No.10 Florida baseball completed the opening series sweep over Air Force during Saturday’s double header, taking game two 10-4 and game three 11-1 after seven innings. The Gators put together one of the more impressive opening weekends in recent memory, outscoring Air Force 28-5 across three games.
Junior catcher Brody Donay led the charge for the Gators offensively, hitting 7-10 at the plate this weekend with three home runs, two doubles, five RBI, six runs, two walks, and one strikeout. After 1,314 feet of home runs, Air Force had enough of Brody Donay and intentionally walked him with two outs and nobody on in a 9-1 game on Saturday. Donay wasn’t just the best hitter on the field at Condon Ballpark, but one of the best across college baseball this weekend.
Exactly nine months after tearing his ACL, Hayden Yost played a crucial role in Florida’s double header, hitting 6-9 (.666) at the plate with three doubles, three RBI, three runs, and four stolen bases.
Florida combined for 37 hits in 22 trips to the plate this week, a team batting average of .385 vs Air Force. The Gators also launched six home runs in the series.
On the mound, the Gators posted a 47-3 strikeout to walk ratio and allowed just four earned runs in 25 innings pitched, a staggering statistic after last season’s command issues and SEC worst 6.68 ERA.
Florida’s weekend rotation of Liam Peterson, Jake Clemente, and Pierce Coppola were simply electric. The trio combined for 17 innings pitched, allowing just two earned runs, six hits, and two walks while striking out 31 batters. They were not only dominant, but efficient. The weekend rotation averaged just 13 pitches per inning this weekend while averaging 1.82 strikeouts per inning. That is as efficient as you can be with that strikeout number.
Peterson and Clemente gave Florida back-to-back quality starts to open the season after posting a team total of five in all of 2024. Game three starter Pierce Coppola didn’t record a quality start but may have been the most dominant of the three, going five shutout innings while allowing just one hit and one walk. Coppola struck out a career high 12 batters. Coppola would have certainly got the nod for the 6th inning if the Gators weren’t early in the season as he sat at just 70 pitches. In the series finale, the Gators recorded all 21 outs from either strikeouts or a play assisted by the pitcher. 17 strikeouts, three 1-3 groundouts and a 1-2 put out at home.
Florida’s bullpen allowed just two runs in eight innings of work. Every Florida pitcher that toed the rubber this weekend struck out at least two batters, with three of them pitching just one inning (Jenkins, Barberi, King).
The Gators made a conscious effort to be aggressive on the base paths this weekend, swiping 14 of 15 bases on the series including a perfect 9-9 in game two, which marks the most steals in a game since March 9th, 2010. Yost led the Gators with four stolen bases while Bobby Boser, Ashton Wilson, and Blake Cyr stole two.
Florida put their depth on display during opening weekend with 13 different Gators making starts offensively. In his lone start in the series, Texas Tech transfer Landon Stripling went 2-5 at the plate with a home run and two runs scored in game two. JU transfer Justin Nadeau made his Gators debut in game three and collected three hits and three RBI in four trips to the plate.
Opening day starters Kyle Jones and Ty Evans didn’t appear in the double header on Saturday as they recover from minor injuries.
It’s early, but you can’t ask for a much better start to the season. Pitching was as dominant as you can be while the offense displayed a nice mix of contact, power, and speed.
No.10 Florida baseball travels to Jacksonville on Tuesday to take on the Dolphins before returning home on Wednesday to face Florida A&M.