Four UF starters turned in multi-hit games as Florida scored 10 runs on 11 knocks.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Florida scored in five different innings to defeat Florida Atlantic, 10-8, at Condron Family Ballpark on Tuesday evening.
Cade Kurland<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/cade-kurland/16372> (1-for-4) and Ty Evans<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/ty-evans/16368> (2-for-4) homered in the victory, with Kurland driving in two and Evans accounting for a team-high three RBI. Freshman Hayden Yost<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/hayden-yost/16633> drew a third-straight start and impressed once again, reaching base four times while going 2-for-3 with a double and game-high three runs scored. Brody Donay<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/brody-donay/16621> (2-for-3) chipped in two RBI and one double.
The Owls (22-20, 9-9 AAC) put two runs on the Gators (23-21, 9-12 SEC) in the top of the first, as Christian Adams and Andrew McKenna produced two-out singles to center to open a 2-0 lead. Florida then answered with three runs in the bottom half to take a 3-2 edge. Luke Heyman<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/luke-heyman/16370> singled to left to plate a pair followed by a sacrifice fly to right field from Kurland.
Following a one-out walk in the second, UF starter Cade Fisher<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/cade-fisher/16369> was relieved by Ryan Slater<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/ryan-slater/16377>. The right-hander recorded two quick outs to strand an FAU baserunner on third base. Slater stranded two more Owls in the third, opening the door for the Gators to add to their lead in the bottom half.
Kurland did just that with one out and nobody on, launching a solo home run to deep left field. Yost then drew a walk, swiped second base and came home on an RBI single to left off the bat of Donay to push the UF lead to 5-2.
Florida Atlantic responded with two runs of its own in the top of the fourth to cut Florida’s edge to 5-4. With one out and two men on, John Schroeder doubled home two runs with a line drive to the left-field wall.
Southpaw Frank Menendez<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/frank-menendez/16627> took over on the mound at the onset of the fifth and stranded two runners to churn out a scoreless frame. The Gators offense tacked on a three-spot in the bottom half of the inning to make it 8-4, as Yost singled and scored on an RBI double to left-center from Donay. Evans capped off the surge with a two-run home run onto the left-field berm.
The Owls quickly got two of the runs back in the top of the sixth to decrease their deficit to 8-6. Schroeder doubled home Joey Slattery and Daulton Frank singled in the former with a run-scoring knock to left.
Having worked the Gators out of the sixth-inning jam, right-hander Jake Clemente<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/jake-clemente/16366> blanked the Owls in the seventh. Yost then led off the bottom of the seventh with a double down the right-field line and advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt by Donay. Evans cashed in and increased the UF advantage to 9-6 with a sacrifice fly to left field.
Reliever Fisher Jameson<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/fisher-jameson/16371> entered on the hill with one out in the eighth, inducing a flyout and strikeout of McKenna to send the matchup into the bottom of the eighth. Tyler Shelnut<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/tyler-shelnut/16376> provided an insurance run, plating Colby Shelton<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/colby-shelton/16639> on a sacrifice fly to left-center to bring the tally to 10-6.
The Owls did not go quietly, rallying for two runs in the top of the ninth. Spencer Rich singled in the first, followed by a sacrifice fly to left-center from Slattery. With the tying run on first base, Jameson rolled up a 4-6-3 double play to secure a 10-8 victory for the Orange & Blue.
Slater (4-2) earned the victory on 2 2/3 innings of two-run ball. He was charged for four hits, one walk and two strikeouts.
Fisher did not factor into the decision, allowing two earned runs in 1 1/3 innings on three hits and two walks. He struck out one batter.
FAU starter Dawson Ball (0-3) suffered the loss after giving up three runs (two earned) on three hits, two walks and one strikeout.
NOTABLES
* Tuesday’s official attendance was 4,970.
* Florida posted its 13th comeback win of the season.
* Caglianone extended his on-base streak to 30 games and hitting streak to 23 in a row.
* Caglianone has hit safely in 42 of 44 games while reaching safely in all but one contest.
* Yost reached base four times while going 2-for-3 with a double in his third-straight start.
* Evans added to his career high with his 12th homer of the campaign.
* Kurland hit his ninth home run of the season.
* Over the last 11 games, the Florida offense has scored 82 runs on 109 hits.
* That features 79 runs on 103 hits in the team’s last 85 offensive half-innings.
* The Gators are 52-16 at home since the start of last season despite a 15-9 record at Condron Family Ballpark in 2024.
* Florida is now 27-10 all-time vs. FAU including a 21-8 mark in Gainesville.
* The Gators are 14-5 against the Owls under head coach Kevin O’Sullivan<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/coaches/kevin-o-sullivan/1752> (11-5 at home).
* Florida has won 14 of the last 18 meetings since 2010.
* The Gators have won three-straight games in the series since 2023.
FROM HEAD COACH KEVIN O’SULLIVAN
On his thoughts on the game…
“Not surprised the way it ended there the way the season has gone, but this time of the year, wins are extremely important. Even though we made it interesting at the end, there were some positive things. We swung the bat good, think we only struck out five or six times, offensively. I thought Jake Clemente<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/jake-clemente/16366> came in and threw the ball extremely well again, so hopefully he’s going to be able to help us down the stretch here. I thought [Frank Menendez<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/frank-menendez/16627>] threw the ball good, and Ty keeps doing his thing at the top of the order. Had a chance to catch Brody tonight and play Luke again at first and get Jac just the DH because it’s a short week. So there’s some positives, but obviously we made the one error at first after we scored three and that kind of led to some lead down runs and made a couple base-running mistakes again…”
On mixing up the offensive strategy…
“You see this at the big league level, too, guys don’t sacrifice the entire year and then all of a sudden at crunch time you start seeing a little bit more. We talked about that at the end, too. We had a three-run lead going into the bottom of the eighth, just to really manufacture one more run to have a four-run lead makes all the difference in the world. Your opponent, they get bases loaded like they did, one guy runs into a ball, you got a tie ballgame instead of losing the lead. And we’re home, we still get the last at-bat but that last run was really important for us.”
On getting left field figured out with Yost…
“I was asked that on the radio, too. You just don’t know when the light is going to go on for freshmen. It went on for Luke McNeillie<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/luke-mcneillie/16629> after the A&M series. And then Liam Peterson<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/liam-peterson/16631> threw good, I thought, at LSU and started building a little more confidence as he went along and I thought the best he threw was at Vandy. And you’re starting to see Frank Menendez<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/frank-menendez/16627> figure some things out and be able to hold it together and give us a valuable option left-handed wise. And then Hayden, in all fairness to him, he hasn’t had a tremendous amount of opportunities the first half of the year but now he’s making the most of them and he’s a good player. I think the next thing, we’ll see how he handles left-on-left situations and really, really start to get the bunt game going and the ability to steal bases. He’s had a great couple weeks.”
UP NEXT
The Gators host No. 3 Tennessee in a three-game series beginning Thursday, May 2 at 7 p.m. on ESPN2.
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