Florida baseball took the field in Omaha, Nebraska with their backs against the wall for the second time in the College World Series and fifth time this postseason; the result was no different.
The Gators routed Kentucky for nine innings, defeating the Wildcats 15-4 while improving to 5-0 in elimination games in 2024.
Florida blasted three home runs including two off the bat of Brody Donay and struck out 16 batters on the mound. The Gators out-hit Kentucky 14-5 in the contest.
“The whole goal is to play your best at the end of the year,” head coach Kevin O’Sullivan said postgame. “And we’ve been fortunate enough to have been able to do that.”
Gators jump on Wildcats early
After Kentucky found the scoreboard with an RBI single in first inning, Florida responded by sending 11 batters to the plate, scoring seven runs on five hits.
The final blow of the inning came from Brody Donay, who launched a grand slam to opposite field, extending Florida’s lead to 7-1.
“Going up to that at-bat in a big situation right there you’ve just kind of gotta go in and do something for your team, whether that’s put the ball in play or draw a walk or anything there,” Donay said on his grand slam. “I tried to get a swing off early. And obviously a great thing happened.”
Pierce Coppola’s CWS debut
After a long journey back to the baseball field, LHP Pierce Coppola made his College World Series debut in a must-win game for Florida.
The redshirt sophomore fired a career high 5.0 innings against Kentucky, allowing four runs on four hits and three walks. Coppola also set career highs in both strikeouts (9) and total pitches (98), earning his first career win in the process.
“It means a lot,” Coppola said on making his CWS debut. “Kopp told me, what took you so long to get your first win. It’s been a long journey.”
Coppola’s pitching line might not be eye popping, but the lefty did what he needed to, and the Gator bats had his back.
“I thought this is the best Pierce has thrown all year long,” O’Sullivan said postgame. “His stuff looked really crisp,” O’Sullivan said on Coppola. “Maybe him not throwing in the Supers, giving him a little time off, probably helped.”
Gators pull away in middle innings
After Florida jumped out to a 9-1 lead, Kentucky creeped back into the game with a combined three runs in the 4th and 5th inning.
The Gators answered with five runs of their own in the bottom of the fifth. Brody Donay kick-started the inning with his second home run of the day, a 118 MPH bomb traveled an expected 414 feet.
Tyler Shelnut, Luke Heyman, and Ashton Wilson would all record two-out RBI base knocks in the 5th.
“Once you fall that far behind, you have to stop the scoring,” Kentucky head coach Nick Mingione said postgame. “And give them credit. They kept adding to it. And then when we scored, they immediately scored right after. So we needed to stop the momentum on their end to try to get some on our side and we just didn’t do it at a high enough level.”
Florida hit .450 (9-20) with runners on and .571 (8-14) with runners in scoring position against Kentucky.
The exclamation point
With a 14-4 lead, Jac Caglianone launched his 35th home run of the season and 75th of his career, making him Florida’s career home run leader after tying Matt LaPorta’s record in yesterday’s game vs NC State.
“Chuck [Jeroloman] gave me a hug, congratulated me and stuff. And all the teammates followed. It kind of hit me there. It was really cool. In the moment I was just trying to help my team add more runs to the win,” Caglianone said on breaking Florida’s all-time home run record.
Caglianone is now 5-8 (.625) with two home runs, four RBI, four runs, and has reached base in 12 of his 15 plate appearances at the College World Series.
With a big cushion, relievers Jake Clemente and Alex Philpott were able to finish the final four innings in scoreless fashion, allowing a combined one hit and one walk while striking out seven.
“I just told Jake, listen, keep your pitch count around 30 so you’ll be able to help us tonight in some capacity,” O’Sullivan said on his message to Clemente.
“And Alex, he did the same thing,” O’Sullivan added. “And I was really pleased with how they both threw because sometimes you can get a little sloppy when you get a big lead, but they both did exactly what we asked them to do.”
UP NEXT
Florida will take on Texas A&M at 7:30 PM EST in yet another elimination game for the Gators. True freshman Liam Peterson is expected to start against the Aggies.
Peterson tossed 64 pitches against TAMU on Saturday, allowing three runs on four hits in 2.1 innings pitched.
The Gators are one of four teams in the running for a National Championship.