Kevin O'Sullivan assesses start for Hurston Waldrep, compliments crowd after rain delay

Game 2 of Super Regional action between Florida and South Carolina might have started a couple hours later than anticipated, but the Gators crowd wasn’t going anywhere. Florida coach Kevin O’Sullivan made sure to give the fans credit for sticking around during a weather delay that postponed the originally scheduled 3 p.m. ET start to 5:36 p.m.

After the game got going, Florida jumped out to a quick 2-0 following a pair of runs in the second inning. O’Sullivan joined the broadcast on ESPNews shortly after that, where he opened by commending the crowd waiting it out through not only today’s weather delay, but yesterday’s as well.

“The crowd last night, tonight and really all year long has been outstanding,” he said. “We’ve got the brand new stadium. Two rain delays the first two games here and they stuck around. The crowd’s awesome.”

Kevin O’Sullivan also had some high praise of Florida pitcher Hurtson Waldrep, who didn’t skip a beat in his start after the long delay. Waldrep struck out three batters through the first two innings and has so far allowed only one hit.

The coach revealed his message to the pitcher before the game got going, also opening up on what the Gators saw in Game 1 affected their game plan.

“To get all of his pitches going, to be honest with you,” O’Sullivan said. “We learned last night that they were jumping fastballs and throughout the game we could kind of switch back and forth, but I thought it was important to establish the secondary pitches early.”

So far this season, Waldrep has made 17 starts and has an 8-3 record. He leads the team with 129 strikeouts across 85.1 innings pitched and will hope to continue his stellar play up as Game 2 goes on.

Florida used a double from Colby Halter in the second inning to drive in its lone two runs of the game so far. The Gators so far have three hits and are still clinging to a 2-0 lead in the top of the fourth. Luke Keyman also got on base with a single in the second inning and was one of the two runs Halter brought in.

After winning Game 1 on Friday by a score of 5-4, Florida can punch its ticket to the College World Series with a win on Saturday. However, the Gamecocks will do everything in their power to stave off elimination and force a Game 3 on Sunday.