No.7 Florida played one of their most complete games of the 2023 season on Friday night, run-ruling No.5 Vanderbilt 10-0 after seven innings in the series opener.
The Gators (38-12, 16-9 SEC) are now just one conference game back from Vanderbilt (35-14, 17-8 SEC), who sits atop the SEC East standings.
After a scoreless first frame, Deric Fabian blasted a 405 foot two-run home run in his first at bat in nearly three weeks. Fabian made just his seventh start of the 2023 season after Josh Rivera couldn’t go (mouth/head).
Later in the second inning, Wyatt Langford doubled down the left field line, scoring Cade Kurland from first base and extending the Gators lead to 3-0.
In the bottom of the third, Fabian came up in the clutch once again, sending a rocket over the shortstop’s head for a two-RBI single, giving Florida 5-0 lead. Fabian reached base three times in the contest, totaling a career high four RBIs and one run.
“I’m not going to say I called it, but I did,” Kevin O’Sullivan said on Fabian’s performance. “I talked to Chuck (Jeroloman) last night and the thing about Deric is, obviously he’s been disappointed he probably hadn’t played as much as he’d like to, and he played a lot more last year. But the one thing he has not done, he has not put his head down. He’s always been a good teammate. And I can’t tell you how many extra reps he’s done before and after practice to put himself in that position to have a game like this. And I just felt like, there was a feeling that something good was going to happen for him tonight. Luckily for us, it did.”
The Gators found three runs for the second consecutive inning after a sac fly off the bat of Jac Caglianone and a two-run opposite field blast from BT Riopelle. Caglianone’s sac fly marked his 70th RBI of the season, the most from a Gator since 2015 (JJ Schartz).
Florida’s Friday night starter Brandon Sproat dominated the Commadores, tossing six shutout innings while allowing five hits and three walks. Sproat (7-2) earned the victory while striking out five batters.
“I think Brandon kept his emotions in check,” Head Coach Kevin O’Sullivan said postgame. “Obviously, it was a big strikeout there to end the first. But he’s been really good. He’s been really good the second half of the year. I know there’s been a few starts where he probably wishes he could do over, but all in all, he’s set the tone for us for the most part of the season and had a really good night tonight.”
LHP Cade Fisher took over for the Gators in the seventh inning and tossed a clean frame to cap off the night.
“Cade (Fisher) coming in, did a nice job there in the seventh,” O’Sullivan said. “It was important to hopefully score those two runs in the seventh, because now he only threw 19 pitches. We want to be careful so we use our bullpen in a way so that there isn’t anyone unavailable tomorrow.”
With the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh, Jac Caglianone smacked a single down the left field line, scoring Cade Kurland and Michael Robertson to complete the run-rule (10th of the season).
Florida totaled 13 hits in the contest while scoring as many runs (10) in seven innings as they did all last weekend against Texas A&M.
The Gators posted their largest victory over Vanderbilt since April 15, 2017 (20-8). Florida surpassed their SEC win total from last season (15), improving to 16-9 in conference play.