OMAHA, Neb. – Four other teams are out College World Series Everyone is chasing something Florida Already has: A national championship.
Florida captured the title in 2017Sweeping SEC rival LSU in best-of-three championship series
Along with that championship, the Gators became the national runner-up three times — most recently, Last year — and own 14 CWS appearances in their program’s proud history.
See: Follow Kentucky baseball in the College World Series on Fubo (free trial).
Kentucky On the other end of the spectrum, in its first run to the College World Series.
Despite their different histories, the Wildcats and Gators will be on even ground come Wednesday morning when they take the diamond to a postponed elimination game from Tuesday night.
The winner is in contention for the national title; Loser goes home.
There’s Ryan Black of the Courier Journal Charles Schwab Field In Omaha, Nebraska, there will be live updates throughout the game — here and on X, formerly known as Twitter — and complete coverage. You can follow him on X @RyanBlack.
Florida superstar Jake Gaglianone hit a historic homer: It was the 75th of his career, breaking a tie with Matt LaPorte for most in program history.
Mitchell Daly singled, but England did little else in a scoreless sixth.
Florida answered Emilian Pitre’s homer with one of their own: Brady Doane crushed a pitch into left field to lead off the bottom half of the fifth. The Gators kept piling on from there: they added four more runs to extend their lead to 10.
Emilion Pitre launched a two-run homer into the stands, helping UK continue to cut its deficit, which is now five.
Robert Hogan allowed a leadoff single, but left Florida’s next three batters to sit out the fourth.
Nick Lopez has his second RBI to bring home Emilian Pitre. But the Wildcats still trailed by seven runs.
Cameron O’Brien’s day ended after he hit a bunt to start the third. Robert Hogan took the mound and gave up two runs on Kate Kurland’s single. The Wildcats deficit is eight.
A different way to end the inning for Kentucky: A double play that hit James McCoy as the ball tried to get to second. As the ball hit him, he was dismissed for interference and Ryan Waldschmidt was out at first.
Florida is three up, three down, and has a six-run lead over Kentucky.
1-2-3 innings for England, including a pair of strikeouts.
UK pitcher Dominic Niemann had a rough start: he went just ⅓ of an inning after giving up three runs. Cameron O’Brien comes on in relief with two runners on. He immediately gives away a single to load the bases. From there it got worse for the Wildcats: Brady Doane cleared the base paths with a grand slam.
Ryan Waldschmidt drew a leadoff walk and then scored on Nick Lopez’s RBI single for the first score of the game.
Kentucky’s NCAA College World Series game against Florida will be televised on ESPN.
You can stream ESPN on Fubo, which offers a free trial Here.
Last Time: Kentucky baseball suffers first NCAA loss, falling to Texas A&M in College World Series
First pitch for Wednesday’s game in Omaha, Nebraska is set for 11 a.m. ET.
Kentucky 9, Florida 8: The Gators can pound the ball with some of the best players in the country, with 133 homers this season, fourth best in Division I. And they’ll have the best player on the field, too: World-class performer and offensive lineman Jack Gaglianone set Florida’s single-season mark for homers (34) with a second-inning blast on Monday. But the Gators are good at scoring runs, and they can help their opponents do the same. As a staff, Florida has the SEC’s worst earned run average (6.16) and more walks per game (4.74) than any team in the league. From top to bottom, Kentucky is the best team. It’s not easy: Florida is 7-1 in elimination games over the past two seasons. But this year’s Wildcats squad has found ways to win in every fashion imaginable. They’ll outlast Caglianone and the Gators in a slump to set up a rematch with the Aggies.
All College World Series games are played at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, Nebraska.
Check out the starting lineups for both Kentucky and Florida in the embedded tweets below.
Kentucky
Florida
Kentucky is 46-15 in 2024, including 22-8 in SEC play during the regular season. The Wildcats claimed a share of the league’s regular season title for the second time in school history.
Click here to see the Wildcats’ full 2024 schedule.
Florida is 35-29, 13-17 in regular-season SEC play to finish in a three-way tie for fourth (with South Carolina and Vanderbilt) in the East Division.
Click here to view Gator’s full 2024 schedule.
Interested in seeing the full list of wildcats?
Click here to meet the 2024 UK Baseball team.
Want to know about the list of gators?
Click here for player bios and more.
East at all times
Friday, June 14
- Game 1: North Carolina 3, Virginia 2
- Game 2: Tennessee 12, Florida State 11
Saturday 15 June
Sunday, June 16
- Game 5: Florida State 7, Virginia 3
- Game 6: Tennessee 6, North Carolina 1
Monday, June 17
Tuesday, June 18
- Game 9: Florida State 9, North Carolina 5
Wednesday, June 19
Thursday, June 20
- Game 13 (if needed): TBD vs. TBD, 2 p.m.; TV broadcast channel TBD
- Game 14 (if needed): TBD vs. TBD, 7 p.m.; TV broadcast channel TBD
Saturday, June 22
Sunday, June 23
Monday, June 24
- Tennessee: -105
- Texas A&M: +250
- Kentucky: +350
- Florida State: +1700
- Florida: +3500
Odds of BetMGM. Odds will be updated as they become available.
Kentucky: There are wild cats Third-best odds, at +350, To win the College World Series, a BetMGM.
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Reach Kentucky men’s basketball and soccer reporter Ryan Black at [email protected] and follow him on X at @RyanABlack.
