Heading into the 2025 season, one of the big question marks for Florida Baseball was who was going to replace the pop and power of Jac Caglianone. The lineup for Florida is deeper on paper than in 2024, but finding a home run hitter is far from a guarantee.
Florida hit six home runs over the weekend against Air Force, three of which came from Brody Donay. And if opening weekend is any indication, Florida is hoping they found a power bat for 2025.
Florida Baseball: Touch 'em all
Donay hit .700 over the weekend with a 2.250 OPS. Five of his seven hits against Air Force were for extra bases, including the previously mentioned three home runs.
His effort earned him SEC Player of the Week for opening week.
Donay came to Florida last year after transferring from Virginia Tech. The Lakeland native played 49 games for Florida in 2024 with a .246 average and 14 home runs.
Donay's struggle, even dating back to Virginia Tech, has been plate discipline. Last year, he had 74 strikeouts and just 13 walks. Perhaps just as encouraging as the .700 average for Donay this past weekend was just one strikeout while also drawing two walks.
It's obviously unrealistic to expect him to maintain this pace throughout the season, but the hope is he can entrench himself as a power-hitting DH who can also slot in as catcher to give Luke Heyman rest.
Staying Put
Florida saw minimal movement in the vast array of polls that were put out yesterday and probably won't see much movement for a couple of weeks, even if they keep winning. The Gators take on Jacksonville tonight and FAMU tomorrow.
But as we learned last year, these midweek games are far from a guarantee for the Gators, and one of the reasons they had to sweat it out just to make the NCAA Tournament was their poor showing during midweek tilts last year.
This weekend, the Gators will host Dayton.