GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Perhaps you saw the breaking news Monday. If not, here goes: Gators freshman Aidan King does not pitch like your typical first-year player.

The Southeastern Conference has noticed. On Monday, the league named King its Pitcher of the Week, the first true freshman to be honored as the lone recipient of the award since Tennessee’s Drew Beam in April 2022.

“Sometimes freshmen can come in and kind of nibble around the zone a little bit, maybe they’re scared to get hit,” said teammate Landon Stripling. “I’ve never seen him like that. He is very confident in what he throws, for good reason. Aiden is an elite pitcher. He throws all his pitches for strikes. He’s going to be a phenomenal, phenomenal pitcher.”

King is off to an excellent start to his college career. In five appearances, King is 2-0 with a 0.87 ERA (10 1/3 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 12 SO). He provided strong relief for the Gators on Saturday against Miami when he replaced starter Pierce Coppola (see more, below) with two outs in the top of the third. King tossed 3 1/3 scoreless innings to earn the victory.

King arrived at UF with lofty credentials. The 6-foot-2, 195-pound right-hander starred at Bishop Snyder High in Jacksonville. He made headlines in last spring’s playoffs when he struck out 20 of 24 Providence batters he faced to earn the victory.

King’s transition to college has been seamless and should Coppola miss any time, he is likely to move into the weekend rotation.

“He’s really good. We’ve seen it all fall, all preseason and so far, this spring,” catcher Luke Heyman said. “I don’t think he was expecting to be out there that early, but he can go long if he wants to. He just competes. He throws a lot of strikes and he’s got a four-pitch mix that he’s able to throw whatever he wants whenever he wants. He didn’t fear the situation. He looks like he’s been out here for years doing it.”

 

STREAK BUSTER

There was no mystery as to what happened. If you were at Condron Ballpark on Sunday afternoon, you saw it with your own eyes. If you were not in attendance but understand a box score, all it took was a quick glance.

 

Either way, it was clear why the Gators had lost their first game of the season, a 13-7 defeat to Miami that prevented Florida from a three-game sweep.

“We just kind of fell apart on the mound,” UF coach Kevin O’Sullivan said.

Yep, that sums it up nicely.

The implosion wasn’t immediate. It unfurled in small waves, starting in the fourth inning with the Gators ahead 4-0 and starter Jake Clemente on the mound. Clemente walked two and hit two in the inning, allowing Miami to get within 4-2. The Hurricanes chased Clemente from the game before he could record an out in the fifth. Clemente loaded the bases by walking two and giving up a single. That prompted O’Sullivan to call on freshman lefty Niko Janssens, who walked home Miami’s third run. Billy Barlow replaced Janssens after one batter, but before Barlow could get out of the inning, Miami scored four more runs to take a 7-4 lead. By the time the game was in the books, the Hurricanes had sent 49 batters to the plate for 13 runs, 14 hits, six walks and four HBPs.

“You just can’t get a four-inning start,” O’Sullivan said. “That’s not a recipe for success.”

Truth is, what unfolded Sunday is the outlier in what has been an otherwise splendid start for UF pitchers. The Gators enter Tuesday night’s midweek game at UCF ranked fifth nationally in strikeouts per nine innings (13.1), third in strikeout-to-walk ratio (4.35), ninth in WHIP (1.05), 16th in hits allowed per nine innings (6.44) and 19th in ERA (2.91).

While Clemente struggled with his control Sunday, the bigger concern for now is the health of left-hander Coppola, who had been so good in his first two starts (2-0, 20 SO, 10 IP). Coppola departed Florida’s 6-3 win on Saturday after 2 2/3 innings. He walked two and struck out three in his 40-pitch outing, but his short time on the mound wasn’t about the results.

“His stuff looked fine for the first two innings. It just didn’t look quite look right when I went out there and asked him how he was feeling,” O’Sullivan said. “He said he felt fine. It just didn’t look right. Hopefully it’s not anything serious. We’ll see. We’ve always erred on the side of caution. He kind of lost the zone there for a little bit and the fastball didn’t quite have the same hop to it. It was not a very difficult decision to make.”

O’Sullivan planned to meet with the team’s medical staff after the weekend series and as of this posting, no update on Coppola’s status has been released.

