Jac Caglianone sets Florida home run record as Gators advance to Men’s College World Series semifinals

University of Florida two-way star Jac Caglianone established a program record for career  home runs Wednesday while leading the Gators over Kentucky in a Men’s College World Series elimination game. Caglianone, batting leadoff and playing first base, went 2 for 2 and walked three times as part of a 15-4 trouncing. 

One of those hits was a sixth-inning home run that put the Gators up by 12 and served as the 75th of his collegiate career. Take a look at the homer in all its moving picture glory:

Caglianone had previously been tied for the Gators career home-run record with Matt LaPorta, himself a former top-10 pick. It’s notable that LaPorta required four seasons and more than 700 at-bats to reach 74, whereas Caglianone entered the day with 628 collegiate at-bats. It’s also notable that LaPorta was in attendance on Wednesday to give Caglianone his flowers.

CBS Sports recently ranked Caglianone as the fifth-best player in this draft class. Here’s what we wrote at the time:

Caglianone is the most fascinating player in the class, a freak show talent denied a better ranking by transferability concerns. He features big-time power from the left side, resulting in 62 home runs and multiple 120-plus mph exit velocities over the last two seasons. He swings at everything, but his feel for contact is such that he kept his strikeout rate to an Arraezian 8%. Zone management is also an issue on the mound, where a bloated 15.7% walk rate obscured his ability to touch into the upper-90s. Because he profiles as just a reliever in pro ball, it’s hard to see him remaining a two-way player all the way to the majors. In turn, that puts more pressure on his strength and bat-to-ball skills porting to the game’s highest levels. There’s a real chance that his approach deficiencies cause this whole thing to fall apart. But if he can make any kind of improvements on that front, he has the kind of unteachable skills that could allow him to develop into something along the lines of Yordan Alvarez with a walk allergy or a souped-up Anthony Santander. 

The Gators will now advance to their second consecutive Men’s College World Series semifinals. They’ll play Texas A&M at 7 p.m. ET Wednesday after rain forced the Kentucky game to be pushed back to Wednesday morning.