OMAHA, Neb. — The Florida Gators and Kentucky Wildcats will play for the fourth time this year with both of their seasons on the line. The Gators and Wildcats were slated to play on Tuesday night but the game was postponed to Wednesday morning due to weather.
The winner of Wednesday morning’s game will play the Texas A&M Aggies in the nightcap.
Kentucky took two of three games in Gainesville last month.
Florida held the lead for most of the Friday matchup and Kentucky was even down to its very last strike trailing 8-6. Ryan Nicholson belted a three-run home run to give Kentucky its first lead since they scored a run in the top of the first inning. The Wildcats would go on to score three more runs in the 10th and three in the 11th to take the first game.
The Gators responded with, perhaps, their most complete game of the entire season on Saturday. Freshman Liam Peterson threw a career-high six innings, allowed just one run, walked two, and struck out six. He stymied a Kentucky lineup that had pounded out 13 hits and 11 runs the night before. The Gators got two home runs from Luke Heyman and another from Cade Kurland in a 10-1 win.
Kentucky spoiled senior day at Condron Family Ballpark with a 7-5 win in 10 innings. Jac Caglianone was great in his start. He allowed three runs but just one was earned over 6.1 innings of work. Florida’s offense was blanked through six innings but cut the score to 3-2 on a two-RBI double by Ashton Wilson in the seventh inning. Florida knotted it at three on a Tyler Shelnut home run in the ninth inning but left the bases loaded before heading to extra frames. Kentucky would score four times in the 10th inning to take the game and the series.
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Scoreboard:Kentucky 0-0-0Florida 0-0-0
Lineups
Kentucky
LF Ryan Waldschmidt
2B Emilien Pitre
1B Ryan Nicholson
DH Nick Lopez
3B Mitchell Daly
C Devin Burkes
CF Nolan McCarthy
RF James McCoy
SS Grant Smith
SP: LHP Dominic Niman
Florida
1B Jac Caglianone
2B Cade Kurland
LF Tyler Shelnut
SS Colby Shelton
C Luke Heyman
RF Ashton Wilson
3B Dale Thomas
DH Brody Donay
CF Michael Robertson
SP: LHP Pierce Coppola
Game Notes
SULLY SUPERLATIVES
Since O’Sullivan’s 2008 arrival, no college program has more CWS trips (nine), Super Regionals hosted (nine), top-eight national seeds (10) and NCAA Tournament bids (16) than Florida. O’Sullivan has navigated the Gators to Omaha in nine of the last 14 postseasons. Overall, Florida’s 16-straight NCAA bids represent the second-longest active streak in the sport.
SCOUTING THE AGGIES
Texas A&M kickstarts the CWS with a 49-13 record and 19-11 mark in SEC play. As a team, the Aggies are slashing .300/.420/.557 with 132 home runs. On the mound, A&M wields a 3.94 ERA with 643 strikeouts in 539 innings. Defensively, the Aggies sport a .978 fielding percentage.
RELENTLESS REPTILES
By winning three-straight elimination games to claim the Stillwater Regional, the Gators have now won seven of their last eight NCAA Tournament elimination games dating back to last season. This year alone, Florida boasts 19 come-from-behind wins, with 12 of the team’s 13 SEC victories occurring in comeback fashion. The Gators wield four walk-off victories this year.
NATIONAL LEADERBOARDS
Florida ranks fifth nationally and fourth in the SEC with 131 home runs (2.1 per game). Meanwhile, the Gators sit ninth in the country and fourth in the SEC in strikeouts per nine (10.6). At .981, Florida paces the SEC and sits fifth in the NCAA in fielding percentage.
DOUBLE-DIGIT DING DONGS
For the first time since the 1998 season, Florida has seven different hitters with double-digit home runs: first baseman (33), shortstop (20), catcher (16), infielder/outfielder (15), second baseman (14), outfielder(13), and catcher/desginated hitter (12). Those seven players have accounted for 123 of the Gators’ 131 home runs this season (93.9%). In 1998, Florida was led by Brad Wilkerson with 23 home runs, followed by David Ross (19), Jason Dill (16), Derek Nicholson (15), Mark Ellis (14), Greg Catalanotte (13) and Casey Smith (12). Last year’s SEC Championship team had six players hit 10-plus homers highlighted by five with 17-plus.
IT ALL FILTERS THRU AW30
On May 10, with just five regular-season games remaining, outfielder was 0-for-6 on the year. In the 14 games since, his .367 average is second on the team behind Caglianone (.408) as he has racked up 13 games, 11 starts, 18 hits and 49 at bats. Wilson has earned the No. 3 spot by posting a .597 OBP, .633 SLG, two homers, 14 RBI and 11 runs in that span. He has hits in nine of his 11 starts. In the 2024 postseason, Wilson leads UF in batting with a .414/.471/.759 slash line, two homers and nine RBI.
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