GAINESVILLE, Fla. – No. 23 Florida pitched its second-straight combined shutout against South Carolina to clinch the series with a 3-0 victory at Condron Family Ballpark on Saturday night.
 
Producing back-to-back shutouts against an SEC opponent for the first time since 2013, the Gators (17-3, 2-0 SEC) were carried by six scoreless frames of two-hit ball from starting pitcher Aidan King. Extending his streak to 23 1/3 innings pitched without an earned run to open the season, King tied his career high with nine strikeouts against just one walk to earn his third win of the campaign.
 
Florida has now pitched 19.0 shutout innings against the Gamecocks (12-8, 0-2 SEC) in the series. UF hurlers have combined to surrender just four hits and six walks across two games while racking up 26 strikeouts. Relievers Ernesto Lugo-Canchola (1 1/3 IP) and Jackson Barberi (1 2/3 IP) covered the final three innings of Saturday night’s performance, allowing just one Gamecock to reach base as the latter picked up his first-career save.
 
With his stuff clicking from the jump, King struck out the side in order swinging in the top of the first. The sophomore righty surrendered a lone baserunner on a fielding error in the second but utilized a strikeout and lineout to strand a Gamecock in scoring position.
 
In the bottom of the second, Colton Schwarz drew a one-out walk and Kolt Myers lined a single to right for UF’s first hit, but the Gators stranded a pair for the second-consecutive frame. King returned to the mound in top-three and quickly fanned the leadoff man before inducing a pair of flyouts to strand a one-out single.
 
Florida threatened in the home half of the third, as Ethan Surowiec and Karson Bowen hit one-out singles. They advanced on a groundout to first base, but were left stranded in scoring position on a Blake Cyr lineout to right.
 
Cruising into the middle innings, King pitched a clean frame while logging his sixth strikeout in the fourth. This time, the Gators struck in the home half to open a 1-0 lead through four. After drawing a two-out walk, Myers swiped second base and scored on an error by South Carolina right fielder Patrick Evans on a fly ball off the bat of Kyle Jones.
 
Pitching with the lead for the first time all night, King fanned two more Gamecocks in the fifth while stranding runners at the corners to reach eight strikeouts. He tied his career high with his ninth strikeout in the sixth for the third out of a one-two-three inning.
 
Taking over for King to begin the seventh, Lugo-Canchola struck out the Gamecock leadoff man before retiring the side in order. That opened the door for the UF offense to create some separation in the home half of the seventh inning.
 
A pair of walks to Surowiec and Brendan Lawson followed by a hit-by-pitch of Bowen loaded the bases for the Gators in bottom-seven. Cash Strayer and Schwarz took advantage of the traffic, producing sacrifice flies to left and center field, respectively, to extend the UF lead to 3-0.
 
Lugo-Canchola teamed up with Barberi to blank the Gamecocks in the eighth, with the latter fanning Jack Reynolds for the final out of the frame. Barberi remained on the bump into the ninth inning and recorded three-straight outs to secure the series-clinching shutout.
 
Barberi locked down his first-career save, throwing 1 2/3 perfect frames with one strikeout.
 
King (3-1) picked up the victory behind six shutout, two-hit innings on the hill. He tied his career high with nine strikeouts and issued just one free pass.
 
Gamecocks starting pitcher Amp Phillips (2-2) was saddled with the series-deciding loss. The junior right-hander was charged with one unearned run over six innings on five hits, three walks and three strikeouts.
 
Surowiec (2-for-4) was the lone Gator to register multiple hits while Lawson (1-for-3) reached base three times and has now reached safely in all 20 games this season.

NOTABLES

• The Gators pitched their first back-to-back shutouts in SEC play in nearly 13 years – since March 30-31 vs. No. 11 Ole Miss (7-0, 4-0).

  • Florida has pitched 19.0 shutout innings in the series with four hits allowed, six walks and 26 strikeouts.

• Florida threw back-to-back shutouts for the first time since March 7-8 of last season against Harvard (12-0, 7-0).
• The Gators pitched their fifth shutout of the season.
• Florida has now won seven-straight SEC series dating back to last season, which is three series longer than any other team in the conference.
• The Gators are 16-4 across their last 20 SEC contests dating back to last season.
• Florida has shut out South Carolina across 28.0-consecutive innings of regular-season, SEC play dating back to last season – stretching three complete games and the last two innings of a fourth contest.

  • The Gators have allowed nine total hits in the last 28.0 SEC innings vs. South Carolina.

• King struck out a season-high nine hitters over six innings of two-hit ball to log his team-best third quality start and victory of the year.
• King has opened the campaign with 23 1/3-consecutive innings without allowing an earned run across five starts.
• Across his last 10 starts dating back to 2025, King is 7-2 with a 0.43 ERA and 55-to-13 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 62.0 innings pitched (three earned runs allowed).
• Barberi secured his first-career save with 1 2/3 perfect innings.
• Lawson has reached base in all 20 games this season.
• The Gators have won 34 of their last 42 regular-season games dating back to 2025.
• The Gators are now 59-56 all-time and 34-18 at home against South Carolina.
• Florida is 38-24 overall including 21-7 at home vs. the Gamecocks under Head Coach Kevin O’Sullivan.
• The Gators have won six-straight games against the Gamecocks.
• Saturday night’s official attendance was 5,340.

 
FROM HEAD COACH KEVIN O’SULLIVAN
On King’s pitching performance…
“…He was outstanding. He was totally in control. I am really proud of the way he bounced back from last start. Once again, that’s two starts where our guys have gone six innings. It makes my job so much easier with the bullpen. Ernesto has been so efficient. He threw 16 pitches to record four outs. Jackson recorded five outs and only used 14 pitches with 11 strikes. So, we knew going into last night and tonight that the wind was going to play havoc in the outfield and we knew the ball was not going to carry. So, we have to learn how to score runs in different ways.”
 
On tomorrow’s series finale…
“I told our team that it is really difficult to sweep anybody, I don’t care who it is. Especially in our league. Tomorrow is just as important as any other game. It is a quick turnaround. Whoever wins the league, it’s always by one game. So sometimes you look back and kick yourself because there was a spot where we could’ve had a chance to sweep, which is so hard to do. But we will do everything in our power to make sure we are ready to go for tomorrow, for sure.”
 
On whether there is less pressure tomorrow with the series in the bag…
“No. We have a chance to sweep somebody, so there’s pressure. I do not take any game for granted and our players should not either. There has been a lot of debate about midweek games and they are all important to me. So, tomorrow is a big game for us. Like I said: this league is too difficult. When you have a chance to sweep a team, you have to take care of your business and at least play good baseball.”

UP NEXT

Florida and South Carolina face off in the series finale on Sunday, scheduled for 12 p.m. on SEC Network+.