Freshman Robert Satin earned his first-career win and Tyler Shelnut finished a triple shy of the cycle.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – A four-run first inning lifted No. 4 Florida over Bethune-Cookman, 9-2, at Condron Family Ballpark on Wednesday night.
Tyler Shelnut<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/tyler-shelnut/16376> led the offensive charge, finishing a triple shy of the cycle en route to a 3-for-4 night and two RBI. Colby Shelton<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/colby-shelton/16639> (2-for-4) also homered and paced the squad with three runs driven in. On the hill, Robert Satin<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/robert-satin/16637> impressed with three shutout innings of relief to earn his first-career victory.
The contest began with a scoreless first inning from starter Fisher Jameson<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/fisher-jameson/16371>, paving the way for the Gators (6-2) to hang four runs on the Wildcats (4-4) in the bottom of the frame. Michael Robertson<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/michael-robertson/16375> reached on a leadoff walk, Jac Caglianone<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/jac-caglianone/16365> moved him to third with a single to right and the former came in to score on a wild pitch. With two men on, Shelton swatted his third homer of the year to put Florida ahead, 4-0.
Jameson held the Wildcats scoreless into the third, then was replaced by Satin with two men down. Satin promptly punched out Jorge Gonzalez-Febo to blank Bethune-Cookman through three.
Before the full inning was said and done, Shelnut connected for his third homer of the campaign. On a 1-2 offering and two outs, Shelnut hammered a solo shot off the batter’s eye in center field to make it 5-0.
Shelnut tacked on a sixth run in the fifth. Luke Heyman<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/luke-heyman/16370> hit a two-out single, followed by an RBI double to center field off the bat of Shelnut.
Satin totaled three shutout frames before being lifted in the sixth. With two outs and the bases loaded, Blake Purnell<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/blake-purnell/16374> stranded the runners to hold the Gator lead. Purnell returned to the hill in the seventh and navigated around a two-out hit-by-pitch for a zero.
In the eighth, Bethune-Cookman broke onto the scoreboard. With two men in scoring position and two down, Peter Vazquez produced a two-run, pinch-hit single to right to cut the UF lead to 6-2.
Right-hander Alex Philpott<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/alex-philpott/16632> entered and limited the damage in the eighth, opening the door for the Gators to answer back. Caglianone did just that, uncorking a three-run blast down the right-field line and pushing the score to 9-2.
Philpott fired a scoreless ninth to cement the victory for the Orange & Blue. He allowed one hit and one walk in two frames, striking out a pair.
Satin (1-0) earned his first-career win by throwing three shutout innings of relief on one hit and two walks while striking out four.
Jameson did not factor into the decision, going 2 2/3 shutout innings on three hits and two walks. He fanned three Wildcats.
Wildcats starting pitcher Dylan Dudones (1-1) was saddled with the loss after surrendering five earned runs in three frames. He was charged with four hits, two walks and one strikeout.
Caglianone (2-for-5), Shelton and Shelnut tallied multiple hits in the win.
NOTABLES
* Wednesday night’s official attendance was 4,778.
* Shelton and Shelnut hit their team-leading third home runs of the season.
* Satin earned his first-career win with three shutout innings of relief.
* Shelnut went 3-for-4 and finished a triple shy of the cycle.
* Caglianone is batting .469/.575/.688 (15-for-32) following tonight’s 2-for-5 showing.
* He extended his team-leading, season-opening hitting streak to eight games.
* Caglianone swatted his second homer of the campaign.
* Ty Evans<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/ty-evans/16368> pushed his hitting streak to seven-straight contests.
* Dating back to last season, Florida is 28-5 in regular season non-conference games and has won 19 of its last 2` such contests.
* Florida rose to 37-1 all-time against Bethune-Cookman, including 36-1 at home.
* The Gators improved to 17-1 vs. the Wildcats under head coach Kevin O’Sullivan<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/coaches/kevin-o-sullivan/1752>.
FROM HEAD COACH KEVIN O’SULLIVAN
On the win and the offense…
“It was good to bounce back from last night’s loss with a four-run first for sure. I think our at bats were better… There’s quite a few at bats where we had some offensive counts where we didn’t do much damage with. We scored four in the first, I think we just scored a couple over the next five or six innings, so we’ll have to continue to improve on that. I’ve been pleased with how we’ve been scoring early in the game, but we gotta continue to add on. I think the second inning might’ve been one of those innings where you just scratch your head. It wasn’t a very good inning, 1-2-3 inning, after a very good first. I think it was important for us to get out to an early lead for sure.”
On Jameson and Satin’s performances…
“The score really doesn’t indicate how we threw the ball. I gotta look at the ball-to-strike ratio, it’s gotta be close to 50/50. A lot of deep counts tonight. We walked eight, hit two, so we had 10 [free] batters and to be able to do that and to only give up two runs is hard to do. I thought Robert Satin<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/robert-satin/16637>, when he came in, threw three scoreless, kind of slowed things down for us. I do think Bethune is much improved and I was a bit concerned coming in because our pitching was going to be young on the mound, but I thought Robert came in and did a great job.”
On when the bats will click…
“Overall our numbers are good; things are going to be more difficult. This weekend is going to be totally different than what we’ve played so far. It’ll be another road challenge for us, obviously we didn’t handle last night very well in a lot of different areas. The starting pitching was not what we probably thought and then offensively, we didn’t score in the first when we had opportunities. We swung and missed on a lot of fastballs last night and then probably the biggest surprise of it was we didn’t handle the pressure of the game when it got to that point very well. We looked a little bit out of sorts, so that was something we talked about today because you’re going to have to handle those situations, not only just at home, but on the road, and this weekend will be another good challenge for us.”
UP NEXT
Florida travels to Miami for a three-game series in Coral Gables, Fla. from Friday through Sunday.
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