Jac Caglianone hits home run vs Vanderbilt, extends streak to eight games

Jac Caglianone has gone yard for an eighth consecutive game, belting a Vanderbilt pitch to deep left field for a two-run bomb. The homer helped bring Florida within four runs of the Commodores on Thursday night.

Caglianone is now one game off from tying the all-time record for consecutive games played while recording a home run, which is nine set by Nevada’s Tyler Bosetti in 2021.

The two-run shot was his 22nd home run of the season, and he extends his hitting streak to 16 games, not to mention reaching base for the past 23.

Watch Thursday night’s homer below:

EIGHT-straight games with a HR for Cags! 🤯💣#GoGators // 📺 SECN pic.twitter.com/Cx4pAaEVuA

— Florida Gators Baseball (@GatorsBB) April 19, 2024

The home run was the second hit of the day for Caglianone, who singled to the pitcher on a fielder’s choice in the first inning.

With Thursday night’s bomb, Caglianone now has 62 career home runs. He’s just 12 away from the school record of 74, set by Matt LaPorta. But it’s worth nothing that LaPorta hit that total in four full years of college action, while Caglianone is currently only in his third season.

Most recently, Caglianone hit a monster 516-foot home run against Jacksonville on Tuesday night inside Condron Family Ballpark. He finished that game 2 for 3 at the plate with two RBIs and three runs scored.

Caglianone hit seven home runs as a freshman, then exploded to hit 33 — good for tops in the nation — during his sophomore season one year ago. Of course, that run was aided by a deep College World Series run, but is now 11 shy of that mark with several weeks remaining in the Gators’ regular season.

Thursday’s matchup is the first of a three-game series for Florida in Nashville. They’ll wrap up the series on Friday and Saturday before returning home for a mid-week matchup against Stetson.

Florida has four conference series remaining after rounding their trip this weekend, including a series at No. 2 Arkansas next week, and a trip to No. 3 Kentucky during the second weekend in May.

As of this report, the Gators are in sixth place out of seven (7-8 in SEC play) in the SEC East. At 19-17 overall, Florida is in jeopardy of leaving this weekend with a losing record on the season. With a tough SEC slate ahead, Florida is in need of a big run if they want to capitalize on securing their bid into the postseason.

With Caglianone’s bat as hot as it is, Florida will be leaning on him for that extra push this weekend.

On3’s Thomas Goldkamp contributed to this report.