The Wrath of Cag! Gators run-rule UNF Ospreys, 10-0

Photo Credit - Lorenzo Vasquez - floridagators.com

Call it The Wrath of Cag or Return of the Big Bopper. You won’t get an argument from the North Florida Ospreys who had to deal with Jac Caglianone Tuesday night in Jacksonville.

Caglianone, who led the country with 33 home runs in 2023, hit his first home run of the 2024 season, a prodigious 407-foot, 2-run blast in the top of the first as 4th-ranked Florida run-ruled the Ospreys, 10-0, in a game called after seven innings. Later in the game, Caglianone drove in two more with a rocket of a double down the right field line.

The Ospreys still have another night to figure out how to handle Caglianone. The Gators (1-1) and Ospreys (1-2) play again tonight at Condron Family Ballpark (6:30 p.m., SEC Network+).  

Caglianone wasted no time making his presence felt. Moved up to second in the batting order by Kevin O’Sullivan, Caglianone followed Cade Kurland’s leadoff infield single by driving a 1-2 pitch deep over the right field fence for a 2-0 Florida lead. That was all the runs the Gators would need because pitchers Liam Peterson (3 innings, 1 hit, 2 walks, 7 strikeouts), Fisher Jameson (2 innings, 2 walks, 3 strikeouts), Jake Clemente (1 inning, 1 walk, 3 strikeouts) and Blake Purnell (1 inning, 1 hit, 1 strikeout) were practically untouchable.

Peterson, who will be starter Saturday night against Columbia, picked up his first collegiate win.

"The goal was to get him for two innings and keep his pitch count under 40 because he's going to come back on Saturday, but he went three innings and gave up the one hit, the infield hit, and struck out seven with one walk on 37 pitches,” O’Sullivan said. “I thought his stuff was electric and pitched to both sides of the plate with his fastball. It was everything we had hoped for. It's his first college start, so there's always some nerves, but it was on the road and it was a long top half of the first with their starter going 43 pitches to record two outs. His routine got a little bit changed up a little bit because he did have to run back down to the pen and get loose again before he went out there in the bottom of the first."

The Gators pounded out 14 hits on the night, led by Kurland who went 4-5 with three singles and a double. Luke Heyman (2 singles, 2 RBI) and Tyler Shelnut (single, double, RBI) also had multi-hit games.

Florida stretched the lead to 3-0 in the second when Heyman singled after a double by Kurland and an intentional walk to Caglianone. The Gators loaded the bases in the fourth and made it 4-0 when Kurland scored on a wild pitch.

Caglianone’s 2-run double highlighted a 3-run fifth. A double by Dale Thomas, a single by Ty Evans and a single by Michael Robertson made it 5-0. One out later, Caglianone delivered to score Evans and Robertson.

O’Sullivan indicated postgame that moving Caglianone to the No. 2 spot in the lineup could be a sign of things to come.

"Luke [Heyman]'s been swinging the bat good,” O’Sullivan said. “It's not going to be easy for other teams to just go ahead and walk Jac, because if Luke keeps swinging the bat like he has been, they're still going to have to respect Luke and Colby [Shelton]. He's going to get it going, too.

“The reason for moving Jac to the two-hole tonight, we played from behind for nine-straight innings on Friday night and it was hard. I just wanted to hopefully get out to an early lead and hopefully our guys would relax a little bit, which they did. A lot of teams now are taking their best hitter and moving him to the two-hole. You look around our league and some of the better hitters are hitting two-hole. It got us out to an early lead, like I said, and I think the guys relaxed a little bit more."

The Gators scored one in the sixth on a fielding error and closed out their scoring with two in the seventh on a run-scoring single by Heyman that drove in Kurland and a double by Shelnut that scored Heyman.

UF SWIMMING: Men and women second at SEC Championships

On the first full day of swimming events at the SEC Championships at Auburn, both the Florida men and women are in second place. Florida’s nationally 4th-ranked men are the heavy favorite to win their 12th straight championship while the 3rd-ranked UF women are going for a second straight SEC title.

Men’s scores: 1. Texas A&M 199; 2. FLORIDA 180; 3. Tennessee 155; 4. Georgia 150; 5. Auburn 127; 6. Alabama 116; 7. Missouri 111; 8. LSU 106; 9. Kentucky 101; 10. South Carolina 93

Women’s scores: 1. Auburn 167; 2. FLORIDA 160; 3. Tennessee 147; 4. LSU 146; 5. Georgia 134; 6. Texas A&M 129; 7. Alabama 127; 8. Missouri 107; 9. South Carolina 99; 10. Kentucky 98; 11. Vanderbilt 62. 12 Arkansas 56

UF GOLF: Maisie Filler wins Moon Golf, Gators finish tied for fifth

Maisie Fuller shot a 3-day, 9-under 207 to win the individual championship at the Moon Golf Invitational in Melbourne. The 9th-ranked Florida women’s team finished the tournament tied for fifth with Texas A&M, 23 shots off the pace of LSU.

