With two runners on in the eighth inning, Troy junior designated hitter and Gainesville Regional MVP Jabe Boroff demolished his fourth home run of the tournament, a three-run shot to left field, to officially blow the game open.
Florida (41-21) couldn’t overcome a five-run sixth inning from Troy (36-30) as the Gators were outclassed 10-2 in the Gainesville Regional final.
After a two-homer night Sunday, sophomore catcher Jimmy Janicki continued to terrorize the Gators. He laced a two-RBI opposite-field double off sophomore righty Cooper Walls to drive in two runs as Troy struck in the first for the second straight game.
With the Gators down by two in the fifth inning, the offense showed signs of life as redshirt sophomore center fielder Kyle Jones flared an RBI single to center, making it a one-run game.
The offense responded in the seventh by garnering back-to-back singles before Jones once again was able to spot the Gators a run with an RBI knock through the right side of the infield to drive in his second run of the game and turn it into a 7-2 ballgame. Senior Cade Kurland’s single in the seventh was his 200th career hit in what was possibly his last game as a Gator. The second baseman committed to Florida at the end of his eighth grade year.
Two-way player Caden McDonald pitched 4.1 scoreless innings after relieving Walls and only allowed two baserunners.
He was ultimately pulled for junior righty Russell Sandefer in the sixth despite getting the first batter to ground out.
“It's a lot to ask somebody to be a two-way player,” head coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “He looked tired.”
Sandefer did not have the stuff that earned him the Sunday starter role as he walked the only three batters he faced to load the bases. The junior was then promptly pulled for graduate lefty Ernesto Lugo-Canchola.
“I make a decision, bring in Russ, and it just doesn’t work out; no one feels worse than he does, or me for that matter,” O’Sullivan said. “Never in my wildest dreams did I think that Russ would come in and walk three.”
Canchola had nothing to offer either as senior left fielder Drew Nelson promptly drilled a single to left field that plated two for the Trojans. Senior second baseman Sean Darnell played small ball and bunted down the first base line to reach base, driving in another run and giving Troy a 5-1 advantage.
Boroff continued his dominant tournament as he pummelled a double down the left field line to clear the bases and give Troy a 7-1 lead.
“Quite frankly, we didn’t pitch well enough this season,” O’Sullivan said. “It felt like we were chasing runs the last two games."
Despite putting runners on in the second and fourth innings, the Gators offense stalled as it couldn’t get a run across.
It once again couldn’t answer in the sixth as the Gators were sat down in order.
Redshirt freshman righty Joshua Whritenour came in relief for Canchola and gave the Gators a much-needed inning by setting the Trojans down 1-2-3 in the seventh.
The Gator offense couldn’t garner any runs after Boroff's homer in the eighth and ninth in a game that saw them be sent down in order four times.
After plating 41 runs through the first three games of the tournament, the Gators only mustered two in their season-ending loss and were outscored by Troy 26-13 across two games.
“It’s gonna take a while to digest this,” O’Sullivan said.
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.
