Jacksonville
following night.
Florida will be led by consensus AllAmerican Jac Caglianone, who was the national leader with 33 homers, had 90 RBI last season, and went 7-4 with a 4.34 ERA on the mound.
The Seminoles are in their second season under former player Link Jarrett as their coach. FSU had its first losing record in history last season at 23-31 and the ‘Noles are 100-85 (54.0 percent) since the retirement of coach Mike Martin after the 2019 season. His son Mike Martin Jr., was fired after two seasons.
Tickets were still available for both games as of Monday morning but they were going fast in both cases.
Dolphins, Seminoles go unbeaten on first weekend
JU and FSU both won two games in their opening series, the Dolphins beating Cincinnati 8-6 and 11-3 and the Seminoles routing Butler 11-0 and 15-5.
UNF split games with Delaware, winning 9-7 and losing 6-1. The Gators lost 9-5 to St. Johns and the other two scheduled games in the series were canceled because of rain.
Jacksonville redshirt freshman Abdriel Delgado was on fire, going 5 for 8 with 10 RBI. Graduate senior third baseman Tyrell Brewer was 4 for 8.
Junior right fielder James Tibbs III paced the ‘Noles by going 3 for 8 with six RBI and a home run against Butler and sophomore center fielder DeArmez Ross went 4 for 8 and scored five runs.
UNF was led by senior outfielder Cherokee Nichols, a Fletcher graduate, who went 4 for 6 in the Ospreys’ two games.
UNF, JU have played state powers tough at home
Both UNF and JU have held their own at home against their Tuesday opponents.
The Ospreys are 3-4 at home against the Gators but the three victories came in succession from 2006-2012 and since then, UF has won four in a row. The Dolphins are 28-47 against the Seminoles at home and won as recently as 2022, 3-2.
The University of Miami has never played UNF in Jacksonville. The Hurricanes
are 26-11 at JU but haven’t played there since a 5-4 loss on May 11, 2003.
Big night UNF coach Joe Mercadante
This will be a special night for firstyear UNF coach Joe Mercadante. He played one season for the Gators in 2003 and hit .471. He has faced the Gators before as an assistant at Miami, UCF and Stetson but this will be the first time against UF as a head coach.
There will be a quick turnaround before the Ospreys see the Gators again: the next night, in Gainesville at 6:30 p.m. UNF will play Florida State once this season, on April 23 in Tallahassee.
Dolphins beat Seminoles twice in last two years
JU coach Chris Hayes has a 5-10 record against the Seminoles and won last year 5-4 in Tallahassee. The Dolphins have defeated FSU twice as a ranked team, in 2021 (away) and 2022 (at home).
Jacksonville will face FSU two more times this season, both on the road (April 2 and May 7) and will play the Gators twice, both in Gainesville (March 19 and April 16).
Hayes is 4-11 against Florida, all four games coming when the Gators were ranked fifth or higher. JU beat UF in 2018 when the Gators were ranked first, and won twice when they were second, in 2017 and last season.