No.4 Florida baseball bounced back quite nicely on Sunday afternoon after a disappointing first two games of the weekend, run-ruling Saint Mary’s 10-0 after eight innings to take the series. LHP Jac Caglianone stole the show, firing six scoreless innings in the start, allowing no hits and four walks while striking out nine. Every batter in Florida’s lineup recorded a hit, while five posted a multi-hit game.
The Gators improved to 10-5 on the season behind a dominant two hit shutout over Saint Mary’s, marking the programs 13th-straight regular-season series win at Condron Family Ballpark.
“We talked about it at the end of the game, everything starts on the mound,” Head Coach Kevin O’Sullivan said postgame. “Those pitchers that post up every fifth day, they get paid a lot of money. Everything is dictated on the mound. Obviously, Jac was outstanding again for the second week in a row. Offensively, we got production up and down the lineup. Everybody had at least one hit.”
Caglianone’s dominant outing
For the second week in a row, Jac Caglianone tossed six scoreless innings against his weekend opponent. Caglianone controlled every inning, not facing much adversity until the 6th inning where the hard throwing left hander got Gaels’ leadoff hitter Gavin Napier to roll into a double play to end the frame.
Caglianone did walk four batters, but his command was rock solid until his pitch count creeped into the 80’s, walking just two batters through 5.1 innings pitched. The Tampa, Florida native was mixing in his changeup more often in his third start of the 2024 season, which was highly effective against right-handed batters.
“I think it’s just the command,” O’Sullivan said on Caglianone’s improvements on the hill. “Once again, his slider and changeup were very good today and he’s getting a lot of swings and misses. He’s got some early contact. Somebody said in any one inning there weren’t more than four guys come to the plate. Through six innings and didn’t give up a hit. He had some walks today, but they were good misses. He was around the plate. He was good today.”
Last year we saw Caglianone spiral out of control on the mound, failing to get past the third inning in six of his 18 starts in 2023. We have not seen those meltdowns through three starts of the 2024 season.
“I think it’s getting more innings and getting more comfortable. Like I said, coming off Tommy John out of high school, last year was his first-year pitching in a couple years. I think it’s just getting to the mound, the more he’s gotten to the mound the more comfortable he’s gotten. You can see it with his body language, he just looks confident. He’s not trying to do too much, he’s pitching, you can kind of see the changes,” O’Sullivan said on what he credits Caglianone’s improvement to.
Behind the plate
Caglianone isn’t the easiest pitcher to catch given the movement on his pitches and his control issues at times, but Florida brought in one of the best defensive catchers in college baseball in Tanner Garrison, who has done a wonderful job behind the plate with Caglianone on the mound this season.
“I love catching the guy, I think we work really well together,” Garrison said on catching Caglianone.
Garrison was on the receiving end of ten combined strikeouts today and threw out two base runners attempting to steal second. Garrison also added two doubles, an RBI, and reached base three times offensively.
“He was really good today, threw out two base runners, had the hit and run, he executed. There’s a reason we would have him catch Jac, because sometimes in the past Jac had been really difficult to handle,” O’Sullivan said on Garrison. “He played really good today, his arm looked fresh, he threw out two base runners, and had some good at bats too.”
“He’s probably earned an opportunity to get behind the plate a little bit more, for sure,” O’Sullivan added.
UP NEXT
Florida remains at home to host in-state rival Florida State on Tuesday at 6 p.m. on SEC Network.