Jac Caglianone turned in his best SEC start of the season while Wyatt Langford went 3-for-4 with a pair of homers.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – No. 7 Florida took sole possession of first place in the SEC East by completing a series sweep of No. 5 Vanderbilt with a 6-2 win on Senior Day at Condron Family Ballpark on Sunday afternoon.
Jac Caglianone<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/jac-caglianone/15489> produced his best start in SEC play, tying his career high with 6 2/3 innings pitched and just one run allowed. The lefty also tied his personal best with nine strikeouts while Wyatt Langford<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/wyatt-langford/15497> (3-for-4) did the heavy lifting on offense with two homers, one double and four RBI.
The Gators (40-12, 18-9 SEC) pounced on the Commodores (35-16, 17-10 SEC) in the first inning, beginning with a two-run, 450-foot home run to left-center by Langford. Florida then loaded up the bases on a Caglianone single and a pair of walks, with Luke Heyman<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/luke-heyman/15522> making it 3-0 on an RBI groundout to third base.
Starting on the mound for the Orange & Blue, Caglianone fanned three Dores in the second then worked around a two-out walk in the third. The southpaw went one-two-three in the fourth, as the Gators extended their lead to 4-0 on an RBI double to left-center from Langford in the bottom half of the inning.
Florida tacked on a sixth run in the fifth. Caglianone led off with a single through the left side and later scored on an RBI single to center by BT Riopelle<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/bt-riopelle/15503>.
With a 5-0 advantage in hand, Caglianone returned to the hill in the seventh. The left-hander registered two strikeouts while hitting one batter before being lifted in favor of closer Brandon Neely<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/brandon-neely/15499>. Vanderbilt scratched across a run with two outs, as Troy LaNeve produced a pinch-hit single to bring home Chris Maldonado.
The Gators got the run right back, with Langford blasting his second homer of the game to right field to bring the score to 6-1. The long ball signified Langford’s seventh-career multi-homer day.
The Commodores scraped across a late run in the eighth, as Davis Diaz grounded out to third to bring in Alan Espinal. That brought the score to its final tally of 6-2.
Neely closed out the game in the ninth, retiring the side in order to secure a series sweep.
Caglianone (5-2) recorded the victory after tying his career high with 6 2/3 innings. The southpaw gave up one earned run on one hit and one walk while also tying his personal best with nine strikeouts.
Commodores starter Greysen Carter (0-2) received the loss, lasting just one-third of an inning and allowing three earned runs on two hits and three walks.
NOTABLES
* Seven seniors and one staff member were honored during Sunday’s pregame festivities: Nick Ficarrotta<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/nick-ficarrotta/15493>, Tyler Nesbitt<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/tyler-nesbitt/15500>, Riopelle, Josh Rivera<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/josh-rivera/15504>, Richie Schiekofer<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/richie-schiekofer/15520>, Brandon Sproat<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/brandon-sproat/15508>, Tucker Talbott<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/tucker-talbott/15509> and student manager Andrew Blardonis.
* Florida (18-9) passed Vanderbilt for sole possession of first place in the SEC East.
* The Gators won 40 games for the 28th time in program history including the 11th time under Head Coach Kevin O’Sullivan<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/coaches/kevin-o-sullivan/1551>.
* Florida swept Vanderbilt for the fourth time under O’Sullivan including the first time since 2018 (2008, 2012, 2018, 2023).
* All four sweeps have been in Gainesville.
* The Gators have won 11-straight series at Condron Family Ballpark dating back to last season.
* Vanderbilt scored three earned runs against Florida during the three-game series.
* The Gators outscored the Commodores, 22-4.
* Langford swatted home runs in the first and seventh innings, recording his seventh-career multi-homer game.
* Gators have produced multi-homer games in each of the last three seasons vs. Vanderbilt: Jud Fabian<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/jud-fabian/15127> (2) in 2021 and Riopelle (3) in 2022.
* Caglianone registered his first win and five-inning start since defeating Georgia on May 16.
* Gators pitchers combined to go 3-0 with a 0.72 ERA and 27 strikeouts in 24 innings against Vanderbilt.
* Florida has struck out 534 batters in 442 innings – translating to 10.9 per nine innings.
* The Gators have 525 hits through 52 games (10.1 hits/game).
* The Gators have scored in 46.9% of batted innings (195 of 416).
* Florida is now 146-78-1 all-time vs. Vanderbilt including 84-24 at home.
* The Gators are 33-20 in the series under O’Sullivan featuring a 19-5 mark in Gainesville.
FROM HEAD COACH KEVIN O’SULLIVAN
On the sweep…
“I don’t care who you sweep, but that team in the other dugout is pretty darn good. They can swing the bats, we just did a good job this weekend pitching-wise. I think the key to this weekend was keeping Enrique (Bradfield Jr.) off the basepaths. It was just one of those weekends… Sometimes it’s not who you play, it’s when you play them, and we played pretty darn well this weekend.”
On Caglianone’s performance…
“We ask a lot of him. It’s 90-plus degrees outside today and he’s doing two-way, and he gave us over a hundred pitches. We couldn’t ask for any more from him.”
On Langford’s incredible junior season…
“To see where he was his freshman year and where he is now, I mean, his work ethic is off the charts, he’s tough as can be. You go back to his injury, he’s supposed to miss four weeks and he comes back in two… he made a conscious decision that he wants to play.”
UP NEXT
Florida closes out the regular season on the road at No. 17 Kentucky next Thursday through Saturday. All three games will stream on SEC Network+.
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