What Brendan Lawson Said About His Walk-Off Home Run vs. Rider in Gainesville Regional
GAINESVILLE, Fla.-- Brendan Lawson was not going to let the Florida Gators' opener in the Gainesville Regional against Rider go to extra innings.
With the game tied 7-7 after Rider erased a 4-0 Florida lead in the eighth inning, Lawson led-off the bottom of the ninth inning with one goal in mind: get on base for Blake Cyr. Turns out Cyr was not needed.
Lawson, facing a 2-1 count, smacked a fastball 444 feet out past the centerfield wall to clinch the win and put the Gators in the winners' bracket.
"As soon as I hit it, I put my head down and ran out of the box, and I could hear (Mike) Rivera yell 'get up,'" Lawson said. "So I looked up, and right before I touched first, I thought that it was gone."
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Lawson capped off a tremendous hitting performance for Florida, which started and ended with a home run. Kyle Jones hit a leadoff home run in the bottom of the first, while Caden McDonald, Landon Stripling and Cade Kurland each added home runs before Lawson's.
It was also the latest in a string of home runs after a rough stretch during the regular season in which he went over a month without hitting a home run. Ending the drought on May 9 against Kentucky, Lawson has hit six home runs in his last nine games.
"I think just trying to keep things simple," Lawson said in his post-game television interview of his and his teammates' recent long-ball success. "Tommy Slater does an unbelievable job with us, and I think our lineup, 1-9, is just so solid. We trust anyone in there to get it done."
Head coach Kevin O'Sullivan also made sure not to discredit the "luck" that came with having a hot hitter lead off in the ninth inning.
"A lot of times it comes down to where you're at in your lineup, too. There's a little luck involved there," he said. "We led off the inning with Brendan, and we were fortunate there because he's been seeing the ball good."
It only seemed destined that the game ended in a home run as long balls told the story for both teams. Rider plated six runs with two outs in the eighth to take a 6-4 lead, all of which came from home runs. Anthony Paskell's grand slam tied the game, while a two-run home run from Nick Shuhet took the lead.
Meanwhile, Florida took the lead back in the bottom frame thanks to McDonald's solo shot and a two-run home run from Kurland. Rider, once again, answered with a long ball in the ninth from Matt Leahy to tie the game. Lawson's walk-off made it eight combined home runs between the two teams, plating 13 of the 15 total runs scored.
"I take blood pressure medicine, so I thought I was as calm as I can, but yeah, it was a little nerve-wracking," O'Sullivan said of the back-and-forth battle. "I mean, because I know how things can get like that. I've seen so many games, and been doing it for so long that it's not out of the realm of possibility that Rider comes in here and beats us if we don't play well. I mean, it's really that simple, and they almost did it."
Almost doesn't count, though, and Florida's response to adversity - a constant talking point of this year's team - was on the positive side. It also helped that Florida avoided an upset when other hosts such as top-seeded UCLA, Auburn and Southern Miss dropped their openers.
"It's very easy when a moment like (the top of the eighth) happens to kind of crawl into a ball and let the game take over. I was incredibly proud of how we responded to that," pitcher Russell Sandefer said.
For now, Florida is undefeated in regional play. The Gators will face the winner of the Miami-Troy matchup on Saturday at 6 p.m., hoping to take one step closer to a possible Super Regional-clinching matchup on Sunday.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/florida as What Brendan Lawson Said About His Walk-Off Home Run vs. Rider in Gainesville Regional.
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This story was originally published May 29, 2026 at 5:18 PM.