Kevin O'Sullivan believes Florida playing for its life improved mental toughness

Florida Gators head coach Kevin O’Sullivan believes the fact that his team has been playing for its life has actually improved the team’s mental toughness.

It was after O’Sullivan and the Gators were able to avoid being eliminated by NC State in Omaha when he shared his thoughts on Florida’s mental toughness. However, he did emphasize that this change goes back to well before the College World Series.

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“I think the obvious thing is, I’ve said this before, we’ve been playing seems like for our lives like the last month of the season,” Kevin O’Sullivan said. “Going back to South Florida, a mid-week game. We were fighting the SEC record and we were fighting the overall to get over .500.”

Florida played USF back on May 7th. At that point, the Gators were coming off a series loss to Tennessee and had lost five of their last ten games. It had been since March when they last won a series against an SEC team. However, with the win over the Bulls, O’Sullivan saw his team turn a corner.

Since that point, the Gators were able to close out the regular season with a .500 record against SEC opponents, and despite an early exit in Hoover during the SEC Tournament, Florida still made the NCAA Tournament where they’ve been a dominant force, making their way through the NCAA Regional and the Super Regional to go to Omaha.

“So, I think that put us in a pretty tough position,” O’Sullivan said. “And it probably helped our team to get mentally tougher, to be quite honest with you.”

When Florida first made it to the postseason, there was some criticism of the committee for not even having the Gators on the bubble. Instead, they were firmly in the postseason, according to the committee. However, with that improved mental toughness, it looks like the right decision.

Now, Kevin O’Sullivan and Florida are getting ready for their third game in the College World Series. There, the Gators will play SEC rival Kentucky, who took two out of three from Florida in Gainesville earlier this season.

Kevin O’Sullivan talks windy conditions vs. NC State

The weather conditions in Omaha for Florida’s elimination game against NC State saw wind blowing in from the outfield, which as Kevin O’Sullivan explained, affected both hitters and outfielders.

“It’s very difficult to hit the ball out on that side of the field today. Obviously, the wind seems like it’s changed three or four times since BP, but certainly both of those balls were hit really good,” O’Sullivan said.

“We told the outfielders, they’ve gotta make sure when they go out on defense every inning to check the wind and see how it’s blowing.”