Florida takes series behind dominant start from Jac Caglianone

On more than one occasion this season, Florida Gators manager Kevin O’Sullivan has said that if the Gators can split the first two games on the weekend, they feel good about taking the series. Jac Caglianone continues to make that statement true.

The junior left-hander twirled seven innings of two-run baseball and added a solo home run for good measure in a 12-2 run-rule win over the LSU Tigers (19-6, 2-4 SEC). The win gives the Gators (14-9, 4-2 SEC) back-to-back weekend series wins over top-five ranked opponents.

Five Gators combined for six homers in the slugfest, featuring a two-homer day and four RBI from Colby Shelton (3-for-5). Ty Evans (3-for-5), Caglianone (1-for-5), Tyler Shelnut (1-for-2) and Cade Kurland (1-for-3) also went yard in the blowout. Caglianone was equally as masterful on the hill, chucking a season-high seven innings and allowing just one earned run to pick up his third win.

Players of the Game

Jac Caglianone: The left-hander continues to dominate on the mound. Caglianone limited the Tigers to just two runs (one earned) on only three hits. He struck out five on the way to earning his third win of the season.

Colby Shelton: It had been a rough weekend for the shortstop but he responded on Sunday. Shelton went 3-5 with two homers and four RBI.

Ty Evans: Florida’s right fielder was 3-5 with a double, home run and two RBI. He finished the weekend 8-15 (.533), 2 2B, 2 HR, 4 RBI and a couple of really nice plays in RF.

Jac Caglianone on the mound in 2024

Columbia (2/25): 3.0 IP, 7 SO, 2 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB
Miami (3/3): 6.0 IP, 11 SO, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB
St. Mary’s (3/10): 6.0 IP, 9 SO, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 4 BB
Texas A&M (3/17): 5.1 IP, 7 SO, 4 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 5 BB
LSU (3/24): 7.0 IP, 5 SO, 3 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 5 BB

Notes

• Sunday’s official attendance was a third-straight sellout crowd of 11,648.
• Florida delivered its first series win in Baton Rouge since a 2011 sweep.
  • The Gators won their first contest in a decisive game three in Baton Rouge.
• Florida’s season-high six home runs marked the team’s most since hitting six against LSU in the College World Series Finals on June 25, 2023.
• The Gators posted their sixth come-from-behind win of the season.
  • Florida came from behind in both game two and game three.
• In his last four starts, Caglianone has allowed two earned runs across 24 1/3 innings on 10 hits, 16 walks and 32 strikeouts.
  • Caglianone tied his career high with 7.0 innings pitched.
• Evans, Caglianone and Shelnut launched back-to-back-to-back homers in the eighth inning.
  • The blasts marked Florida’s first set of three-consecutive homers in 19 years – since Brian Jeroloman, Brandon McArthur and Brian Leclerc accomplished the feat vs. FSU on June 10, 2005.
• Evans recorded his 11th multi-hit performance in the last 13 games including multiple knocks in all three games of the series.
• Shelton hit his team-leading 11th and 12th home runs.
  • The performance marked Shelton’s third multi-homer game of the season.
• Kurland swatted his fifth home run in the fifth.
• The Gators are 42-15 in weekend series since 2023 and 51-18 across the team’s previous 23 series.
  • Florida is 41-18 in its last 59 games vs. SEC opponents including a 33-15 regular-season mark.
• Florida is now 55-69-1 all-time vs. LSU including 17-32-1 in Baton Rouge.
  • The Gators are 26-22 against the Tigers under head coach Kevin O’Sullivan (9-12 away).

Quotes

From Florida Gators head coach Kevin O’Sullivan

On the game …

“Early on (Thatcher) Hurd, he had trouble commanding his fastball but he was throwing his curveball and slider for strikes, so it took us a while to get going. Jac (Caglianone) was just unbelievable on the mound today. He was in total control. Never got out of his delivery. Seven innings, one earned run. And then offensively we were really, really good. Colby Shelton had a big day. I think we had six homers on the day. He certainly got going today. Ty had an unbelievable weekend at the plate and played a great defense too. The play he made yesterday to start the ninth was an incredible play. He made another one to his left tonight. Obviously Jac ran into one. Shelnut had a great weekend, had three walks today as well. We had some contributions from everybody. I thought Tanner (Garrison) caught great the entire weekend. It was an overall complete team win today.”

Jac Caglianone keeping his composure on the mound

“Absolutely. I think that’s one of the biggest changes he’s made from last year. Mentally, we threw the ball away at first where there probably wasn’t a play. He kept his composure, made his pitches. We kicked the ball in left field but didn’t show any emotion, kind of kept it together. I can’t say enough about how he’s been pitching the entire year.”

Colby Shelton, Luke Heyman, Cade Kurland started the weekend slow but all had a good game Sunday

“Yeah it’s one of those things. Baseball is a different sport. It always seems like the game comes back around to you. You get down a couple of at bats and all of a sudden in the last three innings or so you can come up with a couple of runners on and it’s a big at bat, guys come through with a real quality at bat and the game changes. I know it’s been a little bit of a tough go the first few weeks here during the season but I think we can see that the young freshmen are turning the corner here hopefully. That’s two weekends in a row against two quality teams that they’ve shown the ability to come in and help us on the weekends. Obviously, today, what can you say? If we can split one of the first two games we feel good about Jac on Sunday. We’re just going to stay the course, keep working on this thing, but this is a really big weekend for us.”

Learning what the team is made of?

“Yeah, I mean, I’d rather struggle early on and figure out your team than struggle late in the year. It’s just been a work in progress. It’s a long season. I know at times, we’ve all been frustrated but we knew it was going to take a little bit of time for this team to come together especially with our young arms. I’m really pleased with the progression those guys are making.”

On the back-to-back-to-back home runs in the eighth inning

“I think we showed a lot of resiliency this weekend to bounce back from a tough loss on Friday. We fell behind (Saturday) but found a way to get it done in extras and then today, stayed with it, a little bit frustrated through the first four offensively. Fell behind, but once again, put some really good at bats together and Jac made some pitches when he needed to in the game to keep them right where they were at. It showed a lot about our character, I think, this weekend.”

What’s up next for the Florida Gators

The Gators will travel to Jacksonville on Tuesday night for their second meeting with the Florida State Seminoles. Florida will play host to Mississippi State at Condron Family Ballpark for a three-game series starting on Friday, Mar. 29.