After securing a victory over NC State on Monday afternoon, the Florida Gators will take on Kentucky in yet another elimination game in the College World Series. The Wildcats are a familiar opponent for Kevin O’Sullivan, who holds a 28-23 record against Kentucky.
Gator Country provides three keys to victory for Florida.
Get an extended outing from Pierce Coppola
After battling injuries throughout his first two years at Florida, left-handed pitcher Pierce Coppola returned to the diamond in 2024. The season hasn’t been pretty for Coppola, who holds a 9.16 ERA in seven starts while allowing opposing teams to hit .303 against him.
The New Jersey native is averaging just 2.2 innings a start and 3.1 innings over his last three. Florida will need more from the left hander vs Kentucky. Not just to increase their chances of beating the Wildcats, but to set Florida’s bullpen up for potentially two more elimination games.
The rain delay gives Florida’s bullpen another day of rest, but Kevin O’Sullivan does not want to keep going to his bullpen, Brandon Neely in particular, early in games. Pierce Coppola has a chance to keep that from happening with an extended start against Kentucky.
Coppola needs to be more efficient on the mound in order to do this as he’s averaging nearly 22 pitches an inning in 2024.
Coppola pitched against Kentucky on May 10th, where he fired 2.2 innings, allowing one run, four hits, and one walk while striking out three.
Minimize Kentucky’s small ball
Kentucky is going to try and do everything they can to manufacture runs: steals, bunts, and hit and runs. You name it, the Wildcats will try it.
With the heavy wind and weather conditions that seem probable, Kentucky’s small ball style has the advantage in a bigger ballpark that generally makes it difficult to hit home runs.
There’s a few ways Florida pitching can minimize Kentucky’s approach. The first way is simple; throw strikes. Allowing a team like Kentucky to reach base via a free pass is how they get to you. The Wildcats are good enough to score a run without recording a hit.
Despite not being the most advanced hitting team in the tournament, they can be highly effective offensively, ranking 35th in the country in runs scored.
The second way to limit Kentucky’s successful small ball style is to retire the first batter of the inning. Allowing the leadoff man to reach base opens up their playbook. It becomes much easier to manufacture runs when you have no outs in the inning. If Florida can retire the leadoff batter frequently, it will be much harder for Kentucky to plate a run and will likely force them to record an RBI base knock.
Florida can’t panic if Kentucky does get runners on. If they want to throw one of their 27 outs away to move a runner over, let them. This is where playing good defense against the Wildcats becomes critical.
The Gators have to make Kentucky earn it at the plate on Wednesday morning.
Someone other than Caglianone has to step up
Jac Caglianone may not get a single pitch to hit against Kentucky, and you can’t blame them. The two-was superstar is responsible for 25% of Florida’s hits on just six at bats through two games at the College World Series. He has drove in 43% of Florida’s total runs as well.
The rest of Florida’s lineup has struggled, particularly the guys around Caglianone in the batting order. Florida’s 1-3-4 hole hitters are a combined 0-22 in the tournament with 15 strikeouts.
The Gators have to get runners on ahead of Caglianone to force Kentucky to make a decision about pitching to him. You will see Caglianone put on base; this is where the players behind him have to come through for Florida’s offense.
Someone other than Caglianone is going to have to step up for Florida in a big way.
Florida and Kentucky are set to face off at 11:00 a.m. CT in an elimination game.
12 eastern? Does that give time to finish, or designed to push 3 & 7 games back