BOTTOM OF THE 10th
— Jac Caglianone and Colby Shelton hit solo homers but Florida couldn't pick up the third run to tie the game.
FINAL (10)
Kentucky 12
Florida 11
The Gators surrendered nine runs in the final three innings of play after leading for seven innings and entering the ninth.
Florida drops to 25-24 overall and 10-15 in the SEC.
TOP OF THE 10th
— Kentucky plated three runs on a double
BOTTOM OF THE NINTH; 9-9
— A Dale Thomas single tied the score at nine. The Gators had the winning run 90 feet away but couldn't capitalize.
TOP OF THE NINTH; 9-8 Kentucky
— Kentucky struck for three runs on Ryan Nicholson's second home run in as many innings.
— Luke McNeillie is in to close the game
BOTTOM OF THE EIGHTH; 8-6 Florida
— Florida plated two runs to retake the lead but left the bases loaded to end the inning.
TOP OF THE EIGHTH; 6-6
— Kentucky tied the game on a two-run homer to right and an RBI double from pinch hitter Eli Smalls.
BOTTOM OF THE SEVENTH; 6-3 Florida
— Florida scored a run on a wild pitch after loading the bases with two outs, increasing their lead to three.
TOP OF THE SEVENTH; 5-3 Florida
— Kentucky had runners on first and second with no outs and made a massive base running error, sending both in motion on an attempted bunt. Florida threw out both and inning ended with the next batter.
BOTTOM OF THE SIXTH; 5-3 Florida
— Luke Heyman was hit by a pitch to leadoff the inning but didn't advance.
TOP OF THE SIXTH; 5-3 Florida
— Jake Clemente retired the side in order with a pair of strikeouts. He’s faced the minimum through 1.1 innings with three punchouts.
BOTTOM OF THE FIFTH; 5-3 Florida
— Caglianone walked but nothing else doing for Florida in the fifth
TOP OF THE FIFTH; 5-3 Florida
— Kentucky scored a pair to reduce Florida’s lead to two runs. Jake Clemente replaced Fisher Jameson on the mound with two outs and closed out the inning for Florida.
BOTTOM OF THE FOURTH; 5-1 Florida
— The Gators added to their lead on a Brody Donay solo homer.
TOP OF THE FOURTH; 4-1 Florida
— Jameson threw a scoreless fourth inning despite allowing a two-single
BOTTOM OF THE THIRD
— Heyman grounded out to second
— SCORE: Colby Shelton hit a three-run shot to right-center. The ball hung way up in the air. 4-1 Gators. Both dugouts were issued warnings after the bomb.
— Evans flew out to center
— Caglianone walked on four pitches. Thomas to second.
— Kurland flew out to shallow center
— Dale Thomas singled to right after the ball ricocheted off the pitcher
TOP OF THE THIRD; 1-1
— Daly struck out looking to end the inning and strand runners on first and second.Final line for Pierce Coppola in his fourth appearance of the year and fifth of his career: 2.2 IP, 4 H, 1/0 R/ER, 1 BB, 3 K
— Lopez walked.Pierce Coppola is done after 2.2 solid innings of work but he threw 64 pitches, which is the limit for him as he continues to build back from two years of injuries. Fisher Jameson is taking over with runners on first and second and two outs T3. Game tied at one.
— Pitre tried stealing third but Coppola was aware of it and fired a perfect strike to third for the second out of the inning.
— Burkes bunted but it was too firm off the bat and right back to Coppola, who threw to third for the force.
— Pitre singled to right. Waldschmidt to second.
— Waldschmidt singled to left-center
BOTTOM OF THE SECOND; 1-1
— Hayden Yost struck out swinging
— Tyler Shelnut struck out swinging
— Brody Donay struck out swinging
TOP OF THE SECOND; 1-1
— Reuben Church struck out looking
— James McCoy singled to center
— Nolan McCarthy flew out to center
— Jac Caglianone made a diving stop to take extra bases away from Kentucky first baseman Ryan Nicholson.
BOTTOM OF THE FIRST; 1-1
— Luke Heyman popped out to second to end the inning
— Colby Shelton popped out behind the mound
— SCORE: Ty Evans hit a ground-ball single to short, driving in Jac Caglianone from third after he advanced on an error. 1-1 with one out and a runner on first B1
— Jac Caglianone singled to center, extending his hitting streak to 28 games, which is two behind Florida's all-time leader Jacob Young (30).
