Gators Baseball Welcomes Seminoles for First Matchup of the Year

The No. 23 Florida Gators welcome in-state rivals No. 20 Florida State to Condron Family Ballpark on Tuesday to kick off their annual three-game series. Florida State enters with a 13-2 record on the year, while the Gators are 14-3.

Florida State is 135-129-1 all-time against Florida, but the Gators hold the better record under head coach Kevin O’Sullivan. With O’Sullivan at the helm, the Gators are 37-23. Furthermore, Florida is 67-50 in its home ballpark against Florida State, but boasts an impressive 19-4 record under O’Sullivan when hosting their rivals.

On the mound, O’Sullivan is handing the ball to redshirt freshman Schuyler Sandford. Sandford has a 1-0 record in six appearances this season, posting a 1.69 ERA and 14 strikeouts in 10.2 innings pitched. Batters are also hitting .184 against him.

The 6-foot-6 righty has been impressive on the bump in 2026, displaying a swing-and-miss slider to go along with a mid-90s fastball that batters are struggling to catch up to.

Matching up against Sandford for Florida State is a right-handed pitcher, John Abraham. Abraham is a 6-foot-3 junior who has a 0.66 ERA and a 1-0 record in six appearances in 2026. Much like Sandford, Abraham has been unhittable for opposing batters. He has posted a 20-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio, and batters are hitting .146 against him.

This is not the first time the Seminoles' starting pitcher has faced the Gators. He has four previous outings against the Gators over the past two years, combining for seven innings pitched, eight strikeouts, four earned runs, four hits, four walks and four hit batters.

The Seminoles enter the series coming off a dominant weekend series victory over Northern Kentucky. They outscored their opponents 37 to 9, including back-to-back run-rule victories on Saturday and Sunday.

With that series factored in, the Seminoles' offense is slashing .310/.431/.502 and has hit 18 homers to date and has totaled 57 extra base hits.

Paving the way for the offense is talented sophomore first baseman Myles Bailey. As a freshman, Bailey hit .327 with 19 homers and 56 RBI. Those numbers earned Freshman First-Team All-American honors from D1Baseball and Perfect Game. He was also named to the ACC All-Tournament Team and ACC All-Freshman Team.

Now, as a sophomore, he is batting .391 with 18 hits, six homers, two doubles and 17 RBI. He has also walked 20 times in 15 games.

One notable stat for both sides is their record in midweek games. Neither side has dropped a midweek game in 2026, with Florida sitting at 6-0 and Florida State at 4-0. That is set to change come the end of Tuesday night's affair.

First pitch between the Gators and Seminoles is set for 6:30 p.m., with the SEC Network+ providing coverage of the game.