No. 3 Gator Baseball Takes Series Against the Bulldogs

Th third ranked Gator baseball team (30-7, 11-4) takes the series against the Georgia Bulldogs (19-17, 4-11), winning 11-4 on Sunday. The Gators never trailed the Bulldogs in the final game of the series.

On the day, Florida’s Jac Caglianone had what could be described as a dominant day. He was the starting pitcher and threw five innings to get the win as he allowed just two runs. With his bat, he added two homers and seven RBI. Of Caglianone’s seven RBI, four of them came on a grand slam in the eighth inning. He talked about that at bat.

Another standout from the day was Michael Robertson. After having the game-winning hit on Saturday, he added two more RBIs on Sunday. Josh Rivera talked about his performances against the Bulldogs.

Gators get the bats going early

Jac Caglianone got the start on Sunday against the Bulldogs. This start went better than his previous one against Tennessee. Though he gave up an infield single, that’s all that happened in the first inning on the mound.

Then, in the bottom of the first, Caglianone earned himself a walk with one out. Josh Rivera followed Caglianone’s at bat with a two-run blast to right field, giving the Gators an early 2-0 lead heading into the second inning.

Caglianone worked himself into some trouble in the second inning. He had runners on first and second base with two outs but reeled himself back in to not allow any runs in the inning.

For the second inning in a row, the Gators hit a home run. The inning started with a Michael Robertson single to left field that brought in one run. Shortly after that, Jac Caglianone smacked a three-run homer to right field to put the Gators up 6-0 over the Bulldogs.

Bulldogs bite back

The Gator offense quieted down over the next five innings. Their opponents took advantage of this and cut the deficit to just two runs heading into the bottom of the eighth inning.

It started in the third inning when the Bulldogs homered to right field. In the following inning, Georgia hit a one-out triple that scored after an error from the Gators. These two runs made it 6-2 with the Gators leading.  Georgia could have had more runs in the sixth, but could not find a hit with runners on second and third base and no outs.

Then, in the seventh, they had two doubles in the inning that scored one run. Again, it could have been more for the Bulldogs, but Philip Abner came in to limit it to just one run. In the eighth, they got a run on a bases-loaded walk with two outs. The score was 6-4 going into the bottom of the eighth inning.

Closer Brandon Neely came in to save the Gators from allowing any more runs in the inning. However, Neely only lasted the one batter as he was ejected heading into the dugout after striking out the final batter of the inning.

Gator offense blows it wide open

Florida finally got back on track on offense in the eighth. With runners on first and second base and one out, Michael Robertson hit an RBI single to left field to put the Gators up 7-4.

Not too long after this did Jac Caglianone have the hit of the day. Caglianone entered the batters box with bases loaded and mashed a no-doubt homer to the opposite field to blow the game wide open at 11-4 in favor of the Gators.

Florida closed out the game in the ninth but not without complications. Georgia hit a two-run homer to make it 11-6 but that was all.  Next up Florida will host FAMU on Tuesday.

Gator coach Kevin O’Sullivan talked about what he saw from his team on Sunday.