Jac Caglianone really excited to potentially start on the mound in final game of CWS finals

On Monday night, the College World Series will be decided between Florida and LSU in the final game of the season. Gators head coach Kevin O’Sullivan will be turning to his star two-way player Jac Caglianone to get the win in this final game.

Ahead of that opportunity to start in Game 3 of the College World Series, Caglianone explained how excited he is for the opportunity.

“I’m really excited,” Jac Caglianone said. “I’d give anything for this team to win. I said it earlier in the year, my biggest goal is just to get a ring on these guys that have been here a while. That’s the whole game plan for tomorrow.”

This season, Caglianone has pitched 73.1 innings, garnering a 3.68 ERA over the course of the season. He also has 85 strikeouts in 2023. However, in the last 30 days, he has only pitched in three games, struggling with his control as he walked eight batters in 12 innings.

As a two-way player, Caglianone has also been a key contributor for the Gators on offense, even breaking the Division I home run record with 33 home runs this season. He reached that mark in Florida’s 24-4 win against LSU in Game 2.

“The record’s cool and all but the biggest thing on my mind is winning tomorrow,” Jac Caglianone said. “You can’t — like Wyatt [Langford] said, you can’t take any of these runs into tomorrow. It’s a fresh ball game. And hopefully, our bullpen keeps doing what they’re doing, and I think we’ll be fine.”

Kevin O’Sullivan on the plan for Florida’s pitching in Game 3

In Game 3 of the College World Series, Florida head coach Kevin O’Sullivan is sending Jac Caglianone to the mound for the final game of the College World Series.

“We’ve got one of our weekend starters going on four days’ rest. And, like I said, [Brandon] Neely and Cade [Fisher], who have been pitching an awful lot for us out here, got the day off. Ryan Slater hasn’t pitched. I think we’re in as good a shape as we possibly could be in game three of a weekend series. That’s what this is,” O’Sullivan said.

“The irony of the whole thing is, obviously Jac has struggled a little bit throwing strikes in the middle part of the year. And just felt like if we were ever going to have an opportunity to win the last game of the year he was going to have to stay in the rotation. He’ll have that opportunity tomorrow to pitch. So it’s kind of funny how things work out.”