Jac Caglianone makes NCAA history at the plate but surrenders 4 HRs in Florida’s loss to Oklahoma State

Florida entered the Stillwater Regional with plenty of firepower and advanced into the winner’s bracket after a win over Nebraska on Friday. Unfortunately, the Gators were no match for Oklahoma State with the Cowboys rolling Saturday night.

Cowboys starter Brian Holiday was electric for much of the game on the mound. He delivered 8 shutout innings before Jac Caglianone spoiled the shutout with a lead-off shot in the 9th inning.

Even with Caglianone’s shot, the outing by Holiday will go down as a particularly memorable one for Oklahoma State. He finished the complete game without further damage, registering all 9 innings with 10 strikeouts and just 2 hits allowed in the 7-1 win.

Caglianone, the starter for Florida in this one, did not have the same luck. He was in immediate trouble in the top of the 1st inning and was hit hard consistently by the Cowboys.

After getting the first 2 outs to start the game, Caglianone surrendered back-to-back home runs. Oklahoma State’s Aidan Meola initially made it 3 straight home runs in the inning, but his shot would be overturned and ruled a double with fan interference upon review.

Caglianone ran into similar trouble in the top of the 3rd. He gave up back-to-back home runs to start the inning, bringing his home runs allowed to 4 for the game.

On the mound, Caglianone completed 5 innings with 4 earned runs allowed, but his performance ultimately didn’t matter with the performance of Florida’s offense. Jake Clemente was also tagged with 3 earned runs in the loss.

History for Caglianone

While the man dubbed “Jactani” struggled on the mound, he managed to produce a bit of history at the plate. With his 9th-inning blast, Florida’s 2-way star now has 30 home runs on the season.

With 33 home runs a season ago, Caglianone is just the 2nd D1 player in NCAA history to post multiple 30-HR seasons. He joins BYU’s Mike Willes as the only D1 players to achieve the feat, and Caglianone is the first SEC player with multiple seasons of 30+ home runs.

The first player in SEC history with multiple 30-homer seasons #GoGators // SECN pic.twitter.com/4ycxBzpd1E

— Florida Gators Baseball (@GatorsBB) June 2, 2024

What’s next?

After losing Saturday night, Florida must turn around quickly and prepare to face Nebraska on Sunday at 2 pm ET in a rematch of the Stillwater Regional opener. The Gators won the first meeting Friday night 5-2, and the two sides will meet in a do-or-die elimination matchup.

The winner of that Sunday afternoon game will advance to face Oklahoma State in a Sunday night game at 7 pm ET in the regional final. The Cowboys need just 1 win to reach the Super Regionals while Nebraska or Florida will need to beat OSU twice in order to advance.

Entering the regional, Florida was always going to need to rely on its offense to get out of the regional round. After being held in check, we’ll soon find out if the Gators can unleash some offense with their backs against the wall on Sunday.

Paul Harvey

Paul Harvey lives in Atlanta and covers SEC football.