Photo by James Gilbert | Getty Images

Final: Gators 17, FAMU 7 (7 Innings)

Florida DH/1B/LHP Jac Caglianone continued to add to his candidacy for the nation’s top honor, the Golden Spikes, with his performance Tuesday.

Caglianone got the scoring started with his first at-bat as he hit a sacrifice fly to center that plated the Gators’ first run of the night.

An inning later, Caglianone crushed an 0-1 pitch that might still be in orbit. The homer was his nation-leading twenty-second of the year through 38 games.

For good measure, Caglianone added a double in the third inning that put a pair of runners in scoring position. Both runners would score in the third as Florida jumped out to a 13-2 lead through three innings.

Florida started little used infielders Dale Thomas and Deric Fabian for the matchup and they didn’t disappoint. Fabian smashed a blast to the berm and finished the day 1-3 with a walk and two runs scored. Thomas added an RBI double to the statline, as well.

Armed with a large lead, Florida was able to get more work out of younger, inexperienced players. Wyatt Langford was replaced after a 2-2 start to the game and catcher Rene Lastres saw time behind the plate, until suffering an injury to the groin.

Freshman Luke Heyman finished the night 2-2 with four RBI, thanks largely to three sacrifice flies and a solo homer of his own.

Freshman Yoel Tejeda, Jr. (1-0) got the start for Florida and threw four innings. Fisher Jameson, Blake Purnell, and Clete Hartzog also saw action on the mound. Hartzog threw a perfect inning in the top of the seventh to preserve the run-rule victory. Since he has pitched more than half of the game. Tejeda was awarded with his first collegiate win.

Florida improved to 31-7 overall while the Rattlers are now 18-18 on the season.

The Gators will bus to Columbia, SC Wednesday morning as they prepare for a Thursday-Friday-Saturday series against the nation’s No. 6 ranked team, South Carolina.

Leave a Reply

%d bloggers like this: