No.8 Florida baseball entered Sunday’s rubber match against No.4 Texas A&M full of confidence as LHP Jac Caglianone was set to start while the Gators had their top two relievers in Ryan Slater and Brandon Neely available for multiple innings. While the game didn’t go exactly as planned, Florida defeated the Aggies 4-2 in game three, taking the series and improving to 12-7 (2-1 SEC) on the season.
In a deadlocked 2-2 game, senior utility man Tyler Shelnut blasted a go-ahead two-run missile over the left field wall, giving Florida a 4-2 lead with one inning left.
“That’s honestly what SEC baseball is. We talked about it going into this weekend, we talked about how they are won by one pitch a lot of times,” Shelnut said postgame. “It came down to that today. For that at bat, I was just trying to see a ball that I can handle well, something up and out over the plate, not expand and help him out any. I went down 0-2 there and there’s no way I was going to give in, anything near the plate I was going to try to put my best swing on there, just try not to do too much as well, runner on first, I’m just trying to move the baseball there.”
This is where things got weird. After tossing two scoreless frames, Florida’s closer Brandon Neely approached Head Coach Kevin O’Sullivan in the dugout regarding bicep pain. With Ryan Slater already making an appearance in the contest, this forced O’Sullivan to turn to an inexperienced arm in true freshman RHP Luke McNeillie, who entered the game with a 17.28 ERA. McNeillie had allowed 16 runs over his last 4.2 innings pitched and was set to face what could be the best 1–3-hole hitters in college baseball.
You wouldn’t have any idea that McNeillie had struggled mightily this season as the Milton, Georgia native toed the rubber with an intense amount of confidence, which is what’s needed to pitch against this Aggies lineup.
McNeillie went right after the heart of TAMU’s offense, retiring three of the four batters he faced, including a strikeout on Jace LaViolette, who already has ten home runs this season. McNeillie recorded his first career save in what was more than likely the most high-pressured situation of his young career.
“It’s not how we drew it up,” O’Sullivan said postgame. “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,” O’Sullivan added on McNeillie’s save.
This outing could be season changing for the freshman right hander. If you can handle the top of the Aggies lineup in a 9th inning, two run game, you can handle anyone’s. This should provide McNeillie with a huge confidence boost moving forward.
Tyler Shelnut’s monster weekend
Not only did Tyler Shelnut launch the home run that put the Gators on top in Sunday’s game, but he tallied six hits this weekend including two home runs, raising his batting average 43 percentage points following this three-game stretch.
Shelnut and Ty Evans have anchored down the middle of the Gators’ lineup and are playing some of their best baseball as of late.
Shelnut played a critical role in Florida’s series victory over Texas A&M.
“Despite what we’ve shown on the field, we know who we are, we know how good we are,” Shelnut said on the series win. “I mean you look at our lineup and you look at the pitchers we got and what they’ve shown us leading up to this. We know how good we are, we know what we are capable of. It’s kind of just finding that rhythm, getting in a groove, and start playing better baseball as a whole.”
“That’s huge, that’s a good team, they are one of the best, there’s no doubt about that, but that I think just proves that when we are playing good ball, there’s not many teams that can beat us.”
Caglianone delivers again
It was a hot day in Gainesville for the Gators’ two-way star, but Caglianone gave Florida another good outing during Sunday’s start against the Aggies. Caglianone tossed 5.1 innings while allowing two runs (one earned), four hits, and five walks. The left hander struck out seven.
Command was a bit of an issue and Florida’s defense didn’t do him many favors, but Caglianone did what the Gators needed him to do in the rubber match.
“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,” O’Sullivan said on Caglianone’s outing.
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.
Notables
- 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.