Langford’s remarkable season continues in series-opening beatdown of Gamecocks

It’s hard to imagine that there are many stories in college baseball that are better than the season that Florida left fielder Wyatt Langford is having.

After receiving just four at bats as a freshman backup catcher and third baseman last season, Langford leads the Gators with a .368 batting average, 21 home runs and 55 RBI while starting all 53 games so far this spring. He’s also shown some defensive prowess at a position that he had never played prior to this season, as he’s yet to commit an error in 87 chances.

While he’s mashed the cover off of the ball all season long, he’s gotten particularly hot since coach Kevin O’Sullivan moved him into the leadoff spot 13 games ago. Since then, he is batting .471 with eight home runs and 13 RBI. Three of those homers have come in his first at bat of the game.

In a superb season, the native of nearby Trenton might actually be getting better as the postseason approaches. He smashed two more home runs in Thursday night’s series opener against South Carolina at Condron Ballpark. He’s now turned in back-to-back two-homer games after he went yard in his first two at bats against Florida State on Tuesday.

His two latest bombs vaulted him to the top of the SEC leaderboard and made him just the sixth player in school history to hit 20 or more homers in a season.

Langford’s two long balls on Thursday night jumpstarted the Gators to a 16-hit night and a 14-5 blowout of the Gamecocks.

“I don’t know if I have quite seen anything like this, to be honest with you,” O’Sullivan said. “We’ve had some really good players, and I hate naming names because we have had so many good players come through here during my tenure. It’s just remarkable. He’s seeing the ball really well, and he’s got the flair for the dramatic.”

All nine Gators notched at least one hit on Thursday, led by Colby Halter’s second three-hit game of the season. Sterlin Thompson, BT Riopelle, Jac Caglianone and Ty Evans all contributed two hits. Caglianone and Evans both clubbed home runs as well, which brings the Gators to 100 dingers for the season. That mark ties for the third-most in program history and the most during the O’Sullivan era.

For the second game in a row, Langford opened the scoring on the first pitch in the bottom of the first. He sent a fastball from Brett Thomas off of the batter’s eye in center to make it 1-0.

“I go out there with the same approach every time,” Langford said. “I’m always looking for that one pitch, and I’ve just got it the past two games. It’s been nice, obviously.”

South Carolina (26-26, 12-16 SEC) took advantage of an off night for UF starter Brandon Sproat control-wise to take the lead in the third. Two hit batters and a walk loaded the bases with two outs, and Andrew Eyster lined a two-run double into the left-field corner.

The Gators (34-19, 14-14) tied the game back up at two just minutes later when Thompson and Jud Fabian hit back-to-back doubles to lead off the bottom of the inning.

Evans opened the fourth by just sneaking a ball over the center-field wall for his fourth home run of the year to give UF the lead.

A walk, a hit batter and a single by Halter loaded the bases with nobody out and led to John Gilreath entering out of the Gamecocks’ bullpen. Thompson lofted a sacrifice fly to deep left field to extend the lead to 4-2, but Gilreath avoided further damage by getting Fabian to ground into a double play.

The Gamecocks tied the game in the fifth thanks to a couple of bad defensive plays by the Gators. With a runner on first and two outs, Josiah Sightler hit a groundball deep in the hole at short. Josh Rivera got there in time, but his throw to first short-hopped first baseman Kris Armstrong. The ball got past Armstrong and trickled down the right-field line. Armstrong chased the ball down and seemed to think that the runner was going to stop at third, as he casually jogged the ball back into the infield.

By the time he realized his mistake, it was too late. The run scored to make it 4-3. Sproat then got Braylen Wimmer to hit a pop up into shallow center field. Rivera couldn’t find the ball, and it landed for an RBI double.

Florida retook the lead for good in the bottom of the frame. Riopelle and Rivera led off with singles, and Caglianone drove in Riopelle with a single up the middle. He advanced to second on the throw to third. Evans and Armstrong then lofted back-to-back sacrifice flies to center to make it 7-4.

The Gamecocks’ last real chance to keep this game interesting came in the seventh. Brandt Belk led off with an infield single. Sproat got Kevin Madden to line out to left before exiting the game.

In 6 1/3 innings, Sproat gave up four runs (but only two of them earned) on four hits. He struck out three, walked three and plunked three.

“He didn’t have his best stuff, but I think what you saw tonight was his growth and his maturity in learning to deal with failure,” O’Sullivan said. “Has gotten to a point where he’s winning games without having his best stuff. I don’t know if you would’ve seen that earlier this year or last year. He probably would’ve gotten a little bit frustrated with himself. But he grinded it out, and, for him to get to the seventh inning and battle the way he did, that says a lot about where he’s at right now mentally. He’s in a really good spot.”

Philip Abner replaced him for a left-on-left matchup with Sightler. Sightler hit the ball hard but just got under it enough that Langford was able to easily make the catch.

Blake Purnell then took over on the mound and got a groundout to end the inning.

Caglianone put the game out of reach in the bottom of the inning by launching a two-run shot over the right-center field wall. He’s now hit four home runs in his first 54 at bats since making his college debut against Tennessee less than a month ago.

He was a highly ranked pitching prospect in high school, but Tommy John surgery has kept him off of the mound this season and kept him out of the batter’s box until a few weeks ago.

“Originally, the whole idea was just to redshirt, take this year off, focus on the pitching aspect of everything,” Caglianone said. “I ended up getting cleared about five months in to swing it, so went through that whole progression and everything. I ended up doing decent in live at bats and stuff like that. So, we pitched that idea out, talked to my family. They were a little hesitant at first just because I hadn’t seen live pitching in a year, since high school. I ended up going for it, and it’s working pretty good for me.”

The Gators tacked on five more runs in the eighth for good measure, highlighted by Langford’s leadoff homer off of CJ Weins. Evans later hit a two-run single off of Aidan Hunter, while Armstrong drove in a run with a single and Halter smoked an RBI double to deep right field.

South Carolina added a meaningless run in the ninth when pinch hitter Jack Mahoney hit a home run off of Anthony Ursitti.

The Gators will now focus on clinching the series in Friday night’s game two. If they’re able to get the job done, there’s a good chance that Langford will be right in the middle of it.

“If I try to explain or try to put into words what we’re witnessing right now, I’m probably not going to do it any justice,” O’Sullivan said. “The thing about him is he hasn’t changed. He’s still the same young man. He just stays the course, and he’s even-keeled. I’ve said this quite a lot here over the last couple of weeks, but we all need to enjoy this because this is something special.”

Ethan Hughes
Ethan was born in Gainesville and has lived in the Starke, Florida, area his entire life. He played basketball for five years and knew he wanted to be a sportswriter when he was in middle school. He’s attended countless Gators athletic events since his early childhood, with baseball being his favorite sport to attend. He’s a proud 2019 graduate of the University of Florida and a 2017 graduate of Santa Fe College. He interned with the University Athletic Association’s communications department for 1 ½ years as a student and also wrote for InsideTheGators.com for two years before joining Gator Country in 2021. He is a long-suffering fan of the Jacksonville Jaguars. You can follow him on Twitter @ethanhughes97.