Ty Evans tied the game with two outs in the ninth and Jac Caglianone hit a go-ahead, two-run shot in the 11th.
BATON ROUGE, La. – No. 6 Florida was down to its final out but battled back to even the series against No. 5 LSU with a gritty, 6-4 victory at Alex Box Stadium on Saturday night.
Ty Evans<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/ty-evans/16368> (3-for-6) and Jac Caglianone<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/jac-caglianone/16365> (2-for-5) provided the late-game heroics, with the former knotting the game in the ninth on a two-out single. Caglianone provided the eventual game-winning blast in the 11th with a line-drive shot over the right-center field wall.
Gators starter Liam Peterson<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/liam-peterson/16631> blanked the Tigers (19-5, 2-3 SEC) in the opening frame, then retired the side in order in the second on just five pitches. LSU manufactured one run in the third, as Mac Bingham used an infield single aided by a throwing error at third base to bring home Jake Brown.
The Gators (13-9, 3-2 SEC) grabbed a brief 2-1 lead in the fourth. Caglianone raced home on a 6-3 double play off the bat of Cade Kurland<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/cade-kurland/16372>, followed by a two-out RBI single to center by Dale Thomas<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/dale-thomas/16378> to score Tyler Shelnut<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/tyler-shelnut/16376>.
LSU got one run right back in the bottom half to tie it at 2-2, with Hayden Travinski leading off with a solo shot to straightaway left field. The Tigers took the lead back in the bottom of the fifth, as Bingham swatted a solo homer to left field. Two batters later, Jared Jones uncorked a long ball to right for a 4-2 ballgame.
Southpaw Frank Menendez<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/frank-menendez/16627> inherited a pair of baserunners in the fifth, but induced a groundout and flyout to hold the score. The freshman retook the hill in the sixth, recording one out before ceding cuties to righty Luke McNeillie<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/luke-mcneillie/16629>. Catcher Tanner Garrison<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/tanner-garrison/16622> hosed Paxton Kling attempting to steal second while McNeillie forced a flyout of Tommy White to keep Florida within two runs.
McNeillie churned out a scoreless frame in the seventh, giving way to the UF offense. Evans promptly led off with a double to left, followed by a Caglianone single to center. With two outs, Kurland struck out but the ball got away from LSU catcher Alex Milazzo, allowing Evans to race home safely and cutting the LSU edge to 4-3.
Down to their last three outs, the Gators rose to the challenge in the ninth. Pinch-hitter Ashton Wilson<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/ashton-wilson/16638> worked a leadoff walk and later advanced to second on a Colby Shelton<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/colby-shelton/16639> groundout. With two outs, Evans came up clutch with a game-tying single to center field on a 1-1 count to knot the game at four runs apiece.
Florida called on closer Brandon Neely<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/brandon-neely/16373> in the bottom of the ninth, who proceeded to fire a one-two-three frame to send the matchup into extras.
The Gators loaded the bases with one out in the tenth, but LSU reliever Nate Ackenhausen recorded two-consecutive outs to keep the tie intact. Right-hander Ryan Slater<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/ryan-slater/16377> then entered the contest and pitched a clean 10th to hold the score.
Heroics were in store from there, as Evans singled to right with one out in the top of the 11th. Caglianone then stepped to the dish and unloaded on a go-ahead, two-run home run to right-center field to give Florida the advantage at 6-4.
Slater went back out for the 11th, working around a one-out single to secure the win for the Orange & Blue. Slater improved to 2-0 with the outing, throwing two shutout innings on one hit and two strikeouts.
Ackenhausen (2-2) was saddled with the loss. The left-hander pitched 3 2/3 innings with three runs surrendered on five hits and three walks. He struck out six.
Peterson was handed a no-decision, going 4 1/3 innings with four earned runs allowed on eight hits and three walks. He fanned four Tigers.
LSU starter Gage Jump also did not factor into the decision, tossing 5 2/3 frames of two-run ball on two hits and four walks. The southpaw struck out eight.
Evans, Caglianone and Kurland (2-for-6) collected multiple hits in game two.
NOTABLES
* Saturday night’s official attendance was another sellout crowd of 12,892, marking the second-largest in LSU program history.
* The Gators posted their fifth come-from-behind win of the season.
* Garrison threw out Kling attempting to steal second base in the sixth inning, improving to 6-for-7 (85.7%) in throwing out would-be base stealers this season.
* Evans recorded his 10th multi-hit performance in the last 12 games including multiple knocks in each of the first two games of the series.
* Evans tied the game with two outs in the ninth with an RBI single to center.
* Caglianone’s 10th home run of the season proved to be the game-winner in the 11th inning.
* The Gators are 41-15 in weekend series since 2023 and 50-18 across the team’s previous 23 series.
* Florida is 40-18 in its last 58 games vs. SEC opponents including a 32-15 regular-season mark.
* Florida is now 54-69-1 all-time vs. LSU including 16-32-1 in Baton Rouge.
* The Gators are 25-22 against the Tigers under head coach Kevin O’Sullivan<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/coaches/kevin-o-sullivan/1752> (8-12 away).
FROM HEAD COACH KEVIN O’SULLIVAN
On the resiliency the team showed…
“There’s so many things. Obviously, moving Ty (Evans) up to the two-spot, we made a lot of changes in the lineup from last night. Ty’s been seeing the ball really well and obviously had a huge at bat there to tie the ballgame. I thought even Luke Heyman<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/luke-heyman/16370>, I thought his last few at bats were better and Cade (Kurland), his last few at bats were better. Maybe moving some guys around in the lineup kind of changed some things around a little bit. The other thing, I think we had four freshmen in a row come out and pitch in an environment like this — second largest crowd they’ve ever had here. I think they gave up four over eight innings and obviously (Brandon) Neely came in and it was kind of weird because we wanted to put Luke back behind the plate and we lost the DH, and the pitcher had to go in the eight-spot, the catcher spot. We wanted to put Jaylen (Guy) out in center and obviously the same thing happened and we brought in (Ryan) Slater. Ryan Slater<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/ryan-slater/16377> was great. Neely was really good. It was just a really good game. We showed some resiliency. Obviously, Jac with the big home run. They tried to throw a fastball by him and he jumped all over it. It’s really a win that we needed. We’ve been struggling a little bit this year up to this point. I’ve been saying all along that our young freshmen are getting better. Hopefully, this is another step in the right direction.”
On carrying the momentum from the win…
“Yeah, that was the message at the end. We enjoy this win now, certainly, but we’ve got a chance to win the series and we’ve got Jac (Caglianone) on the mound. And we’ve got plenty of arms left. Maybe it’s a blessing in disguise that Brandon only threw 12 pitches tonight. We’ve got a chance to win the series and that’s always what we talk about. If we can split one of the first two and hopefully Jac can throw like he’s been throwing, it gives us a really good chance to win the series.”
On whether he gave a fist pump when the ball came off Caglianone’s bat…
“Oh yeah, I was awfully excited. I think he threw him a couple of sliders the previous at bat and he hit the line drive back through the middle and then tried to sneak one fastball by him and, luckily enough for us, the ball was left a little out over the plate and Jac put a great swing on it.”
UP NEXT
Florida and LSU meet in the rubber game on Sunday, scheduled for 3 p.m. ET on SEC Network.
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