GAINESVILLE AREA: Texas Tech 5, Gators 4 – UF should win twice Sunday

What happened: Texas Tech All Baseman Gavin Cash He went 3-for-4 with a pair of home runs as the Red Raiders tackled the host Gators to a 5-4 loss at the Gainesville Regional on Saturday night. The Gators took a 1-0 lead in the fourth on an RBI sacrifice fly Josh Rivera. but, Austin GreenA second-run homer in the bottom of the fourth put Texas Tech up 2-1. Kash’s first home run of the game, a solo shot in the fifth, made it 3-1.

Play the game: Crocodile Dump Ryan Slater He retired the first two batters in the eighth inning by Single Zack Voltek. that He brought in Cash, who connected on Slater’s 3-2 homer on a two-run homer to left center, which silenced the crowd at Condron Ballpark. The home run was the 26th of Cash’s season.

Strange case: Three peat. Nobody wants the Gators. They lost their second game at the Gainesville Regional in all three seasons from Condron Ballpark, losing to South Alabama in 2021 (eliminated), Oklahoma last season and Texas Tech on Saturday.

In the spotlight: Right statues Brandon Sprott It was a strong start, limiting Texas Tech with four hits and three runs over six innings pitched. Sprott walked two and was out after the seventh Jack Caglianon The first match started on Friday. With Caglianone and Sproat taking turns turning, right handed Hurston Waldrip He’ll have a chance to keep the season alive with his first NCAA Tournament start for the Gators. Waldrip (7-3, 4.83) is slated to face Connecticut Garrett co (6-2, 4.01).

Key moment: Florida trailed 3-1 when Caglianone stepped to the plate with a White Langford At first base in the top of the sixth. Face the Red Raiders left handed loyalist Ryan FryeCaglianone hit an 0-2 pitch in reverse for a two-run homer to tie the game and reactivate Condron Ballpark. And the game remained restricted until the tournaments of Cash in the eighth.

In numbers: 121 – The Gators hit their home runs this season, matching the 2022 team that ranks second in school history; 132 – record home run hit by the 1998 Gators; 19 – The number of student times Kid Kurland He was hit by a pitch this season, the second all-time in school history behind him David Eckstein (25).

Notable

• Florida is now 120-83 all-time in the NCAA Tournament.
  • The Gators are 83-51 in NCAA regional play.
  • UF hosts its 19th NCAA regional while making its 38th regional appearance in program history.
    • Florida hosts 12 of the possible 15 expatriates in the United States Kevin O’Sullivan era.

• Caglianone hit his 29th home run of the season to tie the game with three runs in the sixth inning.
  • The 29-year-old Caglianone ranks second nationally behind Charlotte Cam Fisher (30).

• Caglianone now has 78 RBI on the season, moving to his only possession of fourth-most in a season at UF.
• Langford hit his 23rd double-double this season, bringing him within five of Mike Zunino’s single-season program record of 28.
• Kurland was hit by a pitch for the 19th time this season, moving on to tie for second with Matt Laporta (2007) in a season at Florida.
  • David Eckstein holds the record with 25 in 1997.

• Sproat made his sixth quality start of the season.
• Florida struck out 612 batters in 514 innings—translating to 10.7 per nine innings pitched, which set a new program record.
• The Gators have 592 hits over 60 games (9.9 punts/game).
• The Gators scored 44.5% of their innings pitched (217 of 488).
• Florida is now 1-3 all-time versus Texas Tech, all of which have occurred in the postseason Kevin O’Sullivan era.

From Head Coach Kevin O’Sullivan
On a Sprout Picnic…

“I thought Brandon threw the ball really well. He gave three-for-six for a good start. He did everything we asked of him. We made a couple of major mistakes during the game that hurt us a little bit, but Texas Tech played really well. Their start was really good. But We had our chances, just didn’t have our best at bats at the most crucial times.”

About the recent offensive struggles…
“We had a good game plan; his start was really good. His change-up was really good and he was hitting 96 and he was getting a really good start last week in the conference tournament. He threw the ball well and we had a good game plan but the guy came in and threw the slider. We got the guy Leading with Josh (Rivera) but we hit the ball and hit a ground ball to third. The ball and it didn’t. We got a first and third with one out and called an offensive timeout and Michael (Robinson) was supposed to get the ball down to the first base line because the first baseman He was catching the runner and putting it on third baseline and we didn’t score a run, so the little things cost you in a game like this.”


In the letter to the team…
“We’re disappointed, but we’ve got to shake it off. There’s nothing else to do but win the next three games. We have to beat UCONN tomorrow and then move on to game two and hopefully we’ll be successful there and then move on to the next game. It’s really that simple. We put ourselves In this situation but it is certainly possible. We have enough promotion to do it, we just have to win tomorrow.”

the next: Florida fell into the losers’ bracket after the defeat and faces Connecticut on Sunday afternoon (12 noon) in the elimination game. The winner of that game plays Texas Tech at 6pm on Sunday to try to survive and force a winner-takes-all game on Monday.

— Sullivan Portner contributed to this report.