College baseball in review: Jac Caglianone ties a record, Tennessee makes a statement

By / / Sports / 7 minutes of reading



Florida two-way star Jac Caglianone powered his way into the NCAA record book by hitting a home run in nine consecutive games. The streak, which tied the record set by Nevada’s Tyler Bosetti in 2021, started against Missouri on April 7 and ended Saturday against Vanderbilt.

Caglianone went 15-for-34 (.441) with nine home runs and 16 RBIs during the nine games. For the season, he is hitting .401 and ranks second nationally in home runs (23) and eighth in slugging (.854).

His streak ended on Saturday when he went 1-for-3 in a 6-2 win at Vanderbilt. He was intentionally walked in his final plate appearance, with one out and a runner on second base in the top of the ninth and the Gators leading 4-2.

Cags failed to hit a home run, but he was the winning pitcher in the game, allowing six hits and two earned runs in five innings. He is now 5-0 with a 3.86 ERA in nine starts. Opposing batters are hitting only .201 against him.

Florida lost the first two games of the series and is 20-19 overall and 8-10 in the SEC with an RPI of 35.

Vanderbilt’s starting pitcher JD Thompson was ejected from Sunday’s game in the top of the fourth inning for the use of a foreign substance (believed to be a combination of rosin and sunscreen). The infraction typically results in a four-game suspension, but there was no ruling from the SEC as of Monday morning.

Around the horn

The marquee series of the weekend did not disappoint.

Tennessee took two out of three from Kentucky in Lexington in a battle of top-five SEC East teams. The Wildcats opened the weekend with a 5-3 win on Friday night to improve their conference record to an astounding 15-1, but Tennessee answered with wins of 9-4 and 13-11 to claim the series.

Sunday’s game featured 10 home runs between the two teams, including three by Tennessee second baseman Christian Moore and two by Kentucky third baseman Mitchell Daly.

Kentucky, now 15-3 in the SEC, still has the best overall record in the league and holds a three-game lead over Tennessee in the SEC East.

It’s been a very good season for the ACC, which currently has four teams ranked in the top 10 of the RPI. It was, however, a forgettable Tuesday for the league, with eight of the 12 teams in action suffering a midweek loss. Here’s the carnage:

  • UNCW 8, Wake Forest 5
  • Campbell 11, NC State 7 (12 innings)
  • Coastal Carolina 5, North Carolina 4
  • Mercer 13, Florida State 6
  • Auburn 12, Georgia Tech 8
  • Old Dominion 7, Virginia 4
  • West Virginia 6, Pittsburgh 3
  • Kentucky 17, Louisville 13

Four of the eight teams that lost were ranked among the top 12 in last week’s D1 Baseball top 25: No. 8 Florida State, No. 10 Virginia, No. 11 North Carolina and No. 12 Wake Forest.

Georgia Tech dropped to 3-6 in the ACC in late March after being swept at home by Boston College. The Yellow Jackets have won three straight series since and are working their way back into the mix for a spot in the NCAA Tournament.

Danny Hall’s team is getting it done with a potent offense that has averaged 13.4 runs in its last five ACC games. The Jackets are 24-14 overall and 9-9 in the ACC after taking two of three at Virginia over the weekend. Freshman Drew Burress went 4-for-6 with a home run and two RBIs in Sunday’s 17-12 win.

Arizona extended its Pac-12 win streak to 10 games with a three-game sweep of Washington State and is now in sole possession of first place with a 13-5 record. Center fielder Brendan Summerhill went a combined 7-for-11 with three RBIs in the three games and is now hitting a team-best .366.

The Wildcats are two games up on Oregon and 2.5 in front of Oregon State.

Oregon State’s struggles on the road in Pac-12 play continue. The Beavers, who entered the weekend ranked No. 5 in the nation, got swept at California and have now lost their last six league games away from home.

Cal, meanwhile, has won eight consecutive games, including six straight in the Pac-12. The Bears are 24-14 overall and 11-10 in the league.

