Head Coach Kevin O’Sullivan won his 650th game behind a season-high 19 hits.
Gainesville, Fla. – No. 3 Florida swatted a season-high 19 hits as the Gators evened the series against Auburn with a 12-5 victory at Condron Family Ballpark on Saturday night.
Head Coach Kevin O’Sullivan<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/coaches/kevin-o-sullivan/1551> won his 650th career game thanks contributions up and down the UF lineup. All 10 Gators who saw action collected hits including seven with multiple knocks. Eight members of the Orange & Blue drove in at least one run, led by Jac Caglianone<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/jac-caglianone/15489> (3-for-5), who collected four RBI while finishing a double shy of the cycle.
For the second-straight contest, the Tigers (18-8-1, 3-5 SEC) scored in the top of the first. Cole Foster led off with a single to right and later crossed home on an RBI groundout to second base by Ike Irish.
The Gators (23-5, 6-2 SEC) answered immediately in the bottom half. Following an infield single by Wyatt Langford<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/wyatt-langford/15497>, Caglianone connected for his 18th home run of the year, sending an 0-1 offering over the right-center field wall to give UF a 2-1 lead.
Auburn retook a 3-2 edge in the third on a two-run homer to right field by Bobby Pierce, but Florida stormed back in the bottom. The Orange & Blue loaded the bases with one out, allowing Tyler Shelnut<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/tyler-shelnut/15515> to put the Gators ahead with a two-run single to right field. Colby Halter<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/colby-halter/15495> and Michael Robertson<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/michael-robertson/15505> chipped in RBI singles as well, sandwiching a run-scoring groundout by Matt Prevesk<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/matt-prevesk/15501> to make it 7-3 in favor of Florida.
Gators starting pitcher Hurston Waldrep<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/hurston-waldrep/15517> settled in after the third, blanking the Tigers in the fourth through the sixth. The right-hander struck out his fifth-straight batter to conclude the fifth, then worked around two baserunners in the sixth while striking out two more Tigers to reach double-digit strikeouts for the third time this year.
With Waldrep churning out zeros, the Gators added to their lead in the bottom of the sixth. On the heels of a Langford walk and Josh Rivera<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/josh-rivera/15504> single, BT Riopelle<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/bt-riopelle/15503> produced a one-out knock to right to extend the advantage to 8-3.
The Tigers did not go quietly, drawing within three runs in the seventh. Bryson Ware singled to center to plate two runs, moving the score to 8-5 as the Gators called on closer Brandon Neely<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/brandon-neely/15499> for an eight-out save.
Florida got both runs back and then some in the bottom half, beginning with a two-run triple off the right-center field wall by Caglianone. Rivera followed with an RBI single to bring Caglianone home, moving the score to 11-5. Ty Evans<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/ty-evans/15491> singled in Colby Halter<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/colby-halter/15495> in the eighth to bring the score to its final tally of 12-5.
Neely retired the side in order in the eighth, then worked a scoreless ninth inning to secure his sixth save of the campaign. UF’s closer tossed 2 2/3 shutout innings of relief, forfeiting just one hit and one walk while striking out three.
Waldrep (5-1) earned the victory, collecting his third quality start of the season. He allowed three earned runs over six innings, giving up four hits and three walks while striking out 10.
Auburn starter John Armstrong (5-1) was saddled with the loss after allowing seven runs (four earned) across 2 1/3 innings. He surrendered seven hits and struck out one.
NOTABLES
* Head Coach Kevin O’Sullivan<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/coaches/kevin-o-sullivan/1551> won his 650th career game on Saturday, moving to 650-307 all-time.
* Florida’s season-high 19 hits are the team’s most since March 2, 2022 vs. Florida A&M (W, 17-0).
* Neely improved to 6-for-6 in save chances, tying last year’s team high with six saves (Ryan Slater<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/ryan-slater/15506>).
* Caglianone hit his nation-leading 18th home run of the season in the first inning.
* Caglianone went 3-for-5 and finished a triple shy of the cycle with one home run, one triple, four RBI and two runs scored.
* Waldrep picked up his third quality start while striking out double-digit batters for the third time this season.
* Waldrep struck out the side in order in the fifth inning – the third time he has done so this season.
* His last eight outs were recorded via the strikeout and he struck out six-straight batters from the fourth into sixth.
* Robertson extended his team-leading on-base streak to 25 games.
* Florida has struck out double-digit batters in 20 of 28 games.
* Florida has struck out 307 batters in 232 innings – translating to 11.9 per nine innings.
* Through 28 games, Florida has a run differential of plus-132.
* The Gators have scored in 115 of 222 batted innings this season (51.8%).
* The Gators have 313 hits through 28 games (11.2 hits/game).
* Florida improved to 120-135-2 all-time against Auburn including 65-45 at home.
* The Gators are 20-12 in the series under Head Coach Kevin O’Sullivan<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/coaches/kevin-o-sullivan/1551> featuring an 11-6 record in Gainesville.
* Florida has won 31 of the last 44 against Auburn.
FROM HEAD COACH KEVIN O’SULLIVAN
On reaching 650 wins and tonight’s bounce-back victory…
“You have different milestones. They kind of come and go. Most important thing honestly, and this is not just coach-speak, is for us to see how we responded from last night. To see how Hurston settled in the fourth, fifth and sixth. That’s the best he’s looked in probably a couple weeks and the tempo was outstanding. BT did an unbelievable job of helping him through that and made a couple of mound visits early, which we normally don’t do that early, but they seem to help. It’s certainly something to build upon for next weekend for Hurston.”
On Waldrep’s outing…
“I just think they sometimes overanalyze some things at times and try to do too much. It’s not from a lack of care or try, it’s just a matter of settling in. The quicker you work, the less time you have to think and you become more in the attack mode rather than on your heels. I think he struck out like six in a row. Like I said, it may only be three innings but for him and for me, that’s a huge step in the right direction. He’s aggressive like that. You’ve seen him pitch quite a bit now. He’s got some of the best swing and miss stuff that you’re going to see around the whole country. It’s just a matter of limiting the walks and doing a little bit better job getting the leadoff hitters.”
On Waldrep’s splitter and overall pitch mix…
“It’s a swing and miss pitch for both right-handers and left-handers. I think the other thing that sets him apart, is he found the breaking ball, too. Once he’s able to land the breaking ball and the split and he’s also got the slider, then they’ll get off his fastball and that’s what he’s been able to do. He’s been really good. That’s what he’s been able to do, like I said, but the pace has been really, really good. He was on attack mode, something we’ve been talking about. There’s a lot of talk, a lot of chatter about the pitch clock at the big-league level and a guy holding the ball until the last second to try and disrupt the timing of the hitter. That was one of the things we talked about today was we got to go, we got to go. Let’s not worry about the 20-second pitch clock and I think that’s been maybe overstated a little bit and overthought. The bottom line is nobody is having issues delivering the ball to the plate within 20 seconds, to be quite honest with you.”
UP NEXT
Florida and Auburn meet in the rubber match on Sunday, scheduled for 1 p.m. with coverage on SEC Network+.
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