The relief tandem of Ryan Slater and Grayson Smith combined for 5 2/3 scoreless innings.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – No. 4 Florida came up short at Stetson by a final score of 7-4 at Melching Field on Tuesday night.
Outside of three half innings, both offenses were unable to score for much of the matchup. The Hatters (5-3) struck for five in the first and two in the eighth while the Gators (5-2) mustered four runs in the third.
Stetson’s five-run first began with Gio Cueto singling up the middle to plate a pair, followed by an RBI single to right off the bat of Brandon Hylton. Juan De La Cruz capped off the inning with a two-run single through the left side to make it 5-0.
Following a scoreless second inning, Florida came roaring back in the third. Jac Caglianone<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/jac-caglianone/16365> led off with a single, then scored on a towering, two-run homer by Luke Heyman<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/luke-heyman/16370>. After a Colby Shelton<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/colby-shelton/16639> double, Ty Evans<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/ty-evans/16368> blasted another two-run shot off the scoreboard in left field to cut the deficit to 5-4.
Having entered with two outs in the first, right-hander Ryan Slater<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/ryan-slater/16377> worked scoreless frames in the second through the fourth to keep the Hatters in check. He finished with 3 1/3 shutout innings on one hit, one walk and three strikeouts.
Freshman Grayson Smith<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/grayson-smith/16640> assumed pitching duties in the fifth and tossed a clean inning in his first frame. The righty returned to the hill in the sixth and again retired the side in order to make it six up and six down.
Smith took the Gators into the seventh, then was lifted for closer Brandon Neely<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/brandon-neely/16373> after striking out the leadoff man. Smith pitched 2 1/3 perfect innings and struck out a pair.
In the eighth, Stetson tacked on a pair of insurance runs to push the score to 7-4. Evan Griffis singled in Jayden Hylton while Lorenzo Meola drew a bases-loaded walk to score Cueto.
The Gators threatened in the ninth, putting two runners on base via a Heyman walk and Shelton single. With two outs, Evans drove a ball deep to left-center but it was reeled in on the run to end the game.
Florida starter Luke McNeillie<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/luke-mcneillie/16629> (1-1) lasted two-thirds of an inning in his first-career start, allowing five earned runs on four hits and one walk. He fanned one.
Hatters reliever Anthony DeFabbia (2-0) picked up the win on 3 2/3 scoreless innings of relief on one hit and two walks. He also struck out one.
Cole Stallings earned the save, throwing the final two innings with one hit, one walk and two strikeouts.
Stetson starter Ty Van Dyke was handed a no-decision, having surrendered four earned runs over 3 1/3 frames on six hits and two walks. He struck out eight.
Heyman (2-for-3) and Evans (2-for-3) collected multiple hits in the contest.
NOTABLES
* Tuesday night’s crowd of 2,986 set the Stetson single-game attendance record set back in 1999.
* Caglianone extended his season-opening hitting streak to seven games while Evans pushed his streak to six.
* McNeillie made his first-career start on the mound.
* Smith threw 2 1/3 perfect innings of relief with two strikeouts in the middle frames.
* The relief tandem of Slater and Smith combined for 5 2/3 scoreless innings.
* Dating back to last season, Florida is 27-5 in regular season non-conference games and has won 18 of its last 20 such contests.
* Florida fell to 84-36 all-time against Stetson, including 37-25 on the road.
* The Gators are 15-5 in the last 20 road tilts at Stetson.
* The Gators dropped to 10-2 vs. the Hatters (4-2 away) under head coach Kevin O’Sullivan<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/coaches/kevin-o-sullivan/1752>.
FROM HEAD COACH KEVIN O’SULLIVAN
On falling behind early…
“Honestly, it was really unexpected. We ended up having Mikey (Robertson) at third with nobody out and with the top of the order coming up, and we weren’t able to push him across. That kind of set the tone. We had back-to-back strikeouts there to end the first and then we did not get the start that we thought from Luke (McNeillie). Maybe it was his first start on the road and that type of thing. Obviously, he’s going to be much better than that moving forward. We got off to a tough start and honestly, three of our first five innings we had plenty of opportunities to score, not just the first. We had Armando (Albert) at second with nobody out and the top of the order coming up. We hit a weak fly ball to left that didn’t move him. We don’t score that inning. We missed a sign on a steal. We got hit by a pitch to start the inning and we miss a sign. Next guy walks. First and second, nobody out it should have been there. Three of the first five innings were not very good. We struck out more times tonight than we probably should have. We struck out 11 times. It felt like we were not getting off really good swings on 2-0, 2-1, 3-1 counts the entire night. We didn’t hit with runners in scoring position. It was a collective group… Hopefully, it’s a learning experience for them about being on the road. It just was not a good night.”
On positive takeaways from the loss…
“Colby Shelton<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/colby-shelton/16639> made two outstanding plays at short. Ryan Slater<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/ryan-slater/16377> came in and did exactly what we asked him to do. Grayson Smith<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/grayson-smith/16640> came in and threw 2 1/3 of scoreless. They did what they needed to do to keep us in the ballgame. Like I said, there was some positive things. We put four runs up there in the top of the third to get within one. We only scored in one of the nine innings we hit. We’ve gotta be better than that, obviously.”
On the message to the team…
“I think everybody’s disappointed. I’m disappointed about how we came out in the first inning. We’ve been good in the first inning the entire year but we’ve got to push runs across when we need to. That’s why we’ve kind of shook up the lineup a little bit to get on the board in the first, which we’ve done a good job of. We’ve got to do a better job in the bottom half of the first on the mound. Like I said, even as the game went on we kept hurting ourselves and not putting together good at bat after good at bat. I don’t understand the at bats that we had tonight. We got in a lot of 2-0, 2-1, 3-1 counts and we’re late to fastballs. We’ve got to turn it around tomorrow, but tonight is disappointing.”
UP NEXT
Florida returns home to host Bethune-Cookman on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. on SEC Network+.
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