JACKSONVILLE – Only two Florida Gators have ever hit more than 25 home runs in a season.
On Tuesday night in Jacksonville, Jac Caglianone became the third.
He lofted his 26th home run of the season down the left-field line to tie the single-season UF home run record. His opposite-field drive was originally ruled a triple and subsequently overturned to a home run after a replay review determined the ball hit the fence directly above the left-field corner.
Caglianone joins Wyatt Langford, 2022, and Matt LaPorta, 2005, at the top of the Gators’ single-season longball leaderboard, and he is expected to soon surpass them. With nine games left in the regular season and the postseason on the horizon, Caglianone is on pace to be the first Gator to reach the 30-homer mark.
Caglianone’s power gave No. 4 Florida (36-10, 14-7 SEC) the edge in its 7-5 win over the Florida State Seminoles (15-28, 6-18 ACC) to wrap up non-conference play at 121 Financial Ballpark. Florida swept the season series with FSU and has won 22 of its last 26 games against their in-state rival.
Gators head coach Kevin O’Sullivan was more than pleased to have two players tie the home run record in back-to-back seasons.
"I think we'll probably look back in a few years from now and really, really enjoy what we're watching,” O’Sullivan said. “I'm still waiting for a thank you from Jac because we went to the replay. He didn't say thanks for that, so I'm still waiting for the thank you."
The bullpen turned in one of its most impressive performances of the season. Freshman right-hander Nick Ficarrotta tossed three scoreless innings after entering with no outs in the first. Sophomore righty Blake Purnell turned in a career-high five innings pitched and eight strikeouts. Sophomore lefty Philip Abner shut the door in the ninth for his second save.
“We really wanted to get through this game without using [Brandon] Neely, [Ryan] Slater or Cade Fisher and we were fortunate enough to be able to do that,” O’Sullivan said. “We needed some other guys to step up and they did."
Seminoles freshman starting pitcher Ben Barrett failed to make it through the first inning.
He allowed the first two batters to reach before surrendering a run-batted-in single to right from Caglianone. Langford, who was on first base when the play began, scored on a throwing error by FSU sophomore right fielder Jaime Ferrer.
Barrett hit two consecutive batters after recording his first out. That was enough for Florida State head coach Link Jarrett to pull the plug on his starter. He brought in junior left-hander Andrew Armstrong, who promptly gave up an RBI single to junior third baseman Colby Halter. Junior second baseman Dale Thomas rounded out UF’s four-run opening frame with a groundout to third with the bases loaded.
Florida State roared back in the bottom of the first and knocked UF junior starting pitcher Clete Hartzog out of the game before he even recorded an out.
Hartzog allowed the first four FSU batters to record hits; the second, third and fourth batters drove in the teammate who hit before them. The Seminoles tied the game when freshman third baseman Cam Smith tripled to right-center and scored one batter later. Senior second baseman Nander De Sedas grounded a ball back to Hartzog, who threw the ball wildly to third and allowed Smith to score.
O’Sullivan swapped Hartzog for Ficarrotta, who recorded the first two outs of the inning. He then yielded a go-ahead RBI single to center field from junior shortstop Jordan Carrion.
Armstrong and Ficarrotta each fired scoreless second and third innings. Ficarrotta faltered in the fourth inning and allowed the first two batters to reach on a hit by pitch and walk. O’Sullivan summoned Purnell, who recorded back-to-back strikeouts to get Florida out of the jam.
Langford and Caglianone launched back-to-back jacks to lead off the fifth inning against Armstrong and flip to lead back to UF’s favor, 6-5.
O’Sullivan spoke to Caglianone approach at the plate.
“He does a good job of shortening up his swing a little bit and he's the biggest, strongest kid on the field,” O’Sullivan said. “It's really that simple. He can miss balls and hit them out. He's just physically gifted. He does a really good job of making in game adjustments.”
Junior shortstop Josh Rivera walked against new FSU reliever Ryan Denison and scored on freshman catcher Luke Heyman opposite-field RBI double to right.
Purnell continued to impress; he tossed scoreless innings of relief in the fifth and sixth innings.
Smith tripled off Purnell with one-out in the seventh, but the right-hander remained under control. With the tying run at the plate, he sent down the next two batters on a strikeout and flyout.
Sophomore left-hander Philip Abner entered from the Florida bullpen to close out the game in the ninth. He recorded two strikeouts and allowed a single to De Sedas, who was thrown out at second by junior right fielder Tyler Shelnut trying to extend his hit to a double.
UF next takes the field Friday to begin a three-game road series against the Texas A&M Aggies in College Station, Texas. First pitch Friday is set for 7 p.m., and the game will be streamed on SEC Network+.
Contact Ethan Eibe at eeibe@alligator.org. Follow him on Twitter @EthanEibe.
Ethan Eibe is a second-year UF sports media major and covers Gators baseball for The Alligator. Outside of his writing, Ethan is a play-by-play broadcaster for UF student radio and has spent two summers announcing professional baseball with the Alpine Cowboys. He is a long-suffering Miami Marlins fan.
