Last weekend, Florida baseball swept Ole Miss for the first time since 1988, outscoring the Rebels 27-19 in the three-game series.
Gator Country provides five key takeaways from the series sweep.
ROAD SWEEP
After playing 20 of their first 22 games in Gainesville, the Gators got their first real road test against the defending National Champions in Oxford, Mississippi. Florida completed their fourth sweep of the season and the first against an SEC opponent.
Oxford University Stadium (Swayze Field) is one of the toughest places to play and is a staple of college baseball.
It’s not easy to sweep any ballclub and it’s even harder against a team in the SEC that plays in one of the most electric atmospheres in the sport. This series sweep puts No.3 Florida (22-4, 5-1 SEC) ahead of schedule in terms of hosting a Regional / Super Regional and keeps the Gators in striking distance for the top spot in the conference.
DOWN BUT NOT OUT
In the first game of the series, Florida trailed Ole Miss 6-3 after seven innings of play. The Gators would come back and win after striking for six runs in the final two frames.
Florida’s resiliency has been a trend throughout their 2023 campaign as the victory marked the 10th comeback win of the season. The victory also represented the Gators’ largest comeback of the season.
Florida’s bats have the ability to keep them in just about every game, even when the pitching isn’t on point.
DOMINANT RELIEF PITCHING
Florida’s starters didn’t have their best stuff this weekend, but the Gators’ bullpen made up for it by tossing 13 innings of relief while allowing just three earned runs against a tough Rebels lineup.
Perhaps the most impressive part was that the bullpen allowed just one walk and one hit by pitch in the series.
Philip Abner (3-0) continued his dominating 2023 campaign by throwing 3.1 innings while allowing no earned runs and three hits. The left handers season ERA sits at 1.32 across 13.2 innings pitched.
During Sunday’s game, the Gators found two perfect innings of relief from left hander Chris Arroyo, who made just his third appearance this season. Arroyo struck out four of the six batters he faced. Head coach Kevin O’ Sullivan will surely be giving Arroyo another chance to impress.
Florida seems to be starting to piece together a formidable bullpen heading into the heart of SEC play.
JAC CAGLIANONE
The Gators’ two-way phenom tore it up at the plate this past weekend, blasting four home runs against Rebel pitching, including his nation-leading 17th home run of the season in the first inning on Sunday afternoon.
In games he begins as the starting pitcher, Caglianone is 8-for-21 (.381) with six home runs, 10 RBI and nine runs scored.
Caglianone now has more home runs (17) than singles (16) this season.
Caglianone totaled seven hits at the dish while scoring five runs for the Gators this weekend.
Caglianone wasn’t one of the 55 players named to the Preseason Golden Spikes Watch List, but I can assure you that he is a frontrunner for the award as we approach the midway point of the 2023 season.
GATORS GETTING HEALTHY
Wyatt Langford started his first game in left field just two weeks after rupturing his testicle in a Friday night win over Siena. The Trenton native was expected to miss more than a month, but he recovered quickly and found himself as the starting DH on Tuesday night against FSU and the starting left fielder against Ole Miss on Sunday afternoon.
Langford didn’t have his best weekend at the plate, which you can expect after missing some time. Langford was hitless in the first and last game of the series but went two for five at the dish in game two, including a homerun.
Freshman catcher Luke Heyman made his first start behind the plate since tweaking his hamstring against Siena on March 10th. Heyman went two for three at the plate including two solo home runs in Sunday’s 7-4 win over the Rebels.
While Heyman is unlikely to be an everyday starter due to the number of hitters the Gators have, he’s still an important part of Florida’s team as he spells BT Riopelle behind the plate. The Longwood native is hitting .444 in nine starts.
If Florida can get LHP Pierce Coppola back, the Gators will be as healthy as you can be 26 games into the season.