GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Jac Caglianone grabbed a teammate to help carry the bucket of ice water and tried to sneak up on Florida coach Kevin O’Sullivan moments after the Gators advanced to the College World Series for the second consecutive year.
“I saw him coming the whole way,” O’Sullivan said later, still soaked from the postgame victory bath.
The 6-foot-5, 250-pound Caglianone is impossible to miss. And the two-way star who excels both at the plate and on the mound will be the main attraction when Florida (34-28) opens CWS play against fellow Southeastern Conference program Texas A&M (49-13) at 7 p.m. Eastern on Saturday in Omaha, Nebraska. The Aggies were seeded third nationally in the NCAA Division I tournament’s initial 64-team field, while the Gators are the only unseeded team among the eight that reached this year’s CWS.
Caglianone, a Sunshine State native from Tampa who is expected to be among the top five picks in next month’s Major League Baseball draft, steps onto college baseball’s biggest stage hitting .411 with 33 home runs and 68 RBIs in 2024. The left-hander also is 5-2 as pitcher with a 4.71 ERA in 15 starts.
However, after carrying the Gators for most of this season, the big junior is finally getting some help.
A year after finishing as CWS runners-up to LSU, the Gators are back in Omaha thanks mostly to Caglianone’s supporting cast, a group that includes four freshman pitchers, a gritty closer, a sophom*ore outfielder who was thrust into the starting lineup because of season-ending injuries to two teammates, and several others who have come up big down the stretch.
“You need special stories. And we have those right now,” said O’Sullivan, whose roster includes a pair of pitchers who are former Chattanooga-area prep standouts: sophom*ore left-hander Cade Fisher from Northwest Whitfield and freshman right-hander Grayson Smith from McCallie.
Florida’s Liam Peterson had to wait until mid-May to notch his second victory, but the right-hander has since emerged as Florida’s ace despite a rough outing to open super regional play at Clemson last weekend. He will get the ball first against Texas A&M, with Jake Clemente, Luke McNeillie and Frank Menendez waiting in the bullpen.
The three fellow freshmen are among O’Sullivan’s most trusted relievers, even though their ERAs range from 4.96 to 7.20.
“You have to lean on your talent,” O’Sullivan said. “At some point, if the kid is talented enough, he’s going to figure it out. It’s just in this day and age, no one has patience. And the (transfer) portal has changed everything. Everybody’s older, which affects the freshmen.
“No one gave me a handbook three years ago and said, ‘This is how you handle all of this.’ We’ve all made mistakes. We’re slowly but surely figuring this thing out.”
AP photo by Gary McCullough / Florida's Tyler Shelnut runs to first base during an SEC regular-season game against visiting Texas A&M on March 16 in Gainesville. Shelnut is among the players whose contributions supported star junior Jac Caglianone and helped the Gators reach the College World Series again after finishing as national runners-up last year.
No one has figured things out more than Brandon Neely. Last fall, the right-hander was penciled in as a starter for 2024, but he was shuffled back to the pen in February and then briefly moved into the rotation in March. The junior has since regained the closer role and looks every bit as dominant as he was in 2023.
“He’s just starting to find his niche again,” O’Sullivan said.
Neely has struck out 23 batters and allowed 10 hits, five walks and three earned runs in 16 postseason innings. He threw 272 pitches in four appearances, including a combined 131 over back-to-back days against Clemson.
“He’s back in a role that he feels comfortable in,” O’Sullivan said. “He’s not a one-inning pitcher. He’s a bulldog and can you give three innings if you need it.”
Meanwhile, after playing sparingly during the first three months of the season, sophom*ore outfielder Ashton Wilson stepped into the lineup after injuries to Ty Evans (wrist) and Hayden Yost (knee) in May.
The Charleston Southern transfer was so impressive in his postseason debut — Wilson had three doubles and a home run against Nebraska — that O’Sullivan reached out about potentially moving him into the No. 3 spot in the batting order to better protect Caglianone.
“He called me back two minutes later and goes, ‘I can handle it,’” O’Sullivan said. “It was just a shot in the dark.”
Wilson has 12 hits and nine RBIs in the NCAA postseason and was named MVP of the four-team Stillwater Regional at Oklahoma State, which the Gators won as the site’s No. 3 seed.
Finally, center fielder Michael Robertson, a .250 hitter most of the season, delivered a two-run double in the 13th inning against Clemson that got the Gators to the CWS. Left fielder Tyler Shelnut has at least one hit in every NCAA game. And third baseman Dale Thomas has eight hits in the tournament, more than he had in May.
Throw in catcher Luke Heyman’s heroics against Georgia at the end of the regular season, backup catcher Brody Donay’s arm and bat in the decisive game against Clemson to sweep the super regional, and leadoff hitter Cade Kurland’s ability to get on base in front of Caglianone, and maybe this is what Florida could and should have been all season.
“Our backs have been up against the wall for what feels like the majority of the year,” Robertson said. “We’re battle tested and ready to go.”
