Beyond the Scorebook: Florida Gators take down UNF 10-0

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Florida Gators bounced back after a season-opening loss to beat the UNF Osprey 10-0 on the road Tuesday night. Florida had both its Saturday and Sunday games against St. John’s canceled due to rain, having to sit with the loss for four days before getting back on the field.

The Gators (1-1) wasted no time getting their offense going. Jac Caglianone homered in the top of the first and the Gators added another run in the second inning. Florida tacked on another run in the fourth and three more in the fifth inning on the way to a 10-0 run-rule victory. The Gators will host the Osprey at Condron ballpark on Wednesday night to finish the season series.

Tuesday’s key players 

RHP Liam Peterson: The freshman was set to make the first start of his career last Saturday against St. John’s but had his debut washed out. Peterson was given the ball Tuesday night and he opened his career by striking out the side in the top of the first. Peterson struck out two more in the second. Peterson finished his debut with seven strikeouts and allowed just one hit over three innings of work.

1B Jac Caglianone: Let the home run tracking begin. Caglianone blasted a two-run home run in the top of the first inning to give the Gators their first lead. It was Caglinaone’s first homer of the season and the Osprey were careful with the slugger the rest of the night, walking him in his next two at-bats with one intentional walk. Caglianone finished the night 2-3 with four RBI.

2B Cade Kurland: The sophomore went 3-5 at the dish. Kurland scored four times and added a double to his collection of hits.

The plays that mattered most …

Liam Peterson’s entire start: Peterson was as good as advertised. The freshman sat 93-94 on the gun and worked all four of his pitches. He felt most comfortable with his slider, which he featured on the way to his first collegiate win. Peterson was only scheduled to pitch two innings on Tuesday night but was able to make it through three without allowing a run and kept his pitch count under 40. He’ll start this Saturday when the Gators host Columbia.

[RELATED: Get to know Liam Peterson in our exclusive interview with the freshman]

Quotes of the night

Kevin O’Sullivan on the win…
“We did a nice job in the first inning and ran the pitch count up on their starter who had a really good arm. But, obviously, getting Liam [Peterson] out there for the first time, first start on the road, he was everything we would hope that he would be. He was outstanding. The bullpen was good with Fisher [Jameson], Jake [Clemente] and Blake [Purnell] coming in and doing their thing. Then, Cade Kurland had a heck of a night at the plate getting four hits in the leadoff spot. Obviously, Jac putting us ahead there in the first with the two-run homer with four RBI tonight. And Ty Evans had some really, really good at bats tonight too. I think he hit the ball hard three times out of the four at bats. Overall, it was a really good game for us.”

O’Sullivan on Jac Caglianone hitting second…
“Luke [Heyman]’s been swinging the bat good. It’s not going to be easy for other teams to just go ahead and walk Jac, because if Luke keeps swinging the bat like he has been, they’re still going to have to respect Luke and Colby [Shelton]. He’s going to get it going, too. The reason for moving Jac to the two-hole tonight, we played from behind for nine-straight innings on Friday night and it was hard. I just wanted to hopefully get out to an early lead and hopefully our guys would relax a little bit, which they did. A lot of teams now are taking their best hitter and moving him to the two-hole. You look around our league and some of the better hitters are hitting two-hole. It got us out to an early lead, like I said, and I think the guys relaxed a little bit more.”

O’Sullivan on Peterson’s outing…
“The goal was to get him for two innings and keep his pitch count under 40 because he’s going to come back on Saturday, but he went three innings and gave up the one hit, the infield hit, and struck out seven with one walk on 37 pitches. I thought his stuff was electric and pitched to both sides of the plate with his fastball. It was everything we had hoped for. It’s his first college start, so there’s always some nerves, but it was on the road and it was a long top half of the first with their starter going 43 pitches to record two outs. His routine got a little bit changed up a little bit because he did have to run back down to the pen and get loose again before he went out there in the bottom of the first.”

What this result means for the Florida Gators

The Gators dropped just two spots after their loss to St. John’s. This win gets them back to .500 and they will have one more game with UNF on Wednesday.

What’s next for the Gators

The Gators will play host four games the remainder of this week.

before hosting the Ospreys at Condron Family Ballpark on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. with coverage on SEC Network+.

Florida defeated UNF in both meetings last season, posting a 7-2 win on March 14 and a 6-2 victory on April 25 to improve to 19-7 all-time in the series. Under head coach Kevin O’Sullivan, Florida is 20-5 against UNF, which includes a 15-3 home mark and 5-2 record on the road.

This weekend the Gators will host the Columbia Lions. It will be the first games Columbia has played this season.