Following a 3-2 loss to Texas A&M in its first game at the Men’s College World Series, the Florida Gators baseball team is entering an elimination game against North Carolina State with the season on the line.
This is a position the Gators should feel comfortable in. They won three-straight games in the Oklahoma State Regional to avoid elimination and took down Clemson in supers after entering as a lofty underdog.
The last time junior left-handed pitcher Jac Caglianone took the mound in Omaha, it was far from his best performance in the deciding Game 3 of last year’s national championship. The southpaw’s night was finished after just 1.1 innings allowing six earned runs on two hits with three walks and a wild pitch. Caglianone will look to make a statement on the bump today with it possibly being the last he ever puts on a Florida uniform.
The Wolfpack pose a dangerous lineup with four players posting a batting average above .300. Leading the way is graduate student infielder Alec Makarewicz with a team-high 23 home runs and 82 RBI.
Fellow graduate student infielder Garrett Pennington put together an impressive campaign for himself as well. He’s raked for a .350 batting average while recording a 1.097 OPS with 89 total hits.
NC State junior catcher Jacob Cozart is a highly-ranked MLB prospect and has been projected to go as high as the first round in the draft. He has an incredibly low strikeout rate and rarely swings at pitches out of the zone. Cozart has a team-high 50 base on balls on the season with a .308 average.
The Gators had a brutal time hitting with runners in scoring position against the Aggies Saturday going 1-for-11 in these crucial moments of the game. UF will have to come up with more timely hits against the Wolfpack if they wish to do damage at the plate and avoid elimination.
Florida will take on NC State Monday with first pitch coming at 1 p.m. CST at Charles Schwab field in Omaha, Nebraska.
Contact Max Tucker at mtucker@alligator.org. Follow him on X @Max_Tuckr1.
Max Tucker is a senior transfer student at UF. After obtaining his A.A. in Journalism from Santa Fe College in 2023, he chose to further his education at Florida's College of Journalism and Communications. Max is currently pursuing his Bachelor of Science in Journalism with a specialization in sports and media. He enjoys golfing and going to the beach with his friends in his free time.
