Florida drops Texas A&M series finale on walk-off balk

Well, you don’t see a walk-off balk too often… Florida dropped the rubber match against Texas A&M in College Station on Sunday afternoon.

College baseball games played on Sundays often end with football scores, but that wasn’t the case between Florida and Texas A&M this weekend as the Aggies beat the Gators, 3-2, thanks to a walk-off balk.

That’s right, no one drove in the deciding run or even had to swing the bat. Brandon Neely, who has perhaps been the SEC’s best closer this year, balked with no outs and two men in scoring position. Pinch runner Travis Chestnut was jumping around at third and got Neely to flinch and move his front leg without delivering.

Neely tried to deliver the pitch anyway, but an infield umpire caught it and sent Chestnut home to decide the game. It’s a tough way to end a close and important SEC series, but it was the right call in the end. Neely has to learn from that, but one loss isn’t the end of the world in the grand scheme of things.

Looking at the bigger picture, allowing just two runs through most of nine innings is a relatively positive sign for Florida, especially on a Sunday. Jac Caglianone got the start once again and looked really better than he has recently through three innings, but the fourth brought all the bad habits back.

One thing is for sure. Caglianone hasn’t learned to command his fastball at 98-99 mph, at least not as well as does the 95-96 mph ball. As a sophomore, Caglianone should have time to figure that out and add some stamina, but being the Sunday starter adds a lot of pressure to get it done now.

Getting him out the second he gets shaky is the best move Kevin O’Sullivan can make right now, and it worked out for the most part on Sunday. Caglianone gave up just one earned run through 3 2/3 innings but walked three straight to end the outing.

Ryan Slater worked into seventh as the first relief arm of the afternoon for Florida. He gave up a run on a sacrifice fly in the sixth but was otherwise pretty sharp. Unfortunately, that run tied up the game at two, as Florida’s offense struggled to hit Texas A&M’s staff.

The only two runs of the day for the Gators came on a pair of homers, one by Tyler Shlenut in the third and one from Wyatt Langford in the sixth.

Neely took over for Slater in the seventh and looked good until the ninth. He started off the frame by hitting a batter, so he was clearly rattled on the road. It’s a good playoff simulation for Florida. The SEC Tournament is coming up in a few weeks, and Hoover is not an easy place to play.

Florida moves to 37-12 overall on the year and 15-9 against the SEC. A critical series against Vanderbilt is on tap for next weekend, and there are no more midweek games until the postseason begins.

[lawrence-auto-related count=5 category=1369]

[mm-video type=video id=01gz591pdh0pc5ff0qrc playlist_id=01eqbz250mdknqvm5z player_id=01f5k5y2jb3twsvdg4 image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01gz591pdh0pc5ff0qrc/01gz591pdh0pc5ff0qrc-2405793ca1ac6b563e18ee86d305a820.jpg]

Follow us @GatorsWire on Twitter and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Florida Gators news, notes and opinions.