The Knights scored four in the first and never relinquished the lead.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – No. 4 Florida was defeated by UCF by a final score of 9-6 at Condron Family Ballpark on Wednesday night.
Jac Caglianone<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/jac-caglianone/16365> (2-for-4), Brody Donay<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/brody-donay/16621> (1-for-4) and Colby Shelton<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/colby-shelton/16639> (1-for-4) all homered in the loss. Right-hander Fisher Jameson<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/fisher-jameson/16371> was lights out in relief, totaling 3 1/3 innings of scoreless, no-hit ball while striking out four.
The Knights (9-1) got off to a strong start, putting four runs on the Gators (8-4) in the top of the first. Andrew Sundean drove in Andrew Brait via an RBI groundout to shortstop, followed by a three-run homer to right field off the bat of Andrew Williamson to open a 4-0 UCF lead.
Florida got one run back in the bottom of the first to cut the deficit to 4-1. On a 2-0 offering, Caglianone launched his fifth home run of the year into Dizney Grove in right-center field.
UCF had an immediate answer, regaining a four-run lead on an RBI groundout to shortstop by Brait. Right-hander Alex Philpott<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/alex-philpott/16632> limited the damage to the lone run, then fired a clean frame in the third while picking up two strikeouts.
With Philpott holding the Knights in check, the UF offense began to creep back into the ballgame. Michael Robertson<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/michael-robertson/16375> cracked a leadoff single in the third, advanced to second on a groundout and scored on an RBI single to left-center from Caglianone. With runners at the corners, Shelton hit a dribbler to the pitcher that allowed Luke Heyman<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/luke-heyman/16370> to cross the dish.
The Knights again had a response for the Gators, scoring two runs in the fourth to push their advantage to 7-3. Both runs were scored with two outs, as Matt Prevesk<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/matt-prevesk/15501> produced an RBI double down the right-field line while Brait doubled home Prevesk with a knock to right-center.
Right-hander Grayson Smith<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/grayson-smith/16640> took over on the mound in the fifth, pitching a scoreless inning while fanning two batters. That only held the Knights down temporarily, as they plated two more runs in the sixth. Mikey Kluska raced home on a wild pitch and Sundean drove in Lex Boedicker with a sacrifice fly to center.
Saddled with a 9-3 deficit, Jameson struck out the side in the seventh. Donay then gave the Gators a lift in the bottom half, hammering a 3-2 pitch for a solo shot over the left field wall to make it 9-4.
Florida continued to battle, tacking on two more in the eighth to bring the tally to 9-6. After a two-out walk by Heyman, Shelton swatted his team-leading sixth homer of the year to right field.
UF starter Luke McNeillie<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/luke-mcneillie/16629> (1-2) received the loss, allowing five earned runs in one-plus inning of work. He surrendered five hits and one walk.
Knights reliever Dominic Castellano earned the victory, giving up just one run over 4 2/3 innings. He was charged with two hits allowed and five strikeouts.
UCF starter Cade Boxrucker has handed a no-decision after throwing 2 1/3 innings of three-run ball on four hits and two strikeouts.
NOTABLES
* Wednesday night’s official attendance was 5,330.
* Caglianone hit his fifth home run of the season in the second inning.
* Philpott opened his collegiate career with 12 1/3 scoreless innings before giving up his first run on the Prevesk RBI double in the fourth.
* Donay smacked his second home run of the season.
* Shelton connected for his team-best sixth home run of the season in the eighth inning.
* Caglianone extended his season-opening hitting streak to 12 games and has collected multiple knocks in eight contests.
* Shelton has now reached base safely in 12-consecutive games to open the year.
* Menendez retired the lone batter he faced in the eighth.
* Florida fell to 28-21 all-time vs. UCF.
* The Gators are 19-13 in the series at home.
* The Gators dropped to 11-8 vs. UCF featuring an 8-4 home mark under head coach Kevin O’Sullivan<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/coaches/kevin-o-sullivan/1752>.
* Florida has won eight of the last 14 vs. UCF and is 6-3 across the last nine in Gainesville.
* Dating back to last season, Florida is 30-7 in regular season non-conference games and has won 21 of its last 25 such contests.
FROM HEAD COACH KEVIN O’SULLIVAN
On the loss…
“I’m disappointed about the whole thing, to be quite honest. We came home from an emotional weekend, had a day off on Monday, didn’t play on Tuesday because we got rained out. I told them that they had an older team and obviously they came in here ready to play. They’ve got quite a few players on their roster that used to be at Florida and are very motivated. Threw a lot of pitches in the middle of the plate and they obviously did some damage. We just got to get the ball down a little more when we start the game. The ball was up like I said, in the middle of the plate. Then we battled back, scored two in the third, then two outs, nobody on in the fourth, and then we walked the nine-hole hitter again and then we ended up giving up two runs there, so it kind of took the momentum away from us just like that… Our starts have not been good this year. We talked about it this weekend. Cags stepped up on Sunday, but we cant be going to the bullpen so early all the time. It just puts too much pressure on everybody else during that game and you still have to manage what you have in front of you when you have a Friday, Saturday and Sunday. It’s three games this weekend and it just continued to put more and more pressure on everyone else…”
On whether growing pains with young pitchers are expected…
“When you’ve done this as long as I have, the easy answer is yes, that they are expected, but at the same time we’ve had a lot of freshmen have a lot of success in their first year. What you’d like to see is that when people do have a tough outing, that they have the ability to bounce back. It might be a little bit of a roller coaster, but they show the ability to put a tough outing or start behind them and move on to the next one. We just haven’t been able to do that quite yet”
UP NEXT
Florida welcomes St. Mary’s to Condron Family Ballpark for a three-game series spanning from Friday through Sunday. All three games stream on SEC Network+.
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