Lift off: Florida Gators crush Vols as Hurston Waldrep cruises to series win

The game was in Knoxville Tennessee but the No. 3 Florida Gators treated it like a launch pad in Cape Canaveral. Florida blasted three home runs including a 488-foot nuke off Jac Caglianone’s bat to take the series over No. 11 Tennessee with a 9-3 win.

Florida came out and of the gates hot and imposed their will on the Volunteers early. Wyatt Langford and Jac Caglianone led off with opposite-field singles, with Langford scoring on a bases-loaded walk by Colby Halter several batters later. With the bases loaded and two outs, Matt Prevesk came through with a two-run, automatic double to left-center field to open a 3-0 lead. Josh Rivera belted his 13th home run of the season, a two-run blast to right center field, to extend the lead to 5-0.

“They’re seeing the ball good. To our hitters credit, they’re facing a really good pitching staff. Every guy they’ve run out there has a good arm,” Kevin O’Sullivan said after the game. “We’ll have another challenge tomorrow with Beam. It doesn’t get any easier

“We’re the aggressor. We set the tone and our guys had really good approaches at the plate.” 

Hurston Waldrep would surrender a home run in the bottom half of the inning but threw the car into cruise control. The junior won his third-straight start, tossing seven frames of three-run ball on five hits and two walks. The righty struck out nine Volunteers in the victory.

“Hurston was incredibly good today. This is what we’ve been waiting for with Sproat and Hurston to put together a couple of back-to-back really good starts,” Kevin O’Sullivan said. “I think the common theme between the both of them is tempo. They pushed the tempo and set the tone. We’ve been waiting for this weekend to get these two guys going and certainly, they delivered.” 

Florida used home runs from Rivera, Caglianone, Prevesk, and Langford to plate six of its nine runs. The Gators have 71 homers on the season and are on pace to hit 122 home runs in the regular season. The record for a season was set by the 1998 Gators with 132.

Gators Notes

• Florida clinched a series victory over No. 11 Tennessee, marking the first regular-season series loss at home for the Volunteers since May 14-16, 2021 vs. then-No. 1 Arkansas.
  • Florida has outscored Tennessee, 15-4, across the first two games of the series.
• Florida rose to 8-0 on the road this season.
• Florida improved to 9-2 to open SEC play and is now 22-7 across the last 29 games against SEC opponents dating back to 2022.
• Waldrep won his third-straight start and fourth in his last five outings.
  • The right-hander struck out…
• Prevesk hit his first-career home run while setting a career-high with four RBI.
• Florida launched back-to-back homers for the second-straight game, with Langford and Caglianone doing so in the fourth inning.
• Michael Robertson’s team-leading on-base streak of 28 games came to a close.
• Caglianone extended his hitting streak to 10 games, which includes nine multi-hit performances.
• Florida has struck out double-digit batters in 23 of 32 games.
• Florida has struck out 361 batters in 277 innings – translating to 11.7 per nine innings.
  • The Gators struck out 32 Vols across the first two games.
• Through 32 games, Florida has a run differential of plus-156.
  • The Gators have scored in 131 of 256 batted innings this season (51.2%).
• The Gators have 360 hits through 32 games (11.3 hits/game).
• Florida improved to 156-94 all-time against Tennessee including 26-20 under Head Coach Kevin O’Sullivan.
  • The Gators are 69-48 in the series on the road (14-9 under O’Sullivan).