Florida Thumps Way to Commanding 10-3 Game One Victory Over Kentucky

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Sometimes, all you can do is tip your cap.

That's what No. 19 Kentucky and head coach Nick Mingione had to do on Thursday night, as the No. 4 Florida Gators walked into Kentucky Proud Park for the start of a crucial three game series and crushed six extra-base hits, leading to a 10-3 win over the Wildcats.

Batters one through five in the Gators' order tallied 11 knocks, including the six doubles. Second baseman Cade Kurland and left fielder Wyatt Langford each collected three hits, while catcher BT Riopelle had a game-high four RBIs.

"I give the top of their lineup a lot of credit, that's where most of their damage came from," Mingione said. "When you face these teams — us included — you just have really deep lineups. Just cause you get by one guy, there's another guy waiting, and that's exactly the same case for them."

Kentucky (35-16, 15-13 SEC) starter Travis Smith (4-3) took the loss after allowing five earned runs on four hits, striking out four and walking just two. Florida (41-12, 19-9) got to the righty in the sixth, kickstarting a five-run frame that put quickly put things out of reach.

Florida's Hurston Waldrep (7-3) lasted six innings, allowing three runs (two earned) on six hits, fanning six while issuing a pair of free passes. UK had five extra-base hits of their own, but left 10 runners on base and went 3-for-14 at the plate with runners on.

Smith's lackluster start last Friday at Tennessee carried over into Thursday night, as the redshirt freshman failed to find the strike zone early.

After issuing a leadoff walk, Smith fell behind Langford — who entered the game batting .400, the second-best mark in the SEC — 2-0, leading to a crushed RBI double to the gap in right-center, scoring Cade Kurland to give the Gators a 1-0 lead just two batters into the game.

That lead doubled in the next at-bat, as two-way superstar Jac Caglianone drove home Langford with a hard-hit single up the middle. Smith induced a double play to help halt the damage there, but he threw 22 pitches and only nine strikes in the opening frame.

Waldrep needed only six pitches to retire the side in order in the bottom half. The right-hander worked quick on the slab all night, trying to keep Wildcat hitter uncomfortable in the box.

That would be the only inning that UK didn't make solid contact against Waldrep.

James McCoy doubled with two outs in the bottom of the second — his eighth extra-base hit in the last eight games. Mingione decided to send Jase Felker all the way home from first, but a good relay from the Gators had him gunned down to keep the deficit at 2-0.

UK fought back and tied things up with a run in the third and fourth, however. With the bases loaded, Émilien Pitre hit a high chopper to first, forcing Caglianone to back track all the way to the edge of the outfield turf. Waldrep wasn't there to cover first and Pitre won the race to the base for an RBI single.

Waldrep stranded three runners in the third after the hit, but Felker led the fourth off with a hustle double and eventually scored thanks to a passed ball and deep sacrifice fly from McCoy.

Meanwhile, Smith dialed in after his shaky first inning. He worked a one-two-three second and third, rolled another double-play to get out of a jam in the fourth, then came right back with a one-two-three top of the fifth.

Kentucky had a chance to take the lead in the bottom half, as Hunter Gilliam led things off with a torqued ground-rule double. Waldrep found a second gear and forced a shallow fly out and two strikeouts to keep things tied, following the third out of the inning with a loud "come on!" toward the UF dugout.

"We had some chances early on to get the starter out of the game...give them credit, they cashed in and we didn't. We didn't get the timely big hit," Mingione said.

That spurt of energy carried over into the batters box for the Gators. Kurland and Langford led off the frame with back-to-back doubles, breaking the tie. That was only the beginning, though.

Smith hit Caglianone and was then pulled at 89 pitches. In his place came fireman Ryder Giles, but he was unable to extinguish the oncoming fire that was the Gators' bats.

Shortstop Josh Rivera served an RBI single into left field before Riopelle broke things open with a deep two-run double to the wall in the left-field corner, just getting down past the jumping Ryan Waldschmidt. Luke Heyman later singled on a 3-2 off-speed pitch from Evan Byers, scoring Riopelle.

In a flash, Kentucky needed four pitchers to record three outs and was in a sinking five-run hole. Grant Smith hit his third solo homer in as many games in the bottom half of the inning, but that was the last bit of offense the Cats would muster in the loss.

Florida added three more runs on three hits against left-hander Magdiel Cotto in the seventh, capped off by Riopelle's second two-run knock of the evening.

"Obviously that's a good team, so are we. Looking forward to the challenge tomorrow," Mingione said.

The Cats and Gators will return to KPP for game two of the series on Friday night, which will serve as Kentucky's Senior Day. First pitch is once again set for 6:30 p.m. EST and will air on SEC Network+.

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