WCGA women’s top 25: 1. Wake Forest; 2. Stanford; 3. Southern California; 4. Arkansas; 5. South Carolina; 6. UCLA; 7. Texas; 8. Oregon; 9. FLORIDA; 10. LSU; 11. Texas A&M; 12. Ole Miss; 13. UCF; 14. Northwestern; 15. Auburn; 16. Duke; 17. Clemson; 18. San Jose State; 19. California; 20. (TIE) Florida State and Arizona; 22. Arizona State; 23. North Carolina; 25. Virginia

Bushnell/Golfweek Coaches men’s top 25: 1. North Carolina; 2. Auburn; 3. Vanderbilt; 4. Arizona State; 5. Washington; 6. Tennessee; 7. Arkansas; 8. Ole Miss; 9. Georgia Tech; 10. Arizona; 11. Virginia; 12. Florida State; 13. East Tennessee State; 14. Alabama; 15. Oklahoma; 16. Illinois; 17. Mississippi State; 18. New Mexico; 19. FLORIDA; 20. Oregon; 21. Texas; 22. California; 23. Texas Tech; 24. (TIE) North Florida and Duke

UF LACROSSE: Gators fall to No. 16

IWLCA top 25: 1. Boston College 3-0; 2. Notre Dame 4-0; 3. James Madison 3-0; 4. Northwestern 2-1; 5. Maryland 2-0; 6. Michigan 3-0; 7. Syracuse 1-2; 8. North Carolina 2-1; 9. Loyola 2-0; 10. Denver 1-1; 11. Stony Brook 1-0; 12. Johns Hopkins 3-0; 13. Southern California 3-0; 14. Penn 1-0; 15. Virginia 3-0; 16. FLORIDA 0-2; 17. Navy 2-0; 18. Richmond 2-0; 19. Clemson 3-0; 20. Colorado 3-0; 21. Yale 1-0; 22. Penn State 1-1; 23. Brown 1-0; 24. Rutgers 2-0; 25. UConn 0-2

COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF: 5-7 Format approved for 2024-2025

For the next two years, at least, the expanded College Football Playoff will operate under a 5-7 format which means the champions of the four remaining power conferences and the highest ranked Group of Five conference champ will get automatic bids with seven at-large teams.

Things will be changing in a couple of years. For one thing, the current television contract with ESPN will expire and the alleged 6-year, $1.3 billion a year deal with ESPN is not on the table per multiple sources. Whoever comes up with the money for the playoff starting in 2026 will have plenty to say about continuing at 12 teams or possibly expanding.

There is also the matter of the Pac-12, which will officially dwindle to two teams at the end of this athletic year. Washington State and Oregon State will maintain the Pac-12 name and rights. Under NCAA contract, the Pac-12 will remain a power conference but as a 2-team league it can’t have a championship or a league schedule. Washington State and Oregon State will each get their $6 million share of the money each power conference school gets under the current CFP contract. Washington State and Oregon State have two years to form a new league, most likely a merger with the Mountain West. Would that new league be granted power conference standing starting in 2026?

There are reports that the Southeastern Conference and Big Ten want more revenue from the playoff distribution, more power when it comes to deciding the future and format of the playoff and more automatic qualifiers. Those are demands that are likely to be met with resistance, both from the Atlantic Coast Conference and Big 12, not to mention the Group of Five.

ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: The University of Arizona has a $177 million budget deficit. Of the school’s 81 colleges and divisions, 61 are under water financially. The athletic department, which borrowed $86 million to stay afloat a few years ago, spent $23 million more than it took in during the 2023 fiscal year.

Clearly, since COVID 19, the entire Arizona academic and athletic structure has come up short financially, which could lead to personnel layoffs and deep cuts in programs. Since the athletic department has needed loans from the university’s general fund to stay in business, it’s entirely possible Arizona could be cutting sports just as it’s about to officially leave the Pac-12 Conference for the Big 12.

Think of this as a shot across the bow of college athletics. Arizona isn’t the only school in the country facing large budget shortfalls for its academic programs. Very few of the nation’s athletic departments operate at a surplus or even break even. It was reported in 2019 that only 25 Division I football schools operated their entire athletic programs in the black.  

In the aftermath of COVID, we’ve seen dramatic changes in collegiate athletics. A bulk of the Division I schools still haven’t recovered the lost revenue from the COVID year.  Conference realignment has destroyed the Pac-12 and forced some rather ridiculous mergers such as Oregon and Washington joining Southern Cal and UCLA in the Big Ten and California, Stanford and SMU joining the ACC. In the aftermath of the 9-0 Alston v. NCAA Supreme Court verdict, it’s pay for play in college football and basketball. Charlie Baker, the resident moron in charge of the NCAA, has proposed that every athlete in Division I is under contract for $30,000 a year. Good ole Charlie is a typical politician. He's clueless when it comes to answering the only question that matters: Where will the money come from? It’s easy to say television, but ESPN balked at the SEC expanding to a 9-game schedule and it needs a tourniquet to stop bleeding subscribers. The heralded Big Ten deal that includes Fox, CBS and NBC has its share of issues. And we haven’t even begun talking about the ACC or the Big 12 or the Group of Five.

It would be nice if someone born with common sense stepped in to announce a plan that will save college sports, but common sense is in short supply these days. Maybe the only thing that will grab the people in charge by the lapels and shake them until they find answers is for more than one college athletic department to go bankrupt.

That’s a scary thought. It’s not being overly dramatic. We really aren’t that far off from several athletic departments going belly up.