Vanderbilt eliminates Florida Gators from 2024 SEC Tournament

The Florida Gators out-hit the Vanderbilt Commodores but fell 6-3 in their opening game of the 2024 SEC Tournament. The loss eliminates the Gators from the SEC Tournament and they will now sweat out the the rest of the week until the field of 64 is announced on May 27.

The Gators and Commodores (36-20) traded clean first innings before Vanderbilt took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the second. Matthew Polk drove in Alan Espinal with an RBI groundout to second base and Braden Holcomb plated Colin Barczi on a sacrifice fly to the right-field warning track.
 
Florida starter Pierce Coppola rebounded with a one-two-three inning in the third, highlighted by a strikeout of Jonathan Vastine for his third of the day. Vanderbilt then struck for two more runs in the fourth on RBI singles from Polk and Holcomb to push the lead to 4-0.
 
Vanderbilt tacked on a lone run in the fifth to make it a 5-0 ballgame. Leading off the frame, Calvin Hewett launched a solo home tun to straightaway left field.
 
In the seventh, Vastine reached on a one-out fielding error at first base and then stole second base. With two outs, RJ Austin found a hole through the left side for an RBI single to push the tally to 6-0.

The Gators were able to score a run in the eighth and two more in the ninth when Michael Robertson launched his second home run of the season to narrow the score to 6-3.

Player of the Game:

Cade Kurland: 2-4, double
Michael Robertson: 1-4, HR
Jac Caglianone: 2-4

Notes:

• Florida’s scoring streak of 134 consecutive games is the third-longest in program history (May 27, 2022-present).
• Caglianone extended his on-base streak to 41 straight contests.
  • Caglianone has hit safely in 52 of 55 games while reaching safely in all but one contest.
  • Caglianone went 2-for-4 while seeing only four total pitches.
• Robertson hit his third-career home run including his second of the campaign.
• Making the team’s 43rd SEC Tournament appearance, Florida is 77-70 in Hoover featuring a 9-5 record since 2021.
• Across the team’s last 84 tilts against SEC teams, Florida is 50-34.
  • That includes a 42-30 regular-season mark.
• Florida is now 148-82-1 all-time vs. Vanderbilt including 6-9 in neutral-site battles.
  • The Gators are 35-24 against the Commodores under head coach Kevin O’Sullivan (6-5 neutral).

Quotes:

Opening statement from Kevin O’Sullivan:

“I mean, bottom line is we got beat. Cunningham threw the ball good, and obviously the closer — reliever came in and did a nice job. We just had a hard time manufacturing runs. I don’t know how many guys we left on base, but we had the opportunity there with two runners on with nobody out, and unfortunately we had two at-bats there where we struck out back to back.

“But that was an opportunity for us to take an early lead. Then we turned back around and walked Espinal to start the second, and then we got two runs on the board.

“But ultimately we just got beat, simple as that. The inability to make some two-strike, two-out pitches with runners in scoring position cost us a couple runs and gave up a third one with two outs. We had to pitch out on him, didn’t hit the catcher in the chest.

“Little things like that add up in a game like this. Obviously, Corbz’s team played better than we did today, and we’ll move forward.”

You guys had to work so hard to put yourselves in this position. Obviously today didn’t go like you want. Where do you see your position as you try to get into regional play?

Quite honestly, I thought our biggest hurdle was to get above .500. That was the first obstacle we needed to get over. Then obviously there’s five of us that have 13 wins in the league.

Anybody can look at the metrics, strength of schedule, how many quad 1 wins. But at the end of the day, I look at things a little bit differently. There’s potentially six hosts in our league, which we’ve never had before. We’ve went 9-9 against them. Obviously went into Baton Rouge and won two out of three.

Our schedule was really difficult down the stretch the last five series. We did what we needed to do to win two out of three at Georgia, which obviously is not an easy thing to do. Our schedule is difficult.

But we do that for a reason: For us to be able to be battle tested when we get into postseason. We play three against Florida State, three against Miami every year. Yeah, so there’s been some inconsistencies, but at the same time, we’ve proven that we can play with anybody in the country. We’ve just had some inconsistencies along the way, like most of the teams that have 13 wins in our league. I think everybody would tell you the same thing.

But it’s up to the committee, and there’s nothing that I can say or do, and I’m not going to sit here and politic for our team. But at the same time, that one simple thing, going 9-9 in 18 league games against teams that are potentially going to host or be national seeds, I think that says something.

You saw Cunningham, whatever it was, six weeks ago now. Do you perceive he was better this time around, or was it just a matter of not cashing in this time?

“I think he was a lot more efficient, to be honest with you. There wasn’t a whole lot of misses. In a game like this, we walk Espinal to start the second and it gets things going, he was able to navigate that, and he did a good job getting the lead-off hitter.”

“The frustrating part on my end is we — many of our hitters were attacked pretty much the same way from at-bat to at-bat and we didn’t make very many adjustments, simple as that. But Cunningham did execute, so he pitched really well today.”

What’s next for the Florida Gators?

Florida’s résumé is done, they will take a 28-27 (13-17 SEC) record into Selection Monday. Florida does have 12 quadrant 1 wins and road series wins of LSU and Georgia. Florida also beat No. 4 Texas A&M at home. Will it be enough? That might mean the SEC gets 11 teams into the NCAA Tournament, which would be the most any single conference has ever sent to the NCAA Tournament.