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Florida opens wild Wednesday at CWS with drubbing of Kentucky in elimination game

Paul Harvey

By Paul Harvey

Published:

Florida and Kentucky entered Wednesday with plenty of drama building in Omaha. By the time the 1st inning came to a close, the Gators had sucked nearly all of the drama out of the first game of the day with a 7-run frame.

With storms in the area forcing Tuesday night’s matchup into Wednesday, fans and players braced for 3 games beginning with the Wildcats vs. Gators in an elimination matchup. The early game would belong to Florida, and it did not take long for the team to leave its mark.

Powered by a grand slam from Brody Donay, the Gators would deliver 7 runs in the 1st inning and take a 9-1 lead with 2 more runs in the 3rd. Kentucky would cut into the deficit by making it 9-4 in the top of the 5th, but that is the closest the Wildcats would get the rest of the way.

Florida would finish off a 15-4 win in timely fashion, staying alive for at least one more game Wednesday night. The Gators will face Texas A&M in a rematch after the Aggies opened their CWS path with a 3-2 win against Florida. A&M needs just one win to reach the CWS Finals while Florida must win Wednesday night to force another game on Thursday.

As for Kentucky, the Wildcats see their historic season come to a close. While the ending is disappointing, the future is bright for Kentucky baseball after its first-ever CWS appearance and a win in Omaha over NC State.

Here are the takeaways from Florida’s win over the Wildcats:

Brody Donay jumpstarts  massive offensive outing

Brody Donay has a big power bat as evidenced by his 12 home runs this season, but he is a strikeout victim with 69 punchouts on the year. He was 0-for-6 in Omaha prior to Wednesday’s game, and he turned that around in a big way.

His grand slam in the 1st inning gave Florida a 7-1 lead, and he provided a quick response after Kentucky cut into the lead to make it 9-4. Donay led off the bottom of the 5th inning with a mammoth solo home run, a blast tracked at 415 feet and 117.6 MPH off the bat.

Donay is the 5th Gator player of all time with a multi-HR effort at the CWS and finished the game 3-for-5 with 3 runs scored and 5 RBI out of the 8th spot in the order. It’s the kind of production Florida has been looking for from other players in the lineup with teams avoiding Jac Caglianone at all costs.

RELATED: Kentucky’s baseball season didn’t end the way Wildcat fans were hoping, but football season is right around the corner. Use SDS’s Kentucky sports betting apps to track the latest odds and trends ahead of the start of college football.

Pierce Coppola paces Florida — and saves the bullpen

There are clutch performances, and then there’s what Pierce Coppola provided Florida on Wednesday. The Gators certainly needed to beat Kentucky to remain alive, but the threat of turning around Wednesday night with a depleted pitching staff is not a happy thought.

Instead of blowing through the bullpen, Coppola delivered 5 innings with 9 strikeouts, 4 earned runs and 3 walks after completing just 18.2 innings pitched all season. He nearly made it through 5 innings with just 2 earned runs allowed, but even a 2-run home run by Emilien Pitre cannot diminish the performance. The 5 innings and 9 strikeouts are season-high numbers for Coppola.

The offense certainly provided plenty of insurance, but Coppola allowed the Gators to save most of their high-leverage arms for the matchup with the Aggies. Jake Clemente (2 innings, 31 pitches) and Alex Philpott (2 innings, 25 pitches) were the only other pitchers used by Florida.

A lineup change that sticks?

Jac Caglianone’s presence has been felt in Omaha, but that hasn’t changed Florida’s offensive struggles prior to Wednesday. He finished 2-for-3 but without a run scored against A&M, and his 3-run home run against NC State provided the majority of the offense in a narrow 5-4 victory.

With teams avoiding Caglianone when possible (and the rest of the Gators struggling around him), head coach Kevin O’Sullivan moved the star slugger into the lead-off spot against Kentucky. The Wildcats showed they were not scared to walk Caglianone time and time again during the regular season, and the lineup switch forced their hand a bit. It also paid off.

Caglianone started the game with a lead-off single and advanced to 2nd on an error. He would score Florida’s first run in the 7-run inning before drawing 3 walks in his next 3 at-bats.

After that, Kentucky would pitch to him again with the bases empty, and Caglianone would deliver his 75th career home run. That gives him the all-time home run record for the Gators. He finished the game 2-for-2 with 3 walks, 3 runs scored and an RBI off his home run.

Now all that’s left to figure out is whether or not this was a one-time move by O’Sullivan based on Kentucky’s pitching strategy or whether he sticks with the change against A&M.

Paul Harvey

Paul Harvey lives in Atlanta and covers SEC football.

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