The Southeastern Conference has named Florida catcher/designated hitter Brody Donay the SEC Player of the Week following his monster offensive performance in the Gators’ series sweep over Air Force. The announcement marks the first-ever weekly SEC honor for Donay, who is playing his second season in the conference.
Homering in all three games of the weekend sweep, Donay went 7-for-10 in the series backed by a .700/.750/1.800 slash line. Donay launched 1,314 feet of home runs vs Air Force with the shortest being 414 feet. The Lakeland, Fla. native tallied 18 total bases, two doubles, six runs, five RBI, two walks and one steal. Donay finished a triple shy of the cycle in game two of the series and was intentionally walked in his final plate appearance of the series finale in a 9-1 game with two outs and nobody on. Serving as Florida’s designated hitter in the first and final contests, Donay caught all nine innings of game two.
Entering the second week of the 2025 campaign, Donay leads the SEC in batting average, slugging percentage, on-base percentage and total bases. He is tied for first in the conference in homers alongside Texas A&M’s Jace Laviolette, who is a consensus top three pick in the 2025 MLB Draft.
Donay’s power isn’t surprising as the 6’5 slugger launched 14 home runs in 167 at bats last season, a number that averaged a big fly every 12 at bats. After the 2024 campaign, the Gators’ staff worked on widening Donay’s stance in an effort to create a more simplified approach, one that would hopefully cut down on the swing and miss.
“Basically, what our coaches have done is just spread him out, put his hands in a position to hit, he doesn’t stride, everything is simplified, he’s seeing the ball better, he’s staying more balanced,” head coach Kevin O’Sullivan said on Donay.
“He’s had a really, really good preseason for us. I think the one thing that Brody had done in the past, which a lot of players do, he likes to tinker with his swing. You know, tough weekend, all of a sudden you wanna change this or change that, I think now he’s finally found himself in a comfortable spot hitting wise. He had a terrific weekend and you can see the strength that he has, the third home run he hit was one handed,” O’Sullivan added.
No.10 Florida baseball travels to Jacksonville to take on the Dolphins on Tuesday at 6:00 p.m. before returning home on Wednesday to play Florida A&M.