Steven Branscombe-USA TODAY Sports
Baseball
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Two-way star Jac Caglianone broke the Florida single-season home run record to give his school the lead an inning after he struggled on the mound and got pulled, and the Gators eliminated North Carolina State from the College World Series with a 5-4 victory Monday.
Florida (35-29) moved to another elimination game Tuesday against the loser of Monday night’s Texas A&M-Kentucky matchup.
NC State (38-23) went 0-2 in the CWS for the first time in four all-time appearances.
Caglianone, a projected top-five pick in next month’s amateur draft because of his bat, not his arm, labored through a 33-pitch first inning. The 6-foot-5, 250-pound lefty hit a batter and walked two to loaded the bases, gave up Brandon Butterworth’s RBI single and then got a strikeout and fly out to mitigate what could have been a big inning for NC State.
Caglianone stayed in the game as the designated hitter and atoned for what happened on the mound. NC State starter Dominic Fritton (3-7) struck him out on three pitches in the first inning, but in the second Caglianone drilled his low fastball over the right-center fence for a three-run homer and 4-1 lead.
The 404-foot low rider was his 34th homer of the season, breaking his school’s single-season record of 33 set last year, and moved him into a tie with Matt LaPorta (2004-07) for career homers at Florida with 74.
Logan Whitaker replaced Fritton to start the third and allowed two hits and a run and struck out 10 over seven innings.
The Wolfpack’s Alec Makarewicz and Gators’ Tyler Shelnut also homered, and NC State cut the lead to 5-4 in the fifth on Butterworth’s RBI double.
NC State had its leadoff man reach base in the sixth, seventh and eighth but couldn’t push the tying run across. Luke Nixon got caught stealing second in the sixth, and the Wolfpack left two runners on base in the seventh and stranded a man on third in the eighth when Brandon Neely ended both innings with strikeouts.
The Wolfpack, which was third in the nation with seven walk-off wins, had the top of the order up in the bottom of the ninth. Neely caught Eli Serrano III looking at strike three, Garrett Pennington struck out when he couldn’t check his swing on a pitch out of the zone, and Makarewicz lined out to left to end the game.
Postgame Notes
- NC State is 5-7 all-time in the MCWS, while making its fourth appearance in the MCWS and first trip to Omaha since 2021.
- Both of NC State’s losses in Omaha came by identical 5-4 scores after the Wolfpack arrived at the MCWS with a 11-4 record in 1-run games.
- NC State is the third school to make the MCWS, Men’s Final Four and the Women’s Final Four all in the same academic year; the only other teams were Louisville in 2013 (finished 0-2 in Omaha) and Texas in 2003 (finished 2-2 in Omaha).
- NC Stateis one of just eight schools to make the postseason in baseball, football, men's basketball and women's basketball. The Wolfpack is joined by Arizona, Duke, North Carolina, Texas, Tennessee, Texas A&M and Alabama.Additionally, NC State is the only school in the nation to have its men’s and women’s basketball team make the Sweet 16, its baseball team make the Super Regionals and had its football team go to a bowl game.
- North Carolina State’s 38 wins this season were its most since finishing 42-19 in 2019.
- NC State moved to 68-71 all-time in NCAA Tournament play, including a 49-44 mark under head coach Elliott Avent. Avent’s 49 NCAA Tournament wins are the second-most of any active ACC coach and the sixth-most in league history.
- Avent has compiled a 1,260-828-2 all-time record in 36 years as a head coach, including a 1,036-615-2 mark at NC State. His 1,260 wins are the fifth-most amongst active head coaches in the NCAA.
- This is the seventh time that Florida and NC State have met in the NCAA Tournament. NC State won the first meeting in 1998 but has lost the last six. Before today, their most recent meeting was in the 2012 super regionals, which Florida swept.
- NC State leads all teams in the NCAA Tournament with 89 hits, moving past Tennessee (86) today.
- NC State’s 7-8-9-1 hitters combined to go 0-for-14 on Monday.
- NC State leads the NCAA Tournament with 9 sac bunts. Luke Nixon leads all players with 4 NCAA Tournament sac bunts.
- NC State went 3-for-21 (.143) with runners in scoring position during the MCWS, including a 2-10 mark today.
- Logan Whitaker relieved Fritton and threw seven innings of one-run relief, striking out a career-high 10 Gators. It was the 10th time in his last 11 outings he’s recorded at least 12 outs, though most of his appearances had come in a starting role.
- Logan Whitaker’s 10 strikeouts are the most ever by a Wolfpack pitcher in a MCWS game, one more than Alex Cheek’s 9 vs. Texas in 1968. His 10 punchouts lead all players during the 2024 MCWS.
- Logan Whitaker is just the fourth relief pitcher in the aluminum bat era (since 1974) with 10+ strikeouts in a MCWS game, joining Texas’ Calvin Schiraldi (11 vs. Alabama, 1983), Mississippi State’s Chad Girodo (10 vs. Indiana, 2013) and Oregon State’s Christian Chamberlain (11 vs. Arkansas, 2018).
- Alec Makarewicz upped his own NC State single-season total base record with 195. He leads all players in the 2024 NCAA Tournament with 35 total bases and 15 hits.
- Alec Makarewicz has homered in five out of his last six games and moved into a tie for fourth on the NC State single season home runs list with his 24th.
- The Game 6 crowd of 25,140 was the largest in Session 6 since 2013 (25,260).
- The 2024 MCWS has attracted 172,462 fans after seven sessions, the most fans after seven sessions since 2005 (173,410). Last year’s MCWS set a single-season record with 366,105 fans and was at 171,094 after seven sessions.
