Florida ousts mistake-prone Cats from CWS
Kentucky's worst defensive showing of the season proved to be the fatal blow to the Wildcats' first trip to the College World Series.
Multiple uncharacteristic gaffes led to a seven-run first inning for Florida -- highlighted by Brody Donay's grand slam -- and the Gators kept piling on in a 15-4 victory on Wednesday at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, Neb.
"This is not how you want to end your season, but this is where you want to end your season," Kentucky head coach Nick Mingione said. "Congrats to Florida. They played a great game.
"... This hurts. It hurts a lot because this team is fully capable of accomplishing our goal of national champions. But that wasn't the case this year. It's not what the Lord had planned, but so proud of these guys for the way they represented themselves, our baseball program, and our institution. Just amazing. An amazing group of men. They are winners in every sense of the word."
Kentucky, the national 2 seed and SEC co-champions, ended the best season in program history at 46-16.
Unseeded Florida (36-29) continued its surprising run in the postseason. The Gators were the final team to make it into the NCAA Tournament field after a disappointing regular season that included losing two out of three games to Kentucky in Gainesville, but they are now 8-2 in their last 10.
"Got off to a quick start, seven in the first," Florida coach Kevin O'Sullivan said. "... We strung together a bunch of good at-bats there in the first."
The Gators will play later tonight against Texas A&M. The Aggies need one win to advance to the CWS championship series, while Florida will have to beat the national 3 seed twice to stay alive.
An uncharacteristic day in the field led to the end of the season for Kentucky. The Cats were only charged with one official error but misplayed at least six other balls, leading to extra bases or runs for Florida.
Two of the biggest mistakes came in the fateful first inning as Kentucky right fielder James McCoy mishandled a single that allowed leadoff man Jac Caglianone to reach second base. One batter later, the Cats let a foul pop-up fall harmlessly down the right-field line behind first base as none of the three defenders made a play on the ball. The batter, Cade Kurland, was then hit by a Dominic Niman pitch.
After surrendering an RBI double to Colby Shelton and a two-run single by Luke Heyman, Niman (8-5) hit another batter with a pitch and was promptly lifted in favor of reliever Cameron O'Brien after recording only one out and facing a 3-1 deficit.
O'Brien was greeted by a single off the bat of Dale Thomas to load the bases, and Donay followed with a grand slam over the right-field fence to make it 7-1 and strike a demoralizing blow to the Cats' championship dreams.
Donay hit a second home run as part of a five-run fifth inning for Florida, and Caglianone added a solo shot in the sixth to put the game out of reach.
Kentucky had a handful of opportunities to chip away at the big lead but could not sustain any big innings against Florida starter Pierce Coppola (1-4) who entered the game with a 9.16 ERA. The lefty turned in his best pitching performance of the season, holding UK to four runs on four hits and three walks over five innings while striking out nine.
"He looked really crisp," O'Sullivan said of Coppola. "... He had the best start he's had all year long."
"Once you fall that far behind, you have to stop the scoring," Mingione said. "Give (Florida) credit. They kept adding to it... The only way were were going to get back into that game was to keep stacking good at-bat after good-at bat after good-at bat in a row like you've seen us do a lot this season. We were not able to do that. Give them credit. They were able to stop our offense and break the chain of good at-bats, making it really hard to get back in the game."
Emilien Pitre's two-run homer in the fifth and a pair of RBI singles by Nick Lopez were the lone offensive highlights for the Cats, who struck out 16 times against a trio of Gator pitchers who all sported ERAs over 5.00.