Florida Gators take third consecutive series over Miami Hurricanes

CORAL GABLES, Fla. — The series was playing out much how it did a year prior in Gainesville. The Gators had won on Friday but Miami evened the series on Saturday with Jac Caglianone slated to pitch the finale. He was good then but even better on Sunday at Miami, throwing six scorless innings and striking out a career-high 11 while leading the Gators (8-3) to the 8-4 win over Miami.

Caglianone set the tone on the mound while shortstop Colby Shelton was the catalyst at the plate. Luke Heyman reached on an error with two outs in the first inning and Shelton immediately made Miami pay with an opposite-field home run to open the scoring 2-0.

Ty Evans and Tyler Shelnut hit back-to-back home runs in the fourth inning and Caglianone got in on the power surge with his third home run of the campaign. The left-hander would take a one-hitter into the sixth inning before giving up a couple of hits. Caglianone would strike out Lorenzo Carrier to get out of a jam and end his day on the mound.

Florida’s bullpen of Ryan Slater and Brandon Neely allowed four runs in the eighth inning but Shelton’s second blast of the game gave Florida two insurance runs on the way to their third-straight series win — and 14 of the last 16 including postseason play — over the Canes.

Players of the Game

Jac Caglianone: What more can you say about the Golden Spikes watch list utility player? Caglianone blasted his third home run of the season while finishing 3-5 at the plate on Sunday. A good day for anyone but Cagliaone was at his best on the mound. The junior turned in the best pitching performance of his young career tossing a scoreless six innings while striking out a career-high 11 batters.

Colby Shelton: The shortstop blasted two home runs to stay in the lead for long balls with five on the season. Shelton is hitting .325 on the season with 15 runs scored and 12 RBI.

Notes:

• Sunday’s official attendance was the weekend’s third-straight sellout crowd of 3,555 fans.
• Florida improved to 134-135-1 all-time vs. Miami, moving within one win of tying the series.
  • The Gators are 53-82 in the series on the road.
• The Gators rose to 41-18 vs. the Canes featuring a 18-9 away mark under head coach Kevin O’Sullivan.
• Florida is 22-8 against Miami across the last 30 meetings.
• Caglianone struck out a career-high 11 batters, breaking his previous best of nine (twice, most recently vs. Vanderbilt on May 14, 2023).
• Florida swatted a season-high five home runs.
  • The performance marked the Gators’ first five homer game since Florida’s 24-4 win over LSU in the College World Series finals on June 25, 2023.
• Shelton had his first two-homer game as a Gator and now leads the roster with five homers.
  • Shelton’s two-homer game was Florida’s first since Caglianone and Evans accomplished the feat on June 25, 2023 vs. LSU.
• Evans and Shelnut hit back-to-back home runs in the fourth inning, marking Florida’s second set of back-to-back jacks of the series (Kurland and Caglianone in game one).
  • Shelnut was ejected from the contest for excessive celebration on his home run.
  • Evans recorded his third homer of the year while Shelnut hit his fourth.
• Caglianone registered his fourth home of the season in the fifth.
• Hernandez opened his UM career with 15.0 innings without an earned run before allowing a home run to Evans in the fourth inning.
• Yost picked up his first-career hit with a one-out double in the eighth.
• Florida is 36-12 in weekend series since 2023 and 45-15 across the team’s previous 21 series.
• Dating back to last season, Florida is 30-6 in regular season non-conference games and has won 21 of its last 24 such contests.

Quotes from the game

On the mindset of his team bouncing back after losing on Saturday

“This was an important game for us. I know it’s early in the season but we faced a little adversity. I kind of wanted to see how we responded today and I thought we responded in a positive way. We beat a really good pitcher today. Their starter was really good. I think the story of the game is, obviously, Jac on the mound. He was outstanding. His changeup was as good as its been since he’s been here. He swing the bat really well. Colby. Shelton with two home runs and both were meaningful. We got on the board there in the first, an 0-2 count, left-on-left and went the other way. When we gave up the four spot in the eighth to bounce back and tack on two more (in the top of the ninth) to give us a four run lead instead of a two run lead, obviously is big. All in all it was a great day. Really pleased with how we responded from last night.”

On Jac Caglianone’s performance

“Everybody talks about his arm strength and that type of thing. I’ll tell you what. The changeup today was as good as it has been in his career at Florida.”

On the entire weekend for Caglianone and the work he has put in

“Both visits I took with him were really just to give him a breather. Not for any other reason, just to kind of get his breath going and get his legs underneath him, so to speak. I can’t say enough about how he played this entire weekend. The effort he gave. And then today on the mound, he was outstanding.”

On homeruns from Tyler Shelnut and Ty Evans in the middle of the game

“I mean, it was an emotional game. When we got the warning in the first or second and I got the guys together and we’ve just gotta be careful. We’ve got to be mindful about when we do get warnings that there’s going to be consequences if you step out of line, so to speak. We’ll address that when we get home. That does need to get cleaned up a little bit.”

On the defense

“Like we’ve said many times. The defensive part sometimes gets overlooked. This is not an easy field to play on. The infield was playing really quick. It took us a little while Thursday night at practice to kind of get accustomed to it. I thought we played great defense for the most part all weekend.”

Early season test and how the guys responded?

“Yeah, this is important. It’s a rivalry series. More importantly, for us, it was a chance to see how we’re going to respond after a tough loss last night. Yeah, it’s early, but today was a step in the right direction.”

What’s next for the Florida Gators

After playing the role of road warriors this week the Gators will enjoy the comforts of home this coming week. The Gators will host FAU and UCF on Tuesday and Wednesday before a three-game set with St. Mary’s all at Condron Family Ballpark over the weekend.