Dale Thomas collected three hits and Jac Caglianone joined the 200-hit club with his 28th home run.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Florida was edged by No. 4 Kentucky by a final score of 12-11 in 10 innings at Condron Family Ballpark on Friday afternoon.
The series opener was a back-and-forth affair, as the Wildcats (36-10, 19-6 SEC) held three separate leads while the Gators (25-24, 10-15 SEC) led from the bottom of the third through the seventh as well as in the bottom of the eighth. Dale Thomas<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/dale-thomas/16378> (3-for-4) was Florida’s top performer at the plate, collecting his first three-hit game as a Gator and driving in two runs.
Brody Donay<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/brody-donay/16621> (2-for-6), Jac Caglianone<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/jac-caglianone/16365> (2-for-3) and Colby Shelton<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/colby-shelton/16639> (2-for-5) launched home runs in the defeat, featuring a two-homer game from Shelton. Caglianone reached base five teams highlighted by his 28th home run and 200th career hit, as he also extended his hitting streak to 28 games.
Following a weather delay of two hours and thirty minutes, the Wildcats and Gators traded runs in the first inning. Nick Lopez drove in Devin Burkes with a double to right-center for Kentucky. Caglianone extended his hitting streak with a one-out single to center in the bottom half, advanced to third on a failed pickoff attempt and scored on an RBI infield single by Ty Evans<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/ty-evans/16368>.
Tied at 1-1, UF starter Pierce Coppola<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/pierce-coppola/16367> blanked the Wildcats in the second before being lifted with two outs in the third. Fisher Jameson<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/fisher-jameson/16371> entered in relief and quickly struck out Mitchell Daly to end a two-runner threat. Florida took advantage by grabbing the lead in the bottom of the third, as Shelton hammered a three-run home run to right-center field to provide a 4-1 lead through three.
In the fourth, Jameson returned to the hill and worked a zero. The Gators promptly extended their advantage to 5-1 in the bottom half, with Donay launching the first pitch of the frame onto the berm in left field for a solo shot.
Kentucky cut Florida’s lead to 5-3 with a pair of runs in the fifth. Lopez plated Ryan Waldschmidt with a sacrifice fly to third base in foul ground followed by an RBI double to right-center from Daly.
After navigating Florida out of the fifth, Jake Clemente<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/jake-clemente/16366> tossed a scoreless sixth highlighted by two strikeouts. Closer Brandon Neely<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/brandon-neely/16373> took over after the first two hitters reached in the seventh and held Florida’s two-run lead.
With the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the seventh, Caglianone scampered home on a wild pitch to push the Gator lead to 6-3. Kentucky responded in the top of the eighth to knot the tally at 6-6, beginning with a two-run homer to right off the bat of Ryan Nicholson. Eli Small produced a pinch-hit, RBI double down the right-field line with two outs to tie it at six runs apiece.
No longer in control of a lead for the first time since the third inning, Florida put the leadoff man on in the bottom of the eighth via an infield single from Donay. From there, Tyler Shelnut<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/tyler-shelnut/16376> came up clutch with a go-ahead, RBI double down the left-field line. Thomas provided the insurance run, hitting a sacrifice fly to deep right-center to bring home Shelnut for an 8-6 lead.
Kentucky had a ninth-inning surge saved in its pocket, rallying for a trio of two-out runs to extend the contest. Nicholson hit a 2-0 offering over the right-field wall for a three-run homer to put UK ahead, 9-8.
Down to the final out in the bottom of the ninth, Shelnut kept the Gators alive with a single down the right-field line. Hayden Yost<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/hayden-yost/16633> followed with a single to right-center, allowing Shelnut to advance to third. With men at the corners, Thomas came through with his third hit of the night – an RBI single through the right side to tie the ballgame at 9-9.
In the top of the tenth, Kentucky took a 12-9 lead on a three-run double down the right-field line by Lopez. Florida did not go quietly in the bottom half, as Caglianone led off with a solo home run to right for his 200th-career hit. Two batters later, Shelton went yard to right field to draw the Gators within one run at 12-11, but Ryan Hagenow nailed down his second save of the season to end the matchup.
