again, the pitching staff continues its woes of not throwing strikes, walking 13 Rebels at Swayze Field.

Final from the series opener.

Presented by @WellsFargo pic.twitter.com/8eUVp2hxip

— Florida Gators Baseball (@GatorsBB) March 28, 2025

“It’s just really, really disappointing,” UF coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “Obviously, we’re off to a tough start here in SEC play and just the effort tonight was not there.”

Pitching Staff Struggles Again

During this losing streak, free passes have plagued the UF pitching staff. On Thursday, Florida (18-10, 0-7 SEC)  pitchers walked 13 batters, making that 42 free passes during this stretch. It started with true freshman  Aidan King, who has struggled in his last two starts after a dominant outing against Tennessee.

It started in the first for King, who fell behind early and surrendered two runs out of the gate. He also drove his pitch count up to 42 after one inning, which was an immediate red flag, signaled this would likely not be a long outing again from King. That would come to fruition as King was done after 3 1/3 innings.

King’s final line was 3 1/3 innings, three runs, four hits, four walks and five strikeouts.

Bullpen Woes

After King’s exit, Luke McNeillie was called on to eat up some innings for an already depleted bullpen. After retiring the first two hitters to end the fourth, McNeillie started the fifth with another strikeout. But it went downhill from that point. He walked the next two hitters, gave up a two-run double and walked the ensuing batter. The same pattern was followed by Caden McDonald, who relieved McNeillie in the fifth. McDonald got out of the fifth-inning jam, but was pulled in the sixth after a lead-off double.

Christian Rodriguez was next on the mound and struggled like the rest. Rodriguez faced five hitters, walked three, gave up a run and was pulled. The sixth-inning finally concluded when Carson Montsdeoca came in and recorded a strikeout. But again, in the following inning, struggles from these relief pitchers remained.

In the seventh, Montsdeoca allowed the first two hitters to get on. After getting the next two guys out, he too was pulled. Niko Jannsens came in, walked the first batter he saw and was pulled. Usual midweek starter Billy Barlow became the seventh pitcher to take the mound for Florida. Barlow was able to finish out the game.

Trading Blows Early

The scoring did not take long to start in Oxford on Thursday night. Ole Miss (20-5, 5-2) got the night started with a two-run first inning after pushing King’s pitch count to 42. The Rebels left the bases loaded, the first of three times that would happen. Florida struck back in the third inning, with Ashton Wilson hitting his first home run of the season to give the Gators the 3-2 lead. Ole Miss got that run back in the bottom half of the inning off a Will Furniss sacrifice fly to make it 3-3.

https://twitter.com/GatorsBB/status/1905424702375403966

After Florida went quiet in the fifth, Ole Miss created some breathing room with a big fifth inning. The inning started with a strikeout, but the next two hitters walked, setting up Furniss to burn the Gators again. He smoked a double down the right-field line to drive in two runs to make it a 5-3 game. Following two more walks, Ole Miss scratched another across on a Brayden Randle sacrifice fly.

Will Furniss has really turned around his slow start.

– .286 AVG
– .921 OPS
– 19 RBI thru 15 starts pic.twitter.com/P04IEoKLOS

— The Sip Central (@sip_central) March 28, 2025

After Mitchell Sanford led off the sixth with a double, two more Rebels reached base via the walk. Furniss added another RBI to his total with one more sacrifice fly to drive Sanford in and make it a 7-3 ballgame. Florida cut the deficit to two in the seventh following a Bobby Boser two-run single. That is 28 RBI for Boser to tie for the team lead.

Up Next

Florida and Ole Miss will play a doubleheader Friday because of the threat of inclement weather Saturday. Game 2 will begin at 4 p.m. ET, and Game 3 will start about 45 minutes after the first game ends. You can watch on SEC Network+ and listen live on ESPN 98.1-FM/850-AM WRUF + WJXL 1010AM.