Oklahoma has recovered from a midseason slump that included losses in three consecutive weekend series to jump back into first place in the Big 12. The Sooners have put together back-to-back sweeps — against Kansas State at home and at BYU this past weekend — to improve to 24-14 overall and 14-4 in the Big 12.

In conference games only, Oklahoma leads the league in batting average (.317), on-base percentage (.410) and slugging percentage (.545).

Western Kentucky remains atop the Conference USA standings after sweeping Liberty at home over the weekend. The Hilltoppers, who also have series wins over Dallas Baptist and Sam Houston State, are 29-12 overall and 11-4 in the league under second-year coach Marc Rardin.

Florida State traveled to Winston-Salem without the services of starting pitchers Cam Leiter and Conner Whittaker and lost a series for only the second time this season, dropping two of three to Wake Forest.

The Demon Deacons won the opener 5-4 on Friday night in a matchup of two of the nation’s top pitchers: Chase Burns from Wake and Jamie Arnold from FSU. Neither ace was at his best, with Burns allowing three earned runs and seven hits in five innings and Arnold allowing three runs and five hits in 5 2/3 innings.

The teams split a doubleheader on Saturday, with the Seminoles winning Game 1 9-6 and Wake winning Game 2 10-9 on a walk-off wild pitch in the bottom of the ninth.

FSU coach Link Jarrett indicated earlier in the week that both Leiter and Whittaker should return to action soon.

Texas Tech is back in the mix in the Big 12 thanks to a weekend sweep of West Virginia in Lubbock. The Red Raiders allowed a total of seven runs in the three games one week after giving up a combined nine runs in a series loss at TCU.

Texas Tech is 12-9 in league play, 3.5 games behind Oklahoma and a half-game behind Oklahoma State, West Virginia and Texas.

UConn surged into first place in the Big East with an impressive sweep at Georgetown over the weekend. The Huskies are only 20-18 overall — due to some early struggles against a difficult nonconference schedule — but improved to 7-2 in the league after beating the Hoyas by a combined four runs in the three games.

Arkansas bounced back from its first series loss of the season by sweeping Texas Tech in a pair of midweek games in Fayetteville and then winning two of three at South Carolina.

Hagen Smith allowed only two hits and one earned run while striking out 11 in six innings in Friday’s 2-1 win. Smith leads all starters nationally in ERA (1.53) and batting average against (.136). In SEC games only, he is 6-0 in six starts with a 1.25 ERA and 60 strikeouts in 30 innings.

And finally …

• Bowling Green’s run at perfection in the MAC ended with a 4-2 loss at home to Ohio on Sunday. The Falcons had won their first 17 league games.

• Maryland-Eastern Shore is now 0-33 overall and 0-18 in the Northeast Conference after getting swept at Coppin State.

• Georgia slugger Charlie Condon went 7-for-14 with two home runs to lead the Bulldogs to a series win over Ole Miss. Condon leads the nation in both batting average (.483) and home runs (26).

• Mercer, which beat Florida State in Tallahassee, is now 12-4 against top-10 teams in Craig Gibson’s 21 seasons at the school.

• UNC Wilmington is tied for first in the CAA with a 12-3 record after taking two of three at Northeastern over the weekend. UNCW and Charleston are two games up on Northeastern, the preseason pick to win the league.

• We might have our winner for the catch of the year in college baseball thanks to John Lauinger and Reggie Bussey at Oakland University.

• Or maybe this is it, from Arizona State’s Isaiah Jackson.

• There was some Boston College-on-the-bubble talk of late. Scratch that. The Eagles are 20-19 overall and 7-14 in the ACC after getting swept at Notre Dame over the weekend.

• LSU won its first league series of the season, taking two of three at Missouri to improve to 5-13 in the SEC.

• Illinois is in first place in the Big Ten with a 10-2 record after sweeping Northwestern over the weekend.

(Photo: Corey Perrine / Florida Times-Union / USA Today)





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Miranda Washington is the newest member of our news writing team, and she's already making waves. In addition to being a writer, Miranda also has a passion for photography and art. She loves to travel and experience new places, both near and far, whether through her camera lens or in person.

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