The Florida Gators rolled into Lexington, Kentucky with a head full of steam, an axe to grind against their opponent and feeling pretty good.
When Florida landed in Lexington they were a team that hadn’t tasted defeat in 27 days and were facing an opponent that had taken three straight series against them. That should have been motivation enough, but it wasn’t. Florida dropped two consecutive games for the first time in 2016 and for the first time since the team got together in the fall they were dealt a heaping dose of reality.
“I think it’s human nature,” head coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “You win 17, 18 in a row. They’re not listening. Things are going their way. I mean, it’s human nature.”
To steal a line from Jim McElwain, the Gators were getting their bellies rubbed. Winning cures everything, but when you get too high on yourself, baseball has a way of humbling even the best. The Wildcats dealt Florida a dose a humble Kentucky Derby pie but, maybe, it’s what Florida needed.
The ride back from Lexington was quiet. There was a lot of soul searching and when the team got back together Monday it was time to talk it out; a therapy session, or sessions, if you will.
“I think the two losses were probably the best thing that, honestly, has happened to us,” freshman pitcher Brady Singer said Tuesday. “We were kind of cruising and we were getting too comfortable.”
Florida had said the right things all season. The proverbial “No. 1 team”, “target on our back” mantra seemed to fuel them through the early part of the season. At some point during 27 winning days those words lost their meaning. They became defensive, something to explain a close win, a lackluster performance or a lack of effort. The winning streak took Florida out of what made them the No. 1 team in the country and they needed to get back to basics.
“I took a good, long, hard look the last couple days going ‘It’s my fault. I need to get this thing going.’ We’ve got to work on our bunting more. We’ve got to have rules with our BP more and stress the rules of BP,” said O’Sullivan. “We need to be more focused on what we’re doing. We need to pay attention to the scouting report a little bit more. It all falls on me.”
That refocusing began on Tuesday night in Jacksonville. No. 9 Florida State had two games rained out against North Carolina State over the weekend, meaning Mike Martin would throw two weekend starters against Florida. The Gators showed up to the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville with a different focus. In front of the biggest crowd they’ve seen this year Florida did something they didn’t the previous two days; they competed.
“This was a big game for a lot of reasons. First of all, it was Florida-Florida State. You never want to minimize that,” O’Sullivan said. “And I didn’t like the way we played this weekend. Getting beat is one thing, but we needed to talk about some things as a team and make a decision. As a coach, you’re trying to push the right buttons.
“I love the way they battled tonight. It was a very, very impressive game for our team, the way we had to focus because if we don’t play well tonight, you’re thinking ‘boy what button do you press next?’ So I was pleased with how we played.”
Tuesday night, against a top-10 opponent Florida responded after getting punched in the face over the weekend. They showed backbone, grit and a renewed fire that really hadn’t been seen since the second weekend of the season in Coral Gables.
It’s not over. This isn’t a quick fix. Florida still isn’t hitting the ball like they should be. The team batting average has dropped from .306 before the Kentucky series to .291. Florida beat Florida State on the back of a great start from freshman Jackson Kowar and lights up bullpen appearances by Brady Singer and Shaun Anderson. Florida only had five hits but nine strikeouts should be a more concerning stat.
We haven’t seen the best of this Florida Gators team yet — a scary thought when you say that about a team with a 24-3 record. The pitching has been as advertised for the most part, but O’Sullivan is still waiting for all the pieces to fit together and for the blueprint he created to take form.
“I’m smart enough to know that we’re a really good team,” O’Sullivan said. “If we can focus and have some determination like we did [Tuesday], boy we’ll be tough to beat.”