Florida Gators take SEC season-opening series over Texas A&M
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — One of the least conventional home run trots in baseball turned into the difference on Sunday afternoon as the No. 8 Florida Gators came from behind to beat No. 4 Texas A&M, 4-2, and take the opening SEC series.
Tyler Shelnut knew he had hit the ball well but he wasn’t sure it had gone over the fence.
“I was so worn out, I’m still out of breath,” Shelnut said after the game.
Shelnut got a fastball and put just enough bat on it to sneak it over the wall in left field. The ball hit an anwning that provides shade to the visiting bullpen and came back in the field of play. Luke Heyman came around all the way from first base to score, giving the Gators the lead. Shelnut was caught in a run down, eventuially making it back to second base before the play was reviewed and overturned to a home run.
“That at bat, honestly, I was trying to see a ball that I could handle well up and over the plate. Went down 0-2 there and there was no way I was going to give in. I was going to try to put my best swing on it.”
Shelnut’s homer gave the Gators a 4-2 advatage but junior closer Brandon Neely had to leave the game with biceps soreness. Kevin O’Sullivan put the game in freshman Luke McNeillie’s hands.
McNeillie had been great in the preseason but had allowed 16 earned runs in just 8.1 innings of work this spring.
The freshman worked through the teeth of the Aggie lineup to close out the game and send Florida off winners.
Notes
- Sunday’s official attendance was 6,110.
- Florida won it’s 14th-consecutive regular-season, home series at Condron Family Ballpark dating back to the 2022 season.
- The Gators have claimed 20 of their last 22 three-game, regular-season series including 13 of 15 in SEC play.
- The Gators are 30-7 in home series since 2023.
- Florida is 45-12 at home since the start of last season.
- The Gators are 40-14 in weekend series since the start of last season and 49-17 across the team’s previous 22 series at any venue.
- Since Florida’s last home series lost vs. Tennessee from April 22-24, 2022, the Gators have gone 39-17 vs. SEC opponents featuring a 31-14 regular-season mark.
- Caglianone went 17 1/3 innings without allowing an earned run before Montgomery’s solo home run with one out in the fifth inning.
- In his last three starts, Caglianone has allowed one earned run across 17 1/3 innings on seven hits, 11 walks and 27 strikeouts.
- Heyman swatted his sixth home run of the season.
- Shelnut launched his seventh homer of the campaign.
- Heyman and Shelton moved their on-base streaks to 19-straight contests.
- Florida is now 14-16 all-time vs. Texas A&M including 9-4 in Gainesville.
- The Gators are 13-10 against the Aggies under head coach Kevin O’Sullivan (8-1 at home), having won seven of the last 11 meetings.
Quotes
On the victory and Caglianone’s start…
“It was probably the hottest day we’ve had, honestly. His first three innings, the first one he came from the pen and then his second inning he came from on the bases, and then the third one, the next inning, he came in after he hit. So, we are really careful about that as far as taking visits. I took one, I know Tanner took one; sometimes he just needs a breather. Like I said, this is probably the hottest day we’ve had so far and he made a comment before the game about that in the pen. But he battled, his fastball got better as the game went on and he reached back and got 95, 96, 97 when he needed to. His slider was really good today. Change wasn’t quite as sharp as it has been in the last few starts but I mean, obviously you could see the development on where he’s at and we get performances like that from him every Sunday, it puts us in a good situation.”
On the pitching usage of Slater, Neely and McNeillie…
“It’s not how we drew it up. Brandon’s bicep had been bothering him a little bit. It’s nothing serious but certainly not going to run him back out there this early in the season. He’s too valuable. And then McNeillie hadn’t thrown all weekend and this is what we saw from him in the fall. He didn’t give up a run in the whole fall. He just got off to a tough start. But when Brandon said his bicep was hurting a little bit, I immediately went – my thought process – this is an incredible situation, because if he can get through this, it might change his whole year moving forward. Leadoff hitter gets on and he’s been a pain the whole weekend. Then he goes to 3-2 with LaViolette and he’s got to make a pitch. You know he walks him, he’s first or second, one out and we have some problems. Then he lands a slider to Montgomery, maybe a little better feed, maybe we turn a double play there. And then now you’ve got Burton, senior, who hit, I don’t know 12 or 15 home runs last year at Michigan. He did it. He got through it. It was awesome.”
On Garrison’s work behind the plate…
“He played really good defensively. He kept everything in front of him like I said, threw two guys out and LaViolette can really run and he got a great jump, and his release was outstanding… But his at bat after we missed a drag and popped it up, was a really good at bat. He hit a ball to the wall, to the warning track his first at bat and then I don’t know how many pitches exactly it was. And he’s seeing the ball good and they threw everything at him in that at bat, and he hung in there and put a really good swing on one. But yeah, he played really good this weekend.”
What’s next for the Florida Gators?
The No 8. Florida Gators will host Jacksonville on Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m. on SEC Network+. The Gators will continue SEC play this weekend when they travel to Baton Rouge for a rematch of the 2023 College World Series final against the No. 2 LSU Tigers.
