With the game tied at three in the fifth inning, senior left fielder Blake Cyr smoked his 12th homer of the year to put the Gators up by two.
The pair of Cyr and sophomore shortstop Brendan Lawson went 7-8, each with a home run, as Florida (38-18) powered past Vanderbilt (33-24) 8-3, in Hoover, Alabama, in the SEC Tournament second round.
Lawson went 3-for-3, scored three runs and drove in two, while Cyr hit 4-for-5 with two RBIs and two doubles.
The Gators struck immediately when redshirt sophomore Kyle Jones opened the game with a leadoff single and stole second base on the next pitch. Lawson followed with a flared double past Vanderbilt’s diving right fielder that scored Jones and gave Florida an early lead.
Cyr narrowly missed a home run in the first — his deep drive to left field bounced off the top of the wall. Lawson held at third on the play, but sophomore third baseman Ethan Surowiec drove him in with an RBI groundout that put the Gators ahead 2-0.
Florida added another run in the second inning after junior outfielder Hayden Yost crushed a towering solo home run to right field. The blast marked Yost’s fourth home run in his last two games and extended Florida’s lead to three.
The Gators threatened again in the third but couldn’t capitalize on a bases-loaded opportunity. Vanderbilt pulled freshman starter Tyler Baird after only two innings, while Lawson and Cyr opened the third with back-to-back singles. Senior catcher Karson Bowen worked a walk to load the bases, but Vanderbilt sophomore left-hander Matthew Shorey escaped the jam with a pair of strikeouts.
The Commodores evened the score in the fifth inning, but the game wasn’t tied for long. Florida answered immediately as Cyr blasted a two-run home run to left field that put the Gators back on top, 5-3.
Yost nearly added another homer in the sixth inning, but his deep drive to right field hit off the wall for a double and the inning ended scoreless.
UF doubled its lead in the seventh after walks to Surowiec and Bowen. Stripling advanced both runners with a soft groundout, allowing redshirt junior Cade Kurland to plate two runs on a chopper up the middle that deflected off the umpire and into center field. The Gators’ late-game surge put them ahead 7-3 entering the final two frames.
Lawson added the exclamation point in dramatic fashion in the eighth. After Vanderbilt successfully overturned a ball call with the ABS system, Lawson stepped back into the box and launched the next pitch over the right-field wall. This turned what would have been a walk into a home run that pushed Florida’s lead to 8-3.
Florida also made history behind the plate early in the game when Bowen successfully challenged the first ABS review in program history. The overturned pitch made the Gators just the eighth team in college baseball to have recorded a successful ABS challenge.
Sophomore right-hander and SEC Pitcher of the Year Aidan King dominated the early portion of the game for Florida. King cruised through four scoreless innings while striking out five batters and relying heavily on his breaking ball to keep the Commodores off balance.
King also received defensive help from Jones in the first inning.The redshirt sophomore made a highlight-reel catch in center field on a deep drive from senior infielder Mike Mancini that was headed for the wall.
The fifth inning unraveled quickly for King as sophomore infielder Brodie Johnston stretched a bloop single into a double and Mancini walked. Junior utilityman Braden Holcomb followed with a two-run double into the left-center field gap that cut Florida’s lead to 3-2, while graduate outfielder Logan Johnstone tied the game with an RBI triple off the wall in right-center field.
King was pulled following the three extra-base hits, and sophomore right-hander Jackson Barberi escaped the inning by striking out the first batter he faced. Barberi shut the Commodores down over the next 2.1 innings and only allowed two baserunners.
Graduate left-hander Ernesto Lugo-Canchola and junior righty Luke McNeillie each got an inning of work in the eighth and ninth, respectively. Both Gators tossed clean, scoreless innings and struck out two Commodores apiece to secure Florida’s victory.
The Gators will look to carry this offensive momentum into their game against No. 4 seed Alabama tomorrow at 8 p.m. in the SEC Tournament Quarterfinals.
Contact Colton Veres at cveres@alligator.org. Follow him on X at @colton_veres.
Colton Veres is a senior sports journalism student in his first semester at The Alligator. He is currently the Summer 2026 baseball reporter. In his free time he enjoys watching the Red Sox and spending times with friends and loved ones.
