Gator Country provides you with everything Head Coach Kevin O’Sullivan said after Florida’s series loss to LSU.
COACH O’SULLIVAN’s OPENING STATEMENT: “Congratulations to LSU. They certainly earned it today. A really good team that played one of their best games all year at the right time. And tip your cap to them.
Offensively, we didn’t really have an answer for them on the mound today.
I think these last three games, you know, we didn’t get as much as we probably needed to out of our starters. We put a little bit too much pressure on our bullpen early in games, and we were probably playing with fire the last couple of games. And obviously it got to us today.
So we had a great season. One game is not going to define the hard work and all the accolades that our team has gotten, both as a team, as individuals. Certainly right now it’s very disappointing, but it’s certainly not going to take away from the accomplishments that these guys to my left and everybody else that’s in the locker room right now.
It’s a hard pill to swallow right now, but glad we had an opportunity to come back, play for a national championship. And I would expect us to be in the same spot next year.”
Q. Coach, I guess a question similar to BT just about Jac’s first inning, comes in, strikes out two. Looks like he’s in a really good place. What did you see in terms of him maybe unraveling in the second or what transpired there in the inning?
COACH O’SULLIVAN: “I don’t know. His bullpen was really good before the game. I thought our team was in a really good place. I thought BP was good. And that was good. They were loose.
Put two on the board the bottom half of the first. Wyatt, again, hits another home run. I thought the dugout was electric. And then all of a sudden, you know, we had four walks and I think two hit-by pitches in the first two and two-thirds innings. And then we had to go to the pen earlier than we wanted to.
Honestly, I think after his first I thought he was going to be dialed in. Don’t really have an answer other than we lost control of the strike zone.
If you look at the last three games we played here, we may not have gotten as much out of our starters that we probably needed to, quite honestly. We had to go to our pen in the fifth, in the third, and now today the second.
When you start using the same pitchers in the multiple games in the same weekend, so to speak, a three-game series, you kind of get exposed a little bit. And I think we probably flirted with a little bit of fire with that.
And knowing that today, if that did happen where Jac kind of lost control of the strike zone and we had to go to the pen early, that was probably not going to be in our best interests, quite honestly.
So there was a lot of things that factor into it. But I just think we just didn’t command the ball as well as we should have or could have.”
Q. The guys who were up there up with you, what did their effort mean to you this year, especially the guys who chose to come back and could have easily gone professional last year?
COACH O’SULLIVAN: “There’s some other guys that maybe had an opportunity to be up here too. But each one of them has their own story, right? Wyatt had four at-bats his freshman year. He’s turned himself, in my opinion — you could flip a coin between him and Dylan Crews. That’s my honest opinion. I think they’re both tremendous players. They’re going to have great careers moving forward.
You’ve got a guy like BT who was one of the very few transfer portal guys we’ve had. He’s evolved into one of the best leaders, human beings, I know.
You guys all know his story that he’s going to move on. And this was his last game. And that’s very emotional for him.
And you’ve got a guy like Josh who’s been in our program for four years. You see him develop not only as a baseball player. You could talk about the hitting and the defense, but the maturity level.
So each one of them have their own stories. So I may have a little different perspective. I’m just as disappointed as anybody. But this will st
Q. Just to go on this journey with this group, you kind of hit on it just there, but to be back here because of them, what does that mean to you?
COACH O’SULLIVAN: “Well, for me personally, of course you love coming out here, you know. But it’s really about the players and the staff. And I’ve been here enough; I know how special this place is and how hard it is to get here.
A lot of these guys, this is the first time — actually all of them, first time they’ve been here. Now they’ve at least got a taste of it.
But it’s just hard to get here. I mean, you go back, you look at like the Regionals and how intense that was at home. We lost. We had to beat Texas Tech. And we beat UConn. And then we play an SEC team that was playing really good and they finally got healthy at the end, in South Carolina, and it was electric at home.
And you play Virginia. We’ve got to come from behind. Played three one-run games. We lose a tough one Saturday late. Then obviously we had the game yesterday and then today just got away from us.
So, yeah, it’s been quite the journey. And I’m confident, with the players we’ve got coming back and the new players we’ve got coming in, that we’ll have an opportunity to come back out next year.
Obviously, when you’re a competitor. But one game is not going to define the success we had in the season. That’s the bottom line.”
Q. We asked the players just about the foundation that they maybe have set for next year and how this sets up for you guys. What would you say about that?
COACH O’SULLIVAN: “Yeah, anytime you come out to a World Series and have the run we had the foundation is set. I kind of struggle with the program was in a tough spot or whatever. It’s very hard to do this every year. So we go on the run for four years, from ’15 through ’18, and then obviously ’19 was a different year because we were younger.
And then in ’20, that was taken away from us because of COVID. And we’re 16-1. And then last year it really started to pick up speed again.
So it was really ’19 was the year we weren’t as good as we wanted to be. Because ’20 we were but the season was shortened.
Last year we hosted a Regional when we were 6-12 in the league and we get going again. And this year is obviously a different year.
But these guys have certainly got us back to where we need to be. And quite honestly, the expectations are to get to Omaha and play for a national championship.
I personally love that challenge. And our players do too. That’s just the culture that we have.”
Q. Just your thoughts on the fans that came out here and the way that the fans have kind of embraced not only these guys but the whole team this year?
COACH O’SULLIVAN: “You’re talking about Florida fans? Oh yeah, it was great. It was great. I’ll never forget yesterday after the game, when they started playing Tom Petty. It was really cool. I actually came out and took a video of it. But to be part of that was awesome.
I mean, it’s not easy. I mean, the unknown if you’re going to get here and all of a sudden you’ve got to make plans at the last second, flights and hotels. And so I do appreciate all the fans that came out. It’s not only time-consuming but it costs a lot of money to come out here, too.
But we certainly appreciate all the fans that came out and supported us back at home as well.”