— Cade Kurland struck out swinging
TOPOF THE FIRST; 1-0 Kentucky
— Mitchell Daly struck out swinging to end the inning. The run is unearned for Coppola, who struck out a pair in the opening frame.
— SCORE: Nick Lopez hit an RBI-double to right-center. Florida kept the inning alive on a throwing error from Jac Caglianone after Kentucky put Devin Burkes in motion. 1-0 Wildcats with two outs and runner on second T1
— Coppola had Devin Burkes picked off but Jac Caglianone's throw air-mailed into center and Burkes was granted third due to interference. Burkes would have been safe had Cade Kurland not gotten in his way.
— Devin Burkes was hit by a pitch with two outs
— Emilien Pitre flew out to deep left
— Pierce Coppola opened things upby punching out Ryan Waldschmidt
FLORDIA LINEUP
2B Cade Kurland
1B Jac Caglianone
RF Ty Evans
SS Colby Shelton
C Luke Heyman
DH Brody Donay
LF Tyler Shelnut
CF Hayden Yost
3B Dale Thomas
SP Pierce Coppola
KENTUCKY LINEUP
LF Ryan Waldschmidt
2B Emilien Pitre
C Devin Burkes
DH Nick Lopez
SS Mitchell Daly
1B Ryan Nicholson
CF Nolan McCarthy
RF James McCoy
3B Reuben Church
SP Trey Pooser
PREGAME5
— Florida (25-23; 10-14 SEC) is set to take on No. 3 Kentucky (35-10; 18-6) at 3:30 p.m. ET on Friday afternoon in Gainesville. The game will be streamed on SECN+.
— The Gators have dropped each of their last five weekend series against SEC opponents with their last series win coming against Mississippi State to close out the month of March.
— Florida must remain at .500 or better in order to qualify for an at-large bid in the NCAA Tournament. Baseball America projected the Gators to be a three-seed in the Tallahassee Regional with Florida State, Troy and Bethune-Cookman while D1Baseball also tabbed the Gators as a No. 3-seed, though it placed them in the Durham Regional with Duke, UC-Irvine and Columbia.
— The Gators are starting sophom*ore southpaw Pierce Coppola on the mound on Friday. Coppola has made three appearances this season and owns a 10.50 ERA with 10 strikeouts against three walks in six innings. His last outing came against Arkansas when he threw three innings and allowed one run on one hit with six strikeouts. Florida will start true freshman righty Liam Peterson on Saturday and star two-way player Jac Caglianone on Sunday.
— Florida this week moved righty Brandon Neely back into its closer role after he spent several weeks as a starting pitcher. You can read more about the Gators' decision here.
— Read about the Gators significant adjustments with reliever Cade Fisher here.
THE LATEST FROM KEVIN O'SULLIVAN
On Liam Peterson's Tuesday start against South Florida…
"I was okay with Liam's start. It was just the walk after the hit. We've talked about that. But the bottom line is, he made some pitches when he needed to. We tried to get him to go two innings. We got to 22 pitches and that was it because he has to pitch this weekend. Overall, like I said, he made pitches when he needed to. The walk, like I said, after the hit, is probably what caused a little anxiety at that point."
On manufacturing runs in key situations…
"It's been a huge emphasis. You start looking at our lineup and the amount of strikeouts that we've had this year. We tried to do it a certain way for a good part of the year and then you get to a point where obviously wins are extremely important and if what we're doing isn't working, then you have to switch gears. And that's part of what coaching is all about, so you don't keep doing the same thing over and over…
On certain arms finding their form…
"It makes it a heck of a lot easier to manage your bullpen when you've got your main arms, right? I think this is kind of what we envisioned it to look like. It didn't work out with Cade as our Friday night starter, then we made some drastic changes and then tried to use Brandon [Neely] there as a starter and there were some really good moments and there were some moments that weren't so good. So, now we're back to the drawing board again. That's not from a lack of trying to push each button; all we're trying to do right now is put everybody in a position to be successful. But when we go into a game and you can go toFisher Jamesonand you can go to McNeillie and you have Neely on the backend andCade Fishercomes in with those 2 2/3, he's been working hard on his delivery. And he's standing taller on his back side and I thought he had more angle to his stuff instead of east and west. I thought he had more tilt to his slider tonight. It's certainly a step in the right direction and hopefully he can continue doing this into the weekend."
