Kevin O'Sullivan evaluates Jac Caglianone's pitching effort after surrendering lead vs. Clemson

The start to a potentially deciding game between Florida and Clemson on Sunday afternoon has had plenty of fireworks, from a Jac Caglianone home run to a dust-up on the basepaths that led to an ejection.

The home crowd for the Tigers is fired up and doing its best to will the team to a win.

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But after a shaky start to the game, Florida ace Jac Caglianone seemed to settle into the game with a three-up, three-down fourth inning, just one frame after he surrendered three runs to give up the lead.

“I thought last inning was clearly his best inning,” Florida coach Kevin O’Sullivan said during the game’s broadcast. “We had walked (Jarren) Purify the nine-hole hitter, which kind of led to the three runs, but really pleased how we were able to answer back last inning. Obviously (Tyler Shelton) put a good swing on the ball on a 2-0 count.”

Shelton’s two-out RBI single to center field knotted the contest up at 3-3, immediately after Clemson had surged to take the lead in the top half of the third inning.

Clemson got to Caglianone after he issued the walk to Purify, then gave up a groundout and a double that plated Purify. That made it 2-1 Florida. One batter later, third baseman Blake Wright hit a go-ahead two-run homer to center field.

Caglianone had opened the game with a two-run home run in the first inning to give the Gators the early lead.

However, it was a defensive play for Caglianone that resulted in a Clemson ejection and the crowd getting fully into it. Caglianone fielded a dribbler up the first base line from Nolan Nawrocki, with the two making significant contact as Caglianone applied the tag.

Tensions flared and Clemson’s bench raced to Nawrocki’s defense. In the fray, first baseman Jack Crighton was ejected. Both benches received a warning.

But Florida seemed to handle the fracas well.

“I mean we’re loose and I think we’ve been handling the situation as well as we could have,” O’Sullivan said. “Obviously there’s a lot of things that’s at stake and both teams are trying to play as hard as they can.”

The game was tied 3-3 heading to the top of the fifth inning at the time of this writing.