 

QUOTE OF NOTE I

Sophomore right-hander Alex Philpott earned his first career save in Saturday’s win against Miami. Philpott has struck out eight in 5 1/3 innings.

“He looked really good. Hopefully, he can be able to maintain that. He throws strikes. He can field the position. He holds runners. He’s got multiple pitches. He’s like a starter but he’s got different weapons. The fastball is obviously a lot different than last season and I thought he had the mentality to do it. We’ll see. It’s a long season,” said O’Sullivan.

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QUOTE OF NOTE II

The Gators took the all-time series lead over Miami for the first time since 1969 after Saturday’s victory. The loss Sunday brought them back even at 136-136-1. O’Sullivan improved to 43-19 against the Hurricanes.

“I don’t really think a whole lot about that, obviously,” he said. “I mean, those are good things to write about and talk about, but I don’t really think about those things very often.”

 

OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS

The Gators’ lineup looked different in Sunday’s loss with the absence of second baseman Cade Kurland, who dislocated his shoulder and had to leave Saturday’s game.

With Kurland sidelined, third baseman Bobby Boser moved to second and Stripling, who went 3-for-3 as the designated hitter in Saturday’s win, started at third base and went 1-for-4 with a pair of RBI.

A newcomer who transferred from Texas Tech, Stripling is hitting .348 (1 HR, 7 RBI) in his hybrid role as DH/part-time starter. Stripling has played first, second and third base in his career and is part of a versatile group of transfers O’Sullivan signed in the offseason.

He joined the Gators with an open mind.

“I think I bring unselfishness,” Stripling said. “I didn’t know exactly what my role was going to look like. Obviously, I knew coming in here was going to be third base or whatnot. Obviously, right now Bobby’s on fire. I wish Bobby nothing but the best, so right now, my role is to do things like [Saturday], when I get in, to try and do my job and help this team win. I’m committed to that role. I want to do the best I can in that role.”

In the Game 2 win over the Hurricanes, Stripling stroked an RBI double in the bottom of the sixth to give Florida a two-run lead at a pivotal moment. Stripling, who bats left-handed, went the other way on a 3-2 pitch to score Ashton Wilson from second.

“When you get two strikes, the at-bat becomes for the team,” he said. “In that at-bat, just trying to do my job of moving that guy over. I got a good pitch to hit and was able to hit it the other way. They had a shift on, so it was able to get through.”

Stripling started 24 games as a freshman at Texas Tech with four homers and 20 RBI. The 20-year-old Stripling was born in Winter Haven, Fla., and later moved to Lawrenceville, Ga., where he grew up. He may have started his college career in West Texas, but when the door opened to an opportunity to play at Florida, he gladly walked through it.

“Florida is one of, if not, the most prestigious baseball programs in the county with the arguable the best head coach in baseball with a really good assistant coaching staff,” Stripling said. “That attracts you here. That’s why guys come here. We want to win ballgames. That’s why you come to Florida. I think we have a great team. I think we have a lot of potential.

“Obviously, we’re not where we want to be. It’s still early in the season, but I think the guys come to put in the work to get to where we want to go, which is Omaha and to win a national championship. I think we’re doing that every day.”

 

EXTRA BASES

Sophomore right-hander Matthew Jenkins, a transfer from Santa Fe College, is scheduled to make his first UF start Tuesday night at UCF. Jenkins has made three relief appearances … Florida’s 11-0 start matched the second-longest in program history behind the 16-0 start in 2020; the Gators also started 11-0 in 1989 and 2002 … O’Sullivan said OF/IF Justin Nadeau left Sunday’s game for precautionary reasons due to groin soreness … Sophomore left-hander Jacob Gomberg made his first appearance Sunday since undergoing Tommy John surgery last year. Gomberg was charged with five hits and four runs in 1/3 of an inning … Heyman ended a 15-game homerless drought with a pair two-run shots in Saturday’s win over Miami. Heyman hit 16 HRs a season ago and had last connected in the Clemson Super Regional. “It felt great. All year I’ve felt like I’ve been hitting the ball hard, kind of right out some people,” he said … Former Gators OF Matt Prevesk is hitting .333 with 2 HR, 10 RBI for UCF.