A two-hour rain delay in the sixth inning on Sunday allowed Florida’s offense to refocus and explode for 10 runs in a 17-11 victory over Nebraska to advance to the finals of the Stillwater Regional.
Six Gators finished the day with multiple hits and four homered — three coming in the bottom of the seventh. Shortstop [autotag]Colby Shelton[/autotag] led the offense with three hits, including a home run, and four runs batted in. [autotag]Jac Caglianone[/autotag] also had a homer and four RBI, but a pair of walks slowed him down. [autotag]Dale Thomas[/autotag] and [autotag]Luke Heyman[/autotag] homered as well.
It wasn’t a great day for pitchers on either side, but five of the runs scored against Florida came in garbage time as [autotag]Kevin O’Sullivan[/autotag] attempted to save his best bullpen arms for the coming matchup with Oklahoma State — set to begin 55 minutes after the conclusion of this game.
[autotag]Pierce Coppola[/autotag] gave up four runs through a season-high 4 1/3 innings pitched (85 pitches), striking out eight. Fisher Jameson had his outing interrupted by the rain delay, but he still allowed two earned runs in against the four batters he faced.
[autotag]Cade Fisher[/autotag] and [autotag]Ryan Slater[/autotag] both had nice days but only threw an inning apiece with the doubleheader looming. They each had two strikeouts, facing a combined seven batters (one more than the minimum).
[autotag]Blake Purnell[/autotag], Hunter Jones and Landon Russell closed out the final two innings for Florida. Jones and Purnell were both very hittable and gave up five runs to cut a double-digit lead for UF in half, but Russell got the outs he needed and struck out a pair.
Two names we haven’t seen from Florida all weekend are freshmen [autotag]Luke McNeillie[/autotag] and Frank Menendez. Both have been good for Florida down the stretch. Expect them to play a big role if [autotag]Brandon Neely[/autotag] doesn’t get the start for Florida.
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