The Florida Gators came into Monday looking to keep their season and national championship hopes alive. After dropping a close opening game to Texas A&M, the Gators had yet another tough challenge facing the North Carolina State Wolfpack. A great offensive day for Jac Caglianone and a shutdown outing from Brandon Neely helped seal a win for Florida, keeping their championship hopes alive.
MLB Pipeline’s #3 overall prospect in the 2024 MLB Draft had quite the game Monday afternoon. Jac Caglianone was the opener on the mound for the Gators, and worked a one-run frame before Cade Fisher would relieve him for the following four innings. While Cags opened up well on the mound in his quick start, it wasn’t where he was his most effective.
Caglianone worked two walks in the elimination game win, and also crushed a 116 MPH missile for a three run home run that ultimately helped give the Gators the edge over the Wolfpack. Without that home run, the Gators would be on their way back to Gainesville tonight.
While Caglianone provided the spark on offense, the crowd seemed to know who would spark the Gators from the defensive end, and that was Brandon Neely. Neely had been incredible in the postseason for the Gators and this showed absolutely no signs of slowing down in an even higher stakes outing.Â
Neely worked through the first two innings of his outing quickly, totalling four strikeouts along the way and working through a very difficult top of the NC State order. Neely came in for the ninth inning and worked through the top of the NC State order again, striking out two more to get the win for the Gators.
Florida’s now continued to defy the odds and have survived longer in Omaha over ranked teams such as Virginia and now NC State. It’ll be must-watch TV to see how Caglianone and Neely continue to carry this team, as well as who will step up in future games to end off this season.