Brody Donay left the yard twice and Florida was plunked six times in the win.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – No. 6 Florida used five home runs to outslug Florida A&M by a final score of 10-7 at Condron Family Ballpark on Tuesday night.
The Orange & Blue received long balls from Colby Shelton<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/colby-shelton/16639> (1-for-4), Jac Caglianone<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/jac-caglianone/16365> (2-for-3), Cade Kurland<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/cade-kurland/16372> (2-for-4) and Brody Donay<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/brody-donay/16621> (2-for-3), with Donay leaving the yard twice for the first time as a Gator. Donay totaled a team-high four RBI followed by three runs driven in from Kurland.
On the mound, the UF pitching staff struck out 10 without issuing a walk or hitting a batter. Blake Purnell<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/blake-purnell/16374> and Cade Fisher<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/cade-fisher/16369> combined for four shutout innings to close out the contest.
The Rattlers (12-17) and the Gators (17-11) traded three-spots in the first inning. Florida A&M’s Adam Haidermota connected for a three-run home run into the left-field bullpen in the top half. Florida wasted no time tying it in the bottom half, with Kurland going the other way for a three-run blast into the right-field pen.
Florida A&M regained the lead with two runs in the second. Striking with two outs, Broedy Poppell singled in a pair with a line-drive base hit to right field. In the third, Jalen Niles produced an RBI groundout to second base to push the score to 6-3.
The Gators stormed back in the fourth, erupting for four runs to take a 7-6 edge. Caglianone led off with a single off the right-field wall and later scampered home on a wild pitch. After hit-by-pitches of Luke Heyman<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/luke-heyman/16370> and Armando Albert<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/armando-albert/16619>, Donay took a 1-1 pitch out of the ballpark to left-center for a long, three-run homer.
Florida extended its lead to 8-6 in the fourth. Leading off the inning, Shelton cranked an opposite-field blast onto the left-field berm.
UF reliever Fisher Jameson<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/fisher-jameson/16371> calmed the tide in the middle innings, retiring seven-straight batters from the third through the fifth. After a leadoff solo home run to center by Joseph Pierini in the sixth, he was lifted in favor of Purnell. The right-hander navigated the Gators from further damage, sending the matchup into the bottom of the sixth.
Fisher relieved Purnell with one out in the seventh and promptly fanned two batters to hold the one-run lead. That allowed Caglianone to push the advantage to 9-7, unloading on a 491-foot shot to right field with one out in the bottom of the seventh.
Donay barreled his second home run of the night to right field to give Florida an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth. That brought the score to its final tally of 10-7.
Fisher took the Gators through the remainder of the contest to earn his first save of the season. The southpaw finished with 2 2/3 shutout innings of relief, allowing just two hits and striking out five.
Jameson (2-0) picked up the victory, giving up two earned runs over three innings. He allowed three hits and struck out three.
Rattlers reliever Cody Williams (2-1) was handed his first loss of the season. He pitched one-third of an innings and surrendered two earned runs on one hit batter and one hit.
UF starter Ryan Slater<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/ryan-slater/16377> did not factor into the decision. He was charged with five runs (three earned) on six hits across two innings. He fanned one Rattler.
FAMU starter Dallas Tease also received a no-decision, allowing five earned runs across 2 2/3 frames. He concluded with three hits allowed, two walks and four strikeouts.
NOTABLES
* Tuesday night’s official attendance was 5,041.
* The Gators posted their ninth come-from-behind win of the season.
* Florida hit five home runs as a team by four different players.
* The Gators’ offense logged six hit-by-pitches on Tuesday – the team’s most since being hit six times against Florida A&M on March 7 2023.
* Florida has been plunked 11 times across the last two games.
* Caglianone’s team-high 14th home run went 491 feet in the seventh inning.
* Kurland launched his sixth home run of the year.
* Donay hit a three-run home run to give UF the lead in the third for his third homer of the campaign.
* He went yard again in the eighth to record his first multi-homer game of the season.
* Shelton smacked his 13th big fly.
* Shelnut has reached base safely in 15-straight games followed closely by Caglianone at 14-consecutive.
* Florida is 48-14 at home since the start of the 2023 season.
* The Gators have won 24 of their last 32 regular-season, non-conference games and are 33-11 in non-con dating back to the start of the 2023 campaign.
* Florida is now 31-1 all-time vs. Florida A&M (all meetings in Gainesville).
* The Gators are 15-1 against the Rattlers under head coach Kevin O’Sullivan<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/coaches/kevin-o-sullivan/1752>.
FROM HEAD COACH KEVIN O’SULLIVAN
On the team battling back…
“There wasn’t a lot of hard-hit balls there the first couple of innings, but you know credit their hitters. They did a good job the entire night and they just were tough outs with two strikes. Just really two instances, we hung a slider with runners on first and then two strikes to Poppell, changeup there and another couple RBIs. But you know, that wasn’t the start that we wanted but credit Cade (Kurland) for hitting a three-run homer in the first, kind of getting us right back there. And then obviously Brody Donay<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/brody-donay/16621> had a really good day at the plate with two home runs and four RBIs.”
On Donay’s performance and positional battles…
“He’s been great. He’s been working his tail off. He’s been a great teammate and it’s not easy to do. The other thing we were just talking about as a staff in the dugout, you know our starting pitching has got to get better, we’ve been talking about that all year. But the other thing is, who wants to take over the center field job? You know, who wants it? Who wants to take over the third base job? There’s like six or seven guys for two spots. So maybe we need to sit down with all six or seven of them and say, who wants it? And it can’t be, you know, I want to play a position. We need two guys who are going to emerge from the group that are going to perform at a higher level.”
On offense vs. defense in positional battles…
“It’s both. I mean, I’ve seen a majority of the guys be able to hit in intrasquads. The rest just have to figure it out. I’m not going to limit it to we are just going to put a defensive player over there or an offensive player. We are looking for both, that’s the best way I can answer your question. If I’m a couple of those guys, and I’m not mentioning any of their names, I’m stepping up. I’m going to grab this position and I’m going to take it from somebody else.”
UP NEXT
The Gators travel to Columbia, Mo. for a three-game series against Missouri this weekend. All three games will stream on SEC Network+, with Friday night’s premiere scheduled for 7 p.m. ET. Game two is set for Saturday at 4 p.m. ET while Sunday’s finale is on the books for 2 p.m. ET.
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