No. 4 Florida Mashes Miami for Series Victory

CORAL GABLES, Fla. – No. 4 Florida cranked a season-high five home runs to claim the series over Miami by a final score of 8-4 at Mark Light Field on Sunday afternoon.
 
Two-way standout Jac Caglianone starred on both sides of the ball, pitching six shutout innings with a career-high 11 strikeouts while going 3-for-5 at the plate with a solo home run. Caglianone’s long ball was one of five homers for Florida, as Colby Shelton (2-for-5), Ty Evans (2-for-4) and Tyler Shelnut (1-for-2) also went yard in the victory, featuring a two-homer day from Shelton.
 
The Gators (8-3) put a pair of two-out runs on the Hurricanes (6-5) in the top of the first. Luke Heyman reached on an error by shortstop Antonio Jimenez, followed by a two-run, opposite-field blast over the left-field wall by Shelton to open up a 2-0 UF edge.
 
Caglianone worked a scoreless first, striking out two batters while stranding one baserunner. The southpaw fanned two more in the second en route to a clean frame.
 
In the fourth, Evans and Shelnut smashed back-to-back home runs to left-center and left field, respectively. Although the blasts pushed the Gator lead to 4-0, Shelnut was ejected for excessive celebration on his big fly.
 
Caglianone gave himself some extra run support in the fifth, uncorking a solo shot to right field for his fourth of the season.
 
After the home run, Caglianone returned to the mound and promptly fanned the side in order to reach a career-high 10 strikeouts. He stranded two runners in the sixth while notching his 11th strikeout to finish with six shutout innings before handing the ball over to right-hander Ryan Slater in the seventh.
 
With a 5-0 lead in hand, Slater produced a clean frame in the seventh to hold the score. Hayden Yost proceeded to log his first-career hit with a one-out double in the eighth, then advanced to third on a Dale Thomas single and scored on a bunt laid down by Tanner Garrison to make it 6-0.
 
The Hurricanes did no go quietly, drawing within two runs in the bottom of the eighth. With the bases loaded and two outs, Dorian Gonzalez hit a pinch-hit grand slam to left-center to cut the UF lead to 6-4.
 
Shelton gave the Gators some much-need insurance in the top of the ninth. Following a single by Evans, Shelton smacked his second home run of the contest to center field to put UF ahead by four, 8-4.
 
Right-hander Brandon Neely churned out a perfect ninth inning to secure the series win, striking out two batters in the process.
 
Caglianone (1-0) earned his first victory of the season by firing six shutout innings on three hits and two walks. He struck out a career-high 11 batters and finished with 91 pitches.
 
Miami starter Herick Hernandez (2-1) was saddled with the loss. He allowed five runs (three earned) on six hits and two walks while striking out nine.

NOTABLES

• Sunday’s official attendance was the weekend’s third-straight sellout crowd of 3,555 fans.
• Florida improved to 134-135-1 all-time vs. Miami, moving within one win of tying the series.

  • The Gators are 53-82 in the series on the road.

• The Gators rose to 41-18 vs. the Canes featuring a 18-9 away mark under head coach Kevin O’Sullivan.
• Florida is 22-8 against Miami across the last 30 meetings.
• Caglianone struck out a career-high 11 batters, breaking his previous best of nine (twice, most recently vs. Vanderbilt on May 14, 2023).
• Florida swatted a season-high five home runs.

  • The performance marked the Gators’ first five homer game since Florida’s 24-4 win over LSU in the College World Series finals on June 25, 2023.

• Shelton had his first two-homer game as a Gator and now leads the roster with five homers.

  • Shelton’s two-homer game was Florida’s first since Caglianone and Evans accomplished the feat on June 25, 2023 vs. LSU.

• Evans and Shelnut hit back-to-back home runs in the fourth inning, marking Florida’s second set of back-to-back jacks of the series (Kurland and Caglianone in game one).

  • Shelnut was ejected from the contest for excessive celebration on his home run.
  • Evans recorded his third homer of the year while Shelnut hit his fourth.

• Caglianone registered his fourth home of the season in the fifth.
• Hernandez opened his UM career with 15.0 innings without an earned run before allowing a home run to Evans in the fourth inning.
• Yost picked up his first-career hit with a one-out double in the eighth.
• Florida is 36-12 in weekend series since 2023 and 45-15 across the team’s previous 21 series.
• Dating back to last season, Florida is 30-6 in regular season non-conference games and has won 21 of its last 24 such contests.

FROM HEAD COACH KEVIN O’SULLIVAN
On the mindset of his team bouncing back after Saturday…
“This was an important game for us. I know it’s early in the season, but we faced a little adversity. I kind of wanted to see how we responded today and I thought we responded in a positive way. We beat a really good pitcher today. Their starter was really good. I think the story of the game is, obviously, Jac on the mound. He was outstanding. His changeup was as good as its been since he’s been here. He swung the bat really well. Colby Shelton with two home runs and both were meaningful. We got on the board there in the first, an 0-2 count, left-on-left and went the other way. When we gave up the four-spot in the eighth to bounce back and tack on two more (in the top of the ninth) to give us a four-run lead instead of a two-run lead, obviously is big. All in all it was a great day. Really pleased with how we responded from last night.”

On Caglianone’s performance Sunday and all weekend…

“Everybody talks about his arm strength and that type of thing. I’ll tell you what. The changeup today was as good as it has been in his career at Florida… Both visits I took with him were really just to give him a breather. Not for any other reason, just to kind of get his breath going and get his legs underneath him, so to speak. I can’t say enough about how he played this entire weekend. The effort he gave. And then today on the mound, he was outstanding.”

On the early-season road test…

“Yeah, this is important. It’s a rivalry series. More importantly, for us, it was a chance to see how we’re going to respond after a tough loss last night. Yeah, it’s early, but today was a step in the right direction.”

UP NEXT

Florida returns home to host Florida Atlantic on Tuesday at 6 p.m. before welcoming UCF on Wednesday at 6 p.m. Both matchups stream on SEC Network+.