GAINESVILLE, Fla. – No. 9 Florida was outlasted by High Point in a 7-2 affair in game one at Condron Family Ballpark on Friday night.
 
The Panthers (8-6) used a three-run seventh inning to snap the Gators’ (13-2) NCAA-best, 13-game win streak. Shortstop Brendan Lawson (1-for-4) swatted a game-tying solo shot in bottom-six for his sixth home run of the season, but High Point put the matchup away with five unanswered runs thereafter. That spoiled a strong start from ace righty Liam Peterson, who struck out 11 and carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning but ultimately went home with a no-decision.
 
After a 30-minute weather delay that pushed first pitch back to 7:02 p.m., Peterson struck out two including the High Point leadoff man in the first while catcher Karson Bowen back-picked Lane Allen at first base for the third out. The UF ace fanned two more Panthers en route to a scoreless second frame.
 
Waiting for the UF bats to come to life, Peterson struck out the first two batters of the third to reach six strikeouts. He then induced a groundout to second for the final out, marking just the second ball put in play across the junior right-hander’s first 50 pitches.
 
With Peterson holding the Panthers in check, Florida took the lead at 1-0 in bottom-three. Landon Stripling and Colton Schwarz opened the inning with singles and advanced on a textbook sacrifice bunt placed by Hayden Yost. Kyle Jones put UF on the board with an RBI groundout to shortstop to plate Stripling.
 
Striking out three more batters in the fourth, Peterson navigated around a one-out walk to keep the shutout intact. Peterson induced a groundout of Seojun Oh to begin the fifth, representing the third ball put in play by High Point through 75 pitches. The righty fanned the next two Panthers to reach 11 strikeouts on the night.
 
After a leadoff walk in the sixth, Peterson surrendered his first knock on a ground ball through the right side on a successful hit-and-run that put runners at the corners. That prompted Peterson’s removal at 94 pitches in favor of reliever Russell Sandefer. From there, High Point plated two runs beginning with a five-pitch walk followed by a wild pitch to score Frank Kelly. Landen Johnson then drove home Willie Ponce on a groundout to second to give the Panthers a 2-1 lead, but southpaw Ernesto Lugo-Canchola entered and struck out two-straight batters to limit the damage.
 
Trailing for the first time all night, the Gators quickly evened the tally with one out in bottom-six. On a 1-1 offering, Lawson connected for a game-tying, 409-foot solo shot to right-center field.
 
High Point moved back in front in the top of the seventh with three runs to snag a 5-2 lead. It began with a two-out, RBI single to center by Ponce while Allen dumped a two-strike knock of his own into center to plate two more Panther runs.
 
Chasing three runs, the Gators stranded a Stripling single in bottom-seven before Jackson Hoyt fired a clean top of the eighth with two strikeouts. In the top of the ninth, the Panthers tacked on a pair of insurance runs on a two-out, two-run infield single to first base off the bat of Johnson. That brought the score to its final tally of 7-2, as Florida was unable to plate any runs in the final half inning.
 
High Point starter Wade Walton (2-1) earned the win behind seven frames of two-run ball. The right-hander finished with six hits allowed, one walk and four strikeouts.
 
Florida reliever Jackson Barberi (2-2) was stuck with the loss after surrendering three earned runs in two-thirds of an inning. He was charged with three hits allowed, one walk and one strikeout.
 
Peterson did not factor into the decision for the third time in four starts. He pitched five-plus frames with two earned runs allowed on one hit, four walks and 11 strikeouts. The Florida ace did not surrender a hit until the sixth inning.

NOTABLES

• Florida had its NCAA Division I-high, 13-game win streak snapped.

  • The streak was the Gators’ longest since starting 2020 at 16-0.

• Florida struck out a season-high 17 batters.
• Peterson took a no-hitter into the sixth inning, finishing with five-innings of one-hit ball and 11 strikeouts.

  • He allowed just four balls to be put in play across his 94 pitches.

• Over his last three starts, Peterson has allowed five runs on eight hits and seven walks across 15.0-plus innings while striking out 31 batters.
• Lawson tied the game at 2-2 with his sixth homer of the season in the sixth inning.
• Stripling went 3-for-3 with his first three-hit effort of the campaign and reached base four times.
• The Gators have won 30 of their last 37 regular-season games dating back to 2025.
• Florida is 35-6 in regular-season, non-conference play dating back to last season.
• The Gators are now 0-1 all-time against High Point on the diamond.
• Friday night’s official attendance was 6,607.
• First pitch on Friday night wad delayed 30 minutes to 7:02 due to weather.

 
FROM HEAD COACH KEVIN O’SULLIVAN
On Peterson’s outing and his last three starts in particular…
“Obviously, there’s no denying his stuff tonight, he was really good. The walks probably got his pitch count up, that was probably the biggest takeaway… I think he’s been like that his last three starts, other than if you take away the first start of the year, his stuff has been pretty much that dominant.”
 
On the game overall…
“Credit to High Point, their starting pitcher was really good. He came in with a 2.00 ERA, moved his fastball back and forth to both sides and had a really good changeup with some serious depth to it. They played exceptional defense. We got exposed a little bit tonight, to be quite honest with you. We haven’t played very many teams that exposed us on the base paths like they did tonight, so we gotta do a better job of holding runners at second. We got exposed in the bunt game, so we gotta do a better job with that and obviously, walking seven guys… We’ve been playing so good, there’s no reason to throw up any red flags. Obviously, our pitching staff’s been outstanding and we’ve been swinging the bat good, we just ran into a really good pitcher tonight. You look across the board, scores all the way across the country, anybody can beat anybody if you don’t play your best.”

UP NEXT

The Gators and Panthers face off again in game two on Saturday, scheduled for 4 p.m. on SEC Network+. Star right-hander Aidan King (2-0, 0.00 ERA) will look to even the series against High Point righty Ty Brachbill (3-0, 3.26 ERA).