Florida baseball completes sweep of Charleston Southern

||

The Florida Gators capped off a sweep of the Charleston Southern Buccaneers Sunday afternoon with an 8-0 win.

It’s the first sweep to start the season for Florida since 2020 and it was the team’s first nine-inning game of the season after mercy-ruling the Bucs twice. Jac Caglianone pitched for Florida and shined after recovering from Tommy John surgery as a freshman.

Caglianone was outstanding on the mound in his first collegiate start. He went 6 2/3 innings strong and struck out nine batters while surrendering just two hits, a walk and zero runs. His fastball came in around 96-97 mph on average and topped out at 98 mph, but the most devastating pitch in Caglianone’s aresnal was his slider. It came in just under 90 mph and had most of Charleston Southern’s left-handed hitters swinging out of their boots.

Kevin O’Sullivan tried to let Caglianone finish the seventh but was forced to pull him when he the 80-pitch mark and gave up his first walk. Still, Caglianone rightfully earned a standing ovation from the crowd for his efforts, and Sully even clapped as he walked to the mound to get the ball.

There’s no denying that Caglianone had the best start of the weekend for Florida, and Brandon Sproat and Hurston Waldrep should be early-round draft picks come the summer. If he can lock down the Sunday spot by conference play, Pierce Coppola can continue a slow return as the weekday starter, which would be ideal for the Gators.

Have. A. Debut. @jac_caglianone

6.2 IP
2 H
0 R
1 BB
9 K pic.twitter.com/5MUyn8cbgo

— Florida Gators Baseball (@GatorsBB) February 19, 2023

Speaking of strong starts, Charleston Southern’s ace, Evan Truitt, did his job and put together a nice six-inning outing against the Gators. Florida did all of its scoring against him in the first two innings, and only one of the three runs was earned.

Ty Evans, who had a four-RBI day on Saturday, broke things open with a double down the left field line to score Josh Rivera and BT Riopelle, who reached on an error to extend what should have been a 1-2-3 inning for Florida at the plate.

Luke Heyman, who made his first start at catcher for Florida, delivered the first earned run of the day on a triple that scored fellow freshman Cade Kurland. It was also Heyman’s first career hit.

Florida’s bats stayed quiet for the next four innings. A few Gators scattered hits and others took walks but none came around to score despite ending each of the first two games of the series early thanks to the mercy rule.

However, things changed once the Buccaneers turned to the bullpen. Dylan Matsuoka recorded just one out as he loaded the bases in the seventh, and Ryan Daugherty walked in a run on four-straight balls. Rivera drove in Michael Robertson next to put the Gators up 5-0, and then Evans hit his second two-RBI double of the afternoon to bring the lead to seven.

.@tyboevans is raking

#GoGators //

: https://t.co/ae0RszROxn pic.twitter.com/lbUZa09Eag

— Florida Gators Baseball (@GatorsBB) February 19, 2023

The scoring didn’t stop there, though. After Tyler Shelnut walked, Kurland knocked in another run with an infield single. Colby Halter, who is the only Gator starting the season off cold at the plate, popped out to mercifully end the seventh.

Blake Purnell, who came out of the bullpen in relief of Caglianone to get the final out of the seventh for Florida, returned for the eighth. He got the first two outs of the inning with ease, but O’Sullivan still pulled him to give Brandon Neely a chance to get some work in with the mercy rule looming. He got a soft ground ball hit back to him to end the top of the eighth.

Florida couldn’t manage to get the two runs needed to end things early once again, so Neely returned to the mound to finish off the game for the Gators.

Closing time

CSU 0, UF 8 | E8#GoGators pic.twitter.com/yj6ZLY2KRp

— Florida Gators Baseball (@GatorsBB) February 19, 2023

Although this was a dominant win for UF, the team’s best hitter, Wyatt Langford, had a game to be forgotten. He finished the day 0 for 4, as did Halter. Shelnut also finished the day hitless but walked twice to finish 0 for 2.

Finally, Deric Fabian struck out in his only at-bat of the day. He came in for Heyman as a pinch runner in the seventh and moved to first. It looks like they’ll continue to move him around the field and sit him depending on what the matchup on the mound looks like.

Follow us @GatorsWire on Twitter and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Florida Gators news, notes and opinions.

--------------------------------

By: David Rosenberg
Title: Florida baseball completes sweep of Charleston Southern
Sourced From: gatorswire.usatoday.com/2023/02/19/florida-baseball-charleston-southern-buccaneers-game-3-recap-jac-caglianone-ty-evans/
Published Date: Sun, 19 Feb 2023 20:47:42 +0000

Read More