OMAHA, Neb. – There was salami for breakfast in Omaha.
Brody Donay homered twice, including a grand slam to cap a seven-run first, as Florida eliminated second-seeded Kentucky on Wednesday morning in Game 10 of the 2024 College World Series.
The Gators (36-29) will face No. 3 Texas A&M tonight. The Wildcats concluded their season at 46-16.
UK lit the scoreboard in the top of the first. Ryan Waldschmidt drew a leadoff walk. With two away, he was picked off first, but the throw to second hit Waldschmidt in the back and allowed him to reach second. Nick Lopez singled to center to knock in Waldschmidt with the game’s first run.
UF answered quickly in the bottom of the frame. Jac Caglianone had a leadoff single and went to second when the ball was mishandled in the outfield. Cade Kurland was then hit by a pitch. With one away, Colby Shelton doubled to right to knock in Caglianone with the tying run. Luke Heyman followed with a two-run single to put the Gators on top 3-1.
After Ashton Wilson was hit by a pitch, Donay finished the first-inning scoring with a grand slam.
“A big situation right there,” Donay said. “You gotta go in and do something for your team, whether that’s put the ball in play or draw a walk or anything there. I tried to get a swing off early and obviously a great thing happened.”
That slam gave the Gators a 7-1 advantage.
“Obviously we got off to a quick start,” UF head coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “We strung together a bunch of good at-bats there in the first.”
Caglianone was walked intentionally with runners on first and second with two away in the bottom of the third. Kurland responded with a two-run single to extend the advantage to 9-1.
Lopez added an RBI single in the fourth and Emilien Pitre smacked a two-run homer an inning later, his 10th dinger of the season, as UK narrowed the gap to 9-4.
The Gators put the game away with five in the bottom of the fifth. Donay started the frame with a home run to left, his 14th of the season, and Ashton Wilson capped it with a two-run single as UF went up 14-4.
Caglianone completed the scoring with a homer in the sixth, his 35th of the season. He broke the program record with 75 career home runs.
“It was really cool,” Caglianone said. “In the moment I was just trying to help my team add more runs to the win.”
Donay went 3 for 5 with three runs and five RBI. Heyman went 3 for 5 with two doubles, two runs and three RBI.
Pierce Coppola (1-4) earned the win, fanning nine over five innings, both career highs.
“I thought this is the best Pierce has thrown all year long,” O’Sullivan said. “His stuff looked really crisp. He had the best start he’s had all year.”
Coppola had the advantage of the early lead.
“Just throw strikes, get ahead of the counts and don’t fall behind,” Coppola said. “Today my fastball felt good off the hand. I was able to go in and out with it and just be able to draw my slider in whenever I needed to. It’s hard to hit when you’ve got a couple of pitches working.”
Jack Clemente (H, BB, 4 K) and Alex Philpott (3 K) both tossed two scoreless innings.
Pitre was 2 for 4 with two runs and two RBI for the Wildcats. Lopez had two hits and knocked in two.
“This is where you want to end your season,” UK head coach Nick Mingione said. “This is not how you want to end your season, but this is where you want to end your season.”
Notes
Florida was 3-15 with runners in scoring position in its first two CWS games. Against Kentucky, the Gators went 8 for 14 with 13 RBI with runners in scoring position.
Jac Caglianone hit leadoff tor the first time in his career. He singled in his first plate appearance to extend his on-base streak to 51 straight games.
UK took two of three at UF during the regular season, recording a pair of 10-inning victories.