No.4 Florida (5-1) plated eight runs in the first two innings en route to a 12-5 beatdown of Columbia (0-3) on Sunday afternoon, completing the first weekend series sweep of the 2024 season.
Tyler Shelnut and Colby Shelton both blasted home runs in the contest, the 2nd on the season for each. Shelnut tied his career high with four RBI against Columbia while Shelton led the Gators with three runs in the series finale.
Luke Heyman added two hits and four RBI, including two doubles. Heyman reached base on three of his five plate appearances.
“We have a good hitting team, just continuing to do what we do best, and just get our pitches, not try to do too much, stay in our approaches,” Heyman said postgame. “Capitalizing on the mistakes that they make, we did a good job of that all weekend and we were able to put up some runs.”
Kevin O’Sullivan’s ballclub found dominant relief pitching from freshman right hander Alex Philpott, who tossed three scoreless innings on 39 pitches while striking out six batters. Philpott allowed two hits and one walk in the contest.
“He can pitch, he’s got three pitches in any count he can throw for a strike,” Kevin O’Sullivan said on Philpott. “Today’s changeup was outstanding, even right on right, he got a bunch of strikeouts. I don’t know how many strikes he threw in a row, but it was 12 or 13, 14 strikes when he came in to start the fourth. He was outstanding. I can’t say enough about his effort today.”
Philpott has a deceptive fastball that generates a ton of swings and misses, which he utilized vs Columbia. The Tampa, Florida native found the strike zone on 29 of his 39 pitches (74.3%) on Sunday.
“He’s just able to locate everything for strikes, he’s got a good fastball that he can ride up at the top of the zone, and then he’s got a good slider and a putout change,” Heyman said on Philpott.
Philpott (2-0) earned his second win of the week and has thrown 7.2 scoreless frames this season.
Florida’s two-way star Jac Caglianone made his first start of the 2024 season vs Columbia after his first scheduled start vs St. John’s was scraped due to poor weather conditions in Gainesville.
Caglianone’s first two innings were dominant as the hard throwing left hander held the Lions scoreless while surrendering just one base runner and striking out five. After a leadoff walk in the third and a hard single to left field, Caglianone left a pitch down the middle for Columbia’s leadoff hitter Cole Hage, who blasted a three-run home run to left field, his second of the series.
“It was good for the first outing, just made one bad pitch, paid for it,” Caglianone said postgame. “Thankfully our hitters were on top of it, giving plenty of run support so I wasn’t really stressing too much about it.”
After the three-run shot, Caglianone retired the next three batters in order.
“It was good to get Jac back out there. I thought he threw the ball good,” O’Sullivan said on Caglianone’s start. “Walking left on left to start the third, bottom half of the order there. The leadoff hitter just ran into a fastball, but overall, I thought it was good. His limit was about 60 pitches and it was a short turnaround from last night, but I thought he threw the ball good.”
Caglianone continued his dominance at the plate, finding two hits, one RBI, and two runs in Florida’s Sunday victory. The junior slugger is hitting .545 with an on base percentage of .692 through six games in 2024.
NOTABLES
- Sunday’s official attendance was 5,498.
- Florida has made just one error all season and has not committed an error across the previous 50 innings of play.
- Florida position players have yet to commit an error this season.
- Florida struck out 46 batters against nine walks across the three-game series vs. Columbia.
- The Gators scored five runs in the first inning after plating 10 in the first inning in game one of the series.
- Florida’s first seven home runs of the season were his by seven different players, with Shelnut becoming the first Gator to hit double-digit big flies with his first-inning blast.
- Shelton became the second Gator to do so in the fifth inning.
- Shelnut tied his career high with four RBI.
- Smith made his collegiate debut in the seventh, tossing 1 2/3 scoreless innings with no hits, no walks, and two strikeouts.
- Gomberg made his career debut in the eighth, concluding with one-plus inning of two-run ball on three walks and two strikeouts.
- Dating back to last season, Florida is 27-4 in regular season non-conference games and has won 18 of its last 19 such contests.
- Florida won its 12th-straight regular-season, three-game home series.
- The Gators are 26-5 in home series since 2023.
- Florida is 34-11 in weekend series since 2023 and 43-14 across the team’s previous 19 series.
- Florida improved to 8-0 all-time against Columbia, all of which have been played in Gainesville.
- The Gators rise to 7-0 vs. the Lions under head coach Kevin O’Sullivan.
UP NEXT
Florida travels to Stetson on Tuesday to take on the Hatters at 6 p.m. on ESPN+.