Jac Caglianone takes the mound for the Gators against LSU on Monday night. (Photo: Maddie Washburn/UAA Communications)
CWS Game 3: Gators vs. LSU, 3 Topical Tidbits (7 pm, ESPN)
Monday, June 26, 2023 | Baseball, Scott Carter
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By: Scott Carter, Senior Writer
OMAHA, Neb. — As I made my way to Charles Schwab Field early Sunday afternoon for Game 2 of the College World Series Championship Final between the Gators and LSU, the predominant thought bouncing around my head was this: Florida has the right guy on the mound in a must-win game.
Gators starter Hurston Waldrep has been brilliant in the NCAA Tournament. He took the mound Sunday with a 3-0 record and 0.86 ERA in three starts. And then Waldrep needed 83 pitches to record only seven outs and was gone by the time the bottom of the third inning was over.
That's baseball, as they say. It wasn't Waldrep's day as he struggled with his command and walked six over 2 1/3 innings. Enter seldom-used relievers Blake Purnell and Nick Ficarrotta.
If someone had asked on the way to the ballpark if the Gators had a better chance at scoring 24 runs or that Purnell and Ficarrotta would shut down the Tigers to keep the Gators' season alive, I might have gone with the former.
Yup, that's baseball.
Purnell escaped a touchy situation in the third with the bases loaded, pitched a scoreless fourth, and then Ficarrotta made his first appearance in three weeks and pitched five strong innings, shutting out the Tigers until serving up a solo homer to Jayden Jobert in the bottom of the ninth.
The Gators led by 21 runs, so no damage done in the 24-4 romp, the most runs a team has ever scored in the CWS.
With Game 3 set for tonight at 7 ET, let's take a look at three questions looming in the biggest game of the season:
WHAT WILL CAGS DO?
Sophomore left-hander Jac Caglianone will start for the Gators. Caglianone is known to a national audience more for his bat, which he showcased in Game 2 by going 3-for-5 with two home runs and five RBI. Caglianone's eighth-inning blast was a majestic shot with a 56-degree launch angle and 114-mph exit velocity. How rare is that combination? According to the CWS staff, the only batted ball in the majors with a 50-plus launch angle and a matching exit velocity since Statcast was introduced in 2015 was by Jimmy Rollins eight years ago. Jactani indeed. But what Caglianone does on the mound in Game 3 could be more important than his prowess in the batter's box.
Caglianone has made two starts in the NCAA Tournament. The first, in the Gainesville Regional against Florida A&M, was excellent. He pitched six shutout innings. The second was shaky in Florida's 5-4 victory over Oral Roberts in the CWS. Caglianone needed 35 pitches to escape the first inning and left after only 4 1/3 innings on a sweltering day in the Omaha summer. He allowed three hits, one run, walked three, and struck out four. He hit three batters and threw two wild pitches. Caglianone (7-3, 3.68 ERA) has all the tools to turn in the kind of outing the Gators need, but if he struggles early, that could spell trouble.
WHO WILL LSU PITCH?
Will he or won't he pitch? That is the big question surrounding LSU ace Paul Skenes. (Photo: Steven Branscombe/USA TODAY Sports)
Tigers coach Jay Johnson said the plan was to go through a process on Monday morning to determine the answer, specifically whether ace Paul Skenes would be available after throwing 243 pitches in Omaha. The buzz after Sunday's game was that freshman lefty Griffin Herring (5-2, 3.93 ERA, no starts) or sophomore right-hander Thatcher Hurd (7-3, 5.97 ERA, 10 starts). Neither Herring nor Hurd is Skenes, but few can match the power and stuff that Skenes delivers as the potential No. 1 overall pick in the upcoming MLB amateur draft.
Herring last pitched Wednesday against Wake Forest, tossing 4 2/3 scoreless innings out of the bullpen. Hurd last pitched Thursday against the Demon Deacons, throwing three scoreless innings in relief. Both can turn in a good outing and if the game is close or the Tigers own a late lead, the speculation is that Skenes might come in to try and close the game if needed. Here is what is definite: the ESPN crew will be talking about Skenes and the LSU pitching situation during tonight's telecast.
Editor's note: About three hours prior to first pitch, LSU announced Thatcher Hurd would start Game 3.
CAN GATORS STAY HOT?
Florida's offensive explosion in Game 2 was overdue. The Gators had played four consecutive one-run games in the CWS and won three despite stars Wyatt Langford and Caglianone combining to go 5-for-33 over that stretch. The duo got well Sunday, with Langford going 5-for-5 with a home run, two doubles, six RBI and four runs scored. Caglianone joined the hit parade with an opposite-field homer in the sixth and the tape-measure blast mentioned above in the eighth.
The Gators produced up and down the lineup Sunday, as the top four hitters combined to go 12-for-21 with 12 RBI after entering the game 12-for-69 with eight RBI in the CWS. What outfielder Ty Evans has done in Omaha (7-for-16, 4 HR, 8 RBI) can't be overstated, considering the struggles of some of his teammates. The Gators pounded 23 hits, none more critical than Evans' grand slam that put Florida up 7-3 in the top of the third. The Gators had eight players with at least two hits in Game 2 and raised their batting average by more than 50 points in the CWS in a single game. That is difficult to do. What do they have in store for an encore?