Wildcats reliever Johnny Hummel (3-0) picked up the victory on 1 1/3 innings of three-run ball. He surrendered five hits and struck out one.
Florida reliever Cade Fisher<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/cade-fisher/16369> (3-3) was stuck with the loss. The southpaw gave up three earned runs across 1 1/3 frames on one hits and one walk. He struck out two.
Coppola did not factor into the decision after pitching 2 2/3 innings of one-run ball (zero earned) on four hits and one walk. The southpaw fanned three batters.
UK starter Trey Pooser also received a no-decision after allowing five runs (four earned) in six innings. He was charged with five hits allowed, three walks and five strikeouts.
NOTABLES
* Friday’s official attendance was 5,294.
* Florida’s scoring streak of 129-consecutive games is the third-longest in program history (May 27, 2022-present).
* Caglianone hit his 28th home run of the campaign to become the second-faster Gator to 200 hits behind Preston Tucker.
* Josh Rivera<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/josh-rivera/15504> was the most-recent Gator to eclipse 200 hits in 2023.
* Caglianone extended his on-base streak to 35 games and hitting streak to 28 in a row.
* Caglianone has hit safely in 47 of 49 games while reaching safely in all but one contest.
* Jacob Young (2019-21) holds Florida’s hit streak record at 30 games.
* Thomas turned in his first three-hit game as a Gator and first since Feb. 25, 2022 vs. Clemson.
* Shelton hit his 17th home run of the season for Florida’s 100th homer of the season in the third inning.
* Shelton later smacked his 18th long ball in the 10th for his fifth multi-homer game of the campaign.
* Donay swatted his 10th homer of the season.
* The Gators are 54-19 at home since the start of last season despite an 18-12 record at Condron Family Ballpark in 2024.
* Across the team’s last 78 tilts against SEC teams, Florida is 47-31.
* That includes a 39-28 regular-season mark.
* The Gators are 48-28 in weekend series since the start of last season and 57-29 across their last 30 series.
* Florida is now 148-73-1 all-time vs. Kentucky including a 79-31 mark in Gainesville.
* The Gators are 27-22 against the Wildcats under head coach Kevin O’Sullivan<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/coaches/kevin-o-sullivan/1752> (12-10 at home).
FROM HEAD COACH KEVIN O’SULLIVAN
On being unable to close out the game…
“Not executing pitches. Going back to Pierce, in all fairness for him, he’s still in the infancy stage of getting comfortable out there. He had two outs on nine pitches and then had Burkes with two strikes and abbreviated wind up. I don’t know why, but he hit him with that pitch and normally when we try to change up delivery, the results of the command doesn’t work out. It’s just the same old thing. We got the clock now, guys hold the ball and they usually don’t execute, so, just stay within yourself, keep doing what you’re doing. But after you go to Pierce, you go to Fisher. He went two innings I believe, but we really needed three. I sound like a broken record, but we’re always one inning short, and obviously got an inning and a third out of Jake, was hoping to get two. And we really had no choice but to go to Neely there in the seventh because I thought that was the ballgame… We walked too many and hit too many. But our offense battled, I just felt like if we could just go out there and put a zero on the board there in the tenth, we knew Jac was leading off the inning, we knew something was going to happen. And we just couldn’t figure out a way to do it.”
On Thomas impressing in his start…
“I mean, the bottom line is we haven’t been getting a whole lot of offensive production in center field and especially in conference games at home. So, it was really just a matter of swapping out two hitters to hit nine-hole. So, maybe Dale can have some good at bats, and he did today.”
On the message to the team…
“I’ve been saying this all year long. I don’t know what else to say at this point. There’re no long speeches, they know what’s at stake. All you can do as a coach is be honest and upfront and specific on what’s ahead of you and if you do this, this will happen. If you don’t do this, it won’t happen. I don’t know. This is uncharted territory. I spent nine years at Clemson, the last 17 years here. Take out COVID, that’s 25 years I’ve been in the postseason. 25-straight years. So yeah, this is frustrating for everybody. We have some work to do now and we had some work coming into the weekend. This loss is magnified because of where we’re at.”
UP NEXT
Florida and Kentucky meet in game two on Saturday, scheduled for 12 p.m. on SEC Network.
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