Kevin O'Sullivan commends Florida's bullpen in College World Series run

For a team to go on a run all the way to the men’s College World Series final, as the Florida Gators have, it takes contributions from all over the ball club. Following their 3-2 victory over the TCU Horned Frogs, Florida baseball head coach Kevin O’Sullivan tipped his hat to his bullpen for their stellar play during the postseason.

“I don’t know if you could say not overly stressed. We were in a one-run game,” said O’Sullivan while laughing. “But it takes a collective group to get to this point. Just like Michael (Robertson) hasn’t played a lot, then he makes the great catch in center field. Ty (Evans) has really gotten hot for us down the stretch here. Colby Halter was out of line for some time, and now he’s back in the line-up. So it really does take the collective group.

“We knew our pitching was a work in progress from when the season started, especially the bullpen side of things. But I think that just shows you kind of where we’re at with our bullpen. (Ryan) Slater comes in and gets five outs where the other night he didn’t get the results he wanted, but he’s able to move on. And to have something like (Brandon) Neely at the back end is huge. Kind of like in 17, we had the same situation when we had Michael Burn. So, it takes a collective group, and it’s not easy to get the World Series, number one. But number two, to be in a position to play for the national championship.”

Florida’s defense has come up big, especially in the College World Series double-elimination around. The Gators have been in tight games down the stretch, with all three of their victories in this round coming by one point.

With these types of close games, the pressure was definitely on Florida’s bullpen. And those players collectively stepped when it mattered the most. That has resulted in the Gators securing the first spot in the College World Series finale.

Florida is back in the College World Series Final for the fourth time in program history and the first since 2017. The Gators beat the Horned Frogs 3-2 to become one of the last two programs standing in 2023. Florida (53-15) will play either Wake Forest or LSU for a National Championship beginning Saturday after the Tigers won later in the day, forcing a win-or-go-home deciding game on Thursday. The CWS final format is a best-of-three series. If Florida wins that’s series, they will capture the program’s second National Championship.

On3’s Nick de la Torre contributed to this article