The Gators launched a season-high six homers behind seven masterful innings from Jac Caglianone.
BATON ROUGE, La. – Highlighted by a season-high six home runs, No. 6 Florida run-ruled No. 5 LSU by a final score of 12-2 in eight innings at Alex Box Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
Delivering the team’s second top-five series victory in as many weekends, the Gators (14-9, 4-2 SEC) plated all 12 runs of their runs in the final four innings to deliver a statement win in the decisive game three. The series victory marked Florida’s first in Baton Rouge since a 2011 sweep.
Five Gators combined for six homers in the slugfest, featuring a two-homer day and four RBI from Colby Shelton<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/colby-shelton/16639> (3-for-5). Ty Evans<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/ty-evans/16368> (3-for-5), Jac Caglianone<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/jac-caglianone/16365> (1-for-5), Tyler Shelnut<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/tyler-shelnut/16376> (1-for-2) and Cade Kurland<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/cade-kurland/16372> (1-for-3) also went yard in the onslaught. Caglianone was equally as masterful on the hill, chucking a season-high seven innings and allowing just one earned run to pick up his third win.
Caglianone worked around a pair of two-out walks to blank the Tigers (19-6, 2-4 SEC) in the first inning. He retired six of the next seven batters to hold LSU scoreless through three, with counterpart Thatcher Hurd holding the Gators in check to maintain a deadlock.
LSU took a 1-0 lead in the fourth, with Josh Pearson getting into scoring position on a one-out double down the left-field line. Ethan Frey then singled, as a fielding error in left field allowed Pearson to scamper home for an unearned run.
Florida had an immediate answer for the Tigers, erupting for six runs in the top of the fifth to take a 6-1 advantage. Tanner Garrison<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/tanner-garrison/16622> led off with a single to right-center, allowing Shelton to give the Gators the lead with a one-out, two-run homer to right-center field on a 2-2 offering. Luke Heyman<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/luke-heyman/16370> added on, following a walk of Shelnut with a two-run double to left field for a 4-1 ballgame. Kurland capped off the outburst with a two-run, opposite-field shot to right.
The Tigers drew within four runs in the bottom half on a solo home run to left field by Jared Jones, but Caglianone fanned Hayden Travinski to send a 6-2 matchup into the sixth. The Gators quickly got the run back and then some, as Shelton connected for his second big fly of the game on an opposite-field blast over the left-field wall.
Up 8-2, Caglianone went back to work in the sixth and seventh, firing scoreless innings in both frames. That opened the door for Florida to put the game on ice with a four-run top of the eighth. History was made from there, as Evans, Caglianone and Shelnut smacked back-to-back-to-back home runs, with Evans’ coming in the form of a two-run blast.
The Gators called on Brandon Neely<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/brandon-neely/16373> with a 12-2 lead in the eighth to finish it off. The UF closer proceeded to retire the side in order to secure a run-rule victory for the Orange & Blue. Neely struck out two Tigers and needed just nine pitches to secure the win.
Caglianone improved to 3-0 on the season after earning the victory. He went a season-high seven innings, allowed just two runs (one earned) on three hits and five walks while striking out five.
LSU starting pitcher Thatcher Hurd (1-2) was saddled with the loss after allowing five earned runs on six hits and two walks. He fanned five.
NOTABLES
* Sunday’s official attendance was a third-straight sellout crowd of 11,648.
* Florida delivered its first series win in Baton Rouge since a 2011 sweep.
* The Gators won their first contest in a decisive game three in Baton Rouge.
* Florida’s season-high six home runs marked the team’s most since hitting six against LSU in the College World Series Finals on June 25, 2023.
* The Gators posted their sixth come-from-behind win of the season.
* Florida came from behind in both game two and game three.
* In his last four starts, Caglianone has allowed two earned runs across 24 1/3 innings on 10 hits, 16 walks and 32 strikeouts.
* Caglianone tied his career high with 7.0 innings pitched.
* Evans, Caglianone and Shelnut launched back-to-back-to-back homers in the eighth inning.
* The blasts marked Florida’s first set of three-consecutive homers in 19 years – since Brian Jeroloman, Brandon McArthur and Brian Leclerc accomplished the feat vs. FSU on June 10, 2005.
* Evans recorded his 11th multi-hit performance in the last 13 games including multiple knocks in all three games of the series.
* Shelton hit his team-leading 11th and 12th home runs.
* The performance marked Shelton’s third multi-homer game of the season.
* Kurland swatted his fifth home run in the fifth.
* The Gators are 42-15 in weekend series since 2023 and 51-18 across the team’s previous 23 series.
* Florida is 41-18 in its last 59 games vs. SEC opponents including a 33-15 regular-season mark.
* Florida is now 55-69-1 all-time vs. LSU including 17-32-1 in Baton Rouge.
* The Gators are 26-22 against the Tigers under head coach Kevin O’Sullivan<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/coaches/kevin-o-sullivan/1752> (9-12 away).
FROM HEAD COACH KEVIN O’SULLIVAN
On the victory…
“Early on, (Thatcher) Hurd, he had trouble commanding his fastball but he was throwing his curveball and slider for strikes, so it took us a while to get going. Jac (Caglianone) was just unbelievable on the mound today. He was in total control. Never got out of his delivery. Seven innings, one earned run. And then offensively we were really, really good. Colby Shelton<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/colby-shelton/16639> had a big day. I think we had six homers on the day. He certainly got going today. Ty had an unbelievable weekend at the plate and played great defense, too. The play he made yesterday to start the ninth was an incredible play. He made another one to his left tonight. Obviously, Jac ran into one. Shelnut had a great weekend, had three walks today as well. We had some contributions from everybody. I thought Tanner (Garrison) caught great the entire weekend. It was an overall complete team win today.”
On Caglianone keeping his composure…
“Absolutely. I think that’s one of the biggest changes he’s made from last year. Mentally, we threw the ball away at first where there probably wasn’t a play. He kept his composure, made his pitches. We kicked the ball in left field but didn’t show any emotion, kind of kept it together. I can’t say enough about how he’s been pitching the entire year.”
On key contributors starting slow but clicking on Sunday…
“Yeah, it’s one of those things. Baseball is a different sport. It always seems like the game comes back around to you. You get down a couple of at bats and all of a sudden in the last three innings or so, you can come up with a couple of runners on and it’s a big at bat, guys come through with a real quality at bat, and the game changes. I know it’s been a little bit of a tough go the first few weeks here during the season, but I think we can see that the young freshmen are turning the corner here, hopefully. That’s two weekends in a row against two quality teams that they’ve shown the ability to come in and help us on the weekends. Obviously, today, what can you say? If we can split one of the first two games, we feel good about Jac on Sunday. We’re just going to stay the course, keep working on this thing, but this is a really big weekend for us.”
UP NEXT
Florida travels to Jacksonville, Fla. on Tuesday for a neutral-site battle against in-state rival Florida State. The matchup is scheduled for 6 p.m. on SEC Network+.
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