Miami Hurricanes implode in blowout NCAA tournament loss to Florida Gators
The Miami Hurricanes overcame the first-inning implosion on Saturday night, one in which poor pitching from AJ Ciscar and poor defense behind him allowed the Florida Gators to score six runs in the winner’s bracket game in the Gainesville Regional of the NCAA tournament.
Miami’s offense chipped away at the early deficit, ultimately tying the game in the fifth inning.
The Hurricanes could not, however, overcome the second implosion that came in the sixth inning — or the third that came in the eighth when the game was already well out of reach.
Four Miami relievers combined to allow seven runs — all with two outs — on one hit, four walks, a hit by pitch, a fielder’s choice, an error and a wild pitch in the pivotal sixth inning as the Hurricanes fell 22-10 to the host and No. 8 national seed Gators at UF’s Condron Family Ballpark.
The 22 runs are the most Miami has ever allowed in a game against Florida, breaking the previous mark of 20 on Feb. 13, 2000.
Miami (39-19), the No. 2 seed in the regional, falls into the loser’s bracket and will now need to win three consecutive games over the next two days in order to advance to the Super Regionals. First up will be a rematch with the third-seeded Troy Trojans (33-30) at noon Sunday (time is subject to change). Miami beat Troy 10-5 on Friday to open tournament play, but the Trojans kept their season alive with a 15-7 win in an elimination game against fourth-seeded Rider earlier Saturday.
The winner of the Miami-Troy game will then play the Gators (41-19) at 5 p.m. Sunday (time subject to change). A Florida win in that game advances the Gators to the super regionals. Should Florida lose, a winner-take-all game will be played on Monday.
And Miami is in this predicament because of its two glaring weaknesses all season: shoddy defense and erratic-at-best pitching. Miami committed four errors in the game while the pitching staff walked nine and hit three more. Of the 22 runs the Hurricanes allowed, 11 were unearned runs.
The sixth inning was a microcosm of those struggles at their worst.
Miami’s Jack Durso walked Kyle Jones before getting Brendan Lawson to fly out for the first out of the frame.
Ryan Bilka then entered and promptly walked Blake Cyr to put two on. An Ethan Surowiec pop out got Miami one out away from leaving the frame with the game tied 8-8.
Instead...
Caden McDonald reached on a fielder’s choice to load the bases when third baseman Gabriel Milano failed to touch third base for a forceout on a throw from shortstop Vance Sheahan. Bilka then walked Karson Bowen on four pitches to force in a run. Florida retook the lead 9-8.
Out goes Bilka. In comes Brixton Lofgren.
Lofgren faced four batters and logged no outs. He walked Ross Stripling, saw Cade Kurland reach base on a Sheahan throwing error, hit Hayden Yost (with a wild pitch involved in that plate appearance) and gave up a three-run double to Jones. Just like that, the Gators’ lead ballooned to 15-8.
Erick Peralta then replaced Lofgren to close out the inning. He hit Lawson before getting Cyr to fly out to mercifully end the frame.
But the damage was done.
And it undid a major rally from Miami’s offense.
The Hurricanes scored seven runs across the third through fifth innings — three in the third and two apiece in the fourth and fifth — to turn a 6-1 deficit after the first inning into an 8-8 tied game.
Four consecutive two-out hits in the third, capped by an Alex Sosa RBI double and Alonzo Alvarez two-run single, cut the deficit to 6-4 before Bowen homered to push Florida back up 7-4.
Sheahan hit an RBI single in the fourth to get within 7-5. Miami loaded the bases later in the inning but only got one more run on a wild pitch to get within 7-6. Florida got another run back in the bottom half of that frame on a Milano throwing error to make it 8-6.
And then UM tied it in the fifth on a Fabio Peralta walk with the bases loaded and Jake Ogden RBI fielder’s choice to give the Hurricanes life.
The Hurricanes actually briefly had the momentum early when Ogden opened the game with a leadoff home run against Florida ace Aiden King to give UM a 1-0 lead. King was pulled in the fourth inning after giving up a season-high six runs on eight hits and three strikeouts.
Briefly being the key word.
That lead quickly dissipated when Miami’s implosion in the bottom half of the first inning — on a combination of timely Florida hits, erraticness from Ciscar and shoddy Hurricanes defense — allowed the Gators to score six runs.
Ciscar hit Jones and then gave up a hit to Lawson to immediately put runners on first and third. A throwing error from Sheahan on a Cyr ground ball scored Jones to tie the game and put runners on second and third. Surowiec followed with a sacrifice fly that plated Lawson to give the Gators a 2-1 lead.
McDonald and Bowen followed with back-to-back singles — Bowen’s, however, came after Milano dropped a popup in foul territory for Miami’s second error of the frame — before Kurland ripped a three-run home run to left field to put Miami in a 6-1 hole.
Ciscar’s night was done one batter later after giving up a final hit to Yost to flip Florida’s lineup. The sophomore righty gave up a season-high-tying six runs for the fifth time this season — and fourth time in his past five starts — but only one of those six runs on Saturday were earned runs.
Sebastian Santos-Olson and Patrick Bradley-Cooney combined to throw four innings after Ciscar’s early exit to get Miami through the fifth inning with the game in reach before the Gators surged once again in the sixth.
Miami scored two runs in the eighth inning on RBI singles from Sosa and Dylan Dubovik to cap their scoring. Florida added seven more runs in the bottom of the eighth on home runs by Kurland, Lawson, Cyr, Surowiec and Bowen against Tate DeRias.
Remaining Gainesville Regional schedule
Sunday
Troy vs. Miami, noon (time subject to change)
Winner of Troy-Miami vs. Florida, 5 p.m. (time subject to change)
Monday
Winner of Troy-Miami vs. Florida (if Florida loses Sunday game), time TBD
This story was originally published May 31, 2026 at 12:49 AM.
.JPG)