Kentucky held a five-run lead entering the bottom of the eighth inning at Condron Family Ballpark on Friday night. Junior left-hander Ben Cleaver held Florida to one run over four innings before freshman Jack Sams came in and tossed three scoreless innings, striking out four Gators. The Wildcats led 6-1 when Sams exited the game.
But disaster struck in the eighth inning. Sophomore right-hander Tristan Hunter allowed a leadoff double to Caden McDonald, who then reached third on a wild pitch. He scored on an infield groundout to make it 6-2. Hunter retired the next batter on a lineout, then should've been out of the inning with a strikeout of Cade Kurland. However, the ball got away from catcher Owen Jenkins and was ruled a wild pitch to put a runner on with two outs. Florida loaded the bases on a single and a walk, leading to senior right-hander Nile Adcock entering the game. After getting Brendan Lawson in a 1-2 hole, Lawson swung at a fastball up and away and doubled down the left field line to score all three runners. Lawson reached third base on the play on an error, then scored on yet another wild pitch.
After Kentucky failed to score in the top of the frame, Florida walked off the Wildcats with a bases-loaded single with two outs in the bottom of the ninth to complete the comeback and collect a 7-6 victory.
With another close loss, a disappointing trend that marred the 2025 season has sprung up in recent weeks. Kentucky has now lost a one-run game in each of the past four weekends in conference play, dropping its record to 2-5 within the SEC in such games. The Wildcats defeated Alabama 8-7 during the opening weekend of SEC play and held on to a 5-4 victory on April 11 at Auburn, but since then, Kentucky has lost four straight one-run contests.
While this mark isn't quite as bad as last season – the Wildcats were 3-8 in the SEC in one-run games, but also lost both games to West Virginia by one run in the Clemson Regional – it's certainly a trend Kentucky would like to reverse moving forward.
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Obviously, not all close losses are created equally. Friday night's loss – much like back-to-back losses to Vanderbilt in 2025 – stings more because Kentucky held a lead on the road in the late stages of the game. Other games, such as last weekend against Tennessee and the prior weekend against South Carolina, saw Kentucky rally but ultimately come up short on comeback bids.
In any event, the close losses have Kentucky still searching for a few more conference wins to secure a spot in the NCAA Tournament for the fourth straight season. First pitch is scheduled for Saturday at 4 p.m., and Sunday's game was moved up to 10 a.m. because of expected inclement weather in Gainesville later in the day.
Junior right-hander Jaxon Jelkin (7-2, 3.77 ERA) takes the mound on Saturday and sophomore Nate Harris (4-2, 5.08) returns to the weekend rotation for the first time in nearly a month while dealing with a shoulder injury. He last pitched on April 11 against Auburn.
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