Florida Gators come back to even series with LSU Tigers
The much-maligned Florida Gators bullpen threw six scoreless innings while Golden Spikes watch list member Jac Caglianone rearranged a baseball in extra innings to give the Gators a come-from-behind win against the LSU Tigers, 6-4.
Freshman starter Liam Peterson blanked the Tigers (19-5, 2-3 SEC) in the opening frame, then retired the side in order in the second on just five pitches. LSU manufactured one run in the third, as Mac Bingham used an infield single aided by a throwing error at third base to bring home Jake Brown.
The Gators (13-9, 3-2 SEC) grabbed a brief 2-1 lead in the fourth. Caglianone raced home on a 6-3 double play off the bat of Cade Kurland, followed by a two-out RBI single to center by Dale Thomas to score Tyler Shelnut.
LSU got one run right back in the bottom half to tie it at 2-2, with Hayden Travinski leading off with a solo shot to straightaway left field. The Tigers took the lead back in the bottom of the fifth, as Bingham swatted a solo homer to left field. Two batters later, Jared Jones uncorked a long ball to right for a 4-2 ballgame.
Florida would claw its way back into the game with an unconventional run in the eighth inning. Kurland struck out with the bases loaded but the ball got away from Alex Milazzo allowing a run to score and Kurland to reach first. Florida tied the game in the ninth inning when Ty Evans drove in Michael Robertson with a single — his third hit of the game — to center field.
Players of the Game
The Bullpen: The much-maligned Florida bullpen had stumbled out of the gates to start the 2023 season. Saturday night a trio of freshmen (Frank Menendez, Luke McNeillie, Grayson Smith) combined to throw 3.1 innings of scoreless relief. Juniors Brandon Neely and Ryan Slater cleaned up the latter innings on the way to the win.
Jac Caglianone: Caglianone jumped on the first pitch he saw in the 11th inning and hit a baseball out of the park at a 16-degree launch angle.
Ty Evans: The right fielder went 3-6 at the plate with a double, RBI, and scored twice. He also made this web gem in extra innings.
Notes
- Saturday night’s official attendance was another sellout crowd of 12,892, marking the second-largest in LSU program history.
- The Gators posted their fifth come-from-behind win of the season.
- Garrison threw out Kling attempting to steal second base in the sixth inning, improving to 6-for-7 (85.7%) in throwing out would-be base stealers this season.
- Evans recorded his 10th multi-hit performance in the last 12 games including multiple knocks in each of the first two games of the series.
- Evans tied the game with two outs in the ninth with an RBI single to center.
- Caglianone’s 10th home run of the season proved to be the game-winner in the 11th inning.
- The Gators are 41-15 in weekend series since 2023 and 50-18 across the team’s previous 23 series.
- Florida is 40-18 in its last 58 games vs. SEC opponents including a 32-15 regular-season mark.
- Florida is now 54-69-1 all-time vs. LSU including 16-32-1 in Baton Rouge.
- The Gators are 25-22 against the Tigers under head coach Kevin O’Sullivan (8-12 away).
Quotes of the night
From Florida Gators head coach Kevin O’Sullivan
On the resiliency the team showed …
“There’s so many things. Obviously moving Ty (Evans) up to the two spot, we made a lot of changes in the lineup from last night. Ty’s been seeing the ball really well and obviously had a huge at bat there to tie the ball game. I thought even Luke Heyman, I thought his last few at bats were better and obviously Cade (Kurland), his last few at bats were better. Maybe moving some guys around in the lineup kind of changed some things around a little bit. The other thing, I think we had four freshmen in a row come out and pitch in an environment like this — second largest crowd they’ve ever had here — I think they gave up four over eight innings and obviously (Brandon) Neely came in and it was kind of weird because we wanted to put Luke back behind the plate and we lost the DH and the pitcher had to go in the eight spot, the catcher spot. We wanted to put Jaylen (Guy) out in center and obviously, the same thing happened and we brought in (Ryan) Slater. I mean, Ryan Slater was great. Neely was really good. It was just a really good game. We showed some resiliency. Obviously Jac with the big home run. They tried to throw a fastball by him and obviously, he jumped all over it. It’s really a win that we needed. We’ve been struggling a little bit this year up to this point. I’ve been saying all along that our young freshmen are getting better. Hopefully, this is another step in the right direction.”
On the freshmen pitching Saturday night …
“To do it last weekend, I think we all saw that they made a jump last weekend against a really good Texas A&M team and then to do it again tonight against LSU at home, which has always been a difficult place to play. I’m really, really pleased with how these guys are starting to come along. It was a really good win. A really good team win for us.”
On carrying the momentum from this win …
“Yeah, that was the message at the end. We enjoy this win now, certainly, but we’ve got a chance to win the series and we’ve got Jac (Caglianone) on the mound. And we’ve got plenty of arms left. Maybe it’s a blessing in disguise that Brandon only threw 12 pitches tonight. We’ve got a chance to win the series and that’s always what we talk about. If we can split one of the first two and hopefully Jac can throw like he’s been throwing, you know, it gives us a really good chance to win the series.”
Did you give a fist pump when the ball came off Jac’s bat …
“Oh yeah, I was awfully excited. I think he threw him a couple sliders the previous at bat and he hit the line drive back through the middle and then tried to sneak one fastball by him and, luckily enough for us, the ball was left a little out over the plate and Jac put a great swing on it.”
What’s next for the Florida Gators
The Gators will play for a road series win at Alex Box Stadium. The Gators will send Jac Caglianone (2-0, 1.77 ERA) to the mound looking to improve to 4-2 in SEC play. LSU will counter with right-hander Thatcher Hurd (1-2, 6.55 ERA).
