Surging Gators stun Clemson to open NCAA Super Regionals
After just slipping into the postseason, the Florida baseball team is an odds-on favorite to reach the College World Series.
The Gators’ 10-7 win at Clemson to open the best-of-3 NCAA Super Regionals gives coach Kevin O’Sullivan’s surging squad an inside track the eight-team CWS. Game 1 winners have advanced since 1999’s introduction of Super Regionals.
Game 2 is at 2:30 p.m. Sunday.
Florida (33-28) overcame a 3-0 deficit Saturday after two innings and seized control with a seven-run fifth inning highlighted by a three-run home run from star slugger Jac Caglianone.
“It wasn’t quite the start we had hoped for,” O’Sullivan said. “But we kept battling.”
Caglianone continued to shoulder the load. The 6-foot-5, 250-pound first baseman hit a 0-1 fastball by Tristan Smith to opposite field to clear the left field fence, scoring Michael Robertson and Cade Kurland to give unseeded UF a 5-4 lead against the No. 6 Tigers (44-15).
The home run was the 32nd this season for Caglianone and leaves him two shy of Matt LaPorta’s school record 74.
“We just had to stick to our approach,” Caglianone said. “He was going to throw a lot of heaters, so we made sure we had to stay on that.”
UF scored four more times, culminating with an RBI single by Robertson as 12 Gators went to the plate.
“It gave us all the momentum that we needed to finish this one out,” Caglianone said.
Continuing his personal late-season resurgence, pitcher Brandon Neely put the finishing touches on the upset. He stepped in for Cade Fisher in the bottom of the sixth inning after he allowed a hit to the only batter he faced after replacing Fisher Jameson.
Jameson (5-0) stepped in for struggling freshman starter Liam Petersen to pick up the win after four innings of work, featuring 4 hits, 3 earned runs and 4 strikeouts. Neely, however, did the heavy lifting to stifle the Tigers and pick up his second postseason save but just his fourth in 2024 after recording 13 in 2023.
Neely, an All-SEC reliever in 2023, has suddenly found his form during the Gators’ surprising run. On Saturday, he allowed 1 hit and tallied 7 strikeouts to give him 19 during the 12 innings in the postseason.
“Brandon, for the second week in a row, was just incredible,” O’Sullivan said.
While Neely’s 11th-hour emergence has elevated the Gators, Caglianone has been a dependable, steadying force during a trying season. UF’s 32 wins entering this weekend tied for most losses ever by a team reaching a Super Regional.
But the Gators, who were ranked No. 4 in the preseason by Baseball America, have come together to position themselves for a trip to Omaha, Neb., for the CWS a season after losing to LSU in Game 3 of the finals. UF faced elimination three times last weekend at Oklahoma State and came from behind to win for the 18th time Saturday.
“Just having faith in each other is the biggest thing,” Caglianone said. “Really just leaning on one another, knowing that we’re going to help each other out when we need, that’s really the biggest thing that we’ve been riding.”
Things looked bleak early on at Clemson.
Peterson struggled with command from the jump. The 6-foot-5, 205-pound right hander threw 41 pitches during the opening inning, only 18 of them strikes while issuing 4 walks and tossing a wild pitch leading to the game’s first run.
A bases-loaded strikeout by catcher Jacob Jarrell with Clemson up 2-0 limited the damage, but only temporarily. Second baseman Jarren Purify opened the bottom of the second inning with a triple and scored on another wild pitch by Peterson, leading O’Sullivan to replace him with Jameson.
The Gators soon settled down and now are just a win away from becoming only the second team in school history, and first since 1988, to advance to the CWS away from home.
“We were fortunate to win game one and we’re looking forward to playing [Sunday],” O’Sullivan said.
Edgar Thompson can be reached at egthompson@orlandosentinel.com
NCAA Clemson Super Regional
UF (33-28) at No. 6 Clemson (44-15)
When: Game 2, 2:30 p.m., Sunday
Game 3, TBD, Monday, if necessary
TV: ESPN