Kevin O'Sullivan heaps praise on Liam Peterson: 'He's certainly talented enough'

In a season where Florida hasn’t had consistent pitching for any mentionable length of time, the Gators were getting a quality start from freshman Liam Peterson in a pivotal game against Kentucky on Saturday.

Peterson cruised through the first five innings with only a few brief two-out scares. Coach Kevin O’Sullivan was letting him go to work without too much input.

“Not a whole lot. We don’t really talk to the pitchers a whole lot during the game other than making some adjustments if we need to,” O’Sullivan said on the SEC Network broadcast of the game. “But he’s been commanding pretty much all of his pitches. He’s been pitching up and down in the zone. He’s been throwing some right-on-right change-ups.”

Through five innings Liam Peterson had surrendered five hits but only one earned run. He had four strikeouts, while walking two.

The lone hiccup came in the top of the fifth inning, when Kentucky plated its first run in unlikely fashion. After Peterson hit a batter with a pitch, Kentucky’s Emilien Pitre hit a single to put runners at the corners with two outs.

Catcher Devin Burkes then plated a run with a single to the pitcher off Liam Peterson.

“It’s unfortunate, I thought he threw a good pitch to Burks there and he got a swinging bunt down the third-base line,” O’Sullivan said. “But he’s been throwing the ball good. I think there’s only two freshman starters in our league on the weekend. I think Alabama has one and obviously Liam is the other. So we’re asking him a lot but he’s certainly talented enough to do it.”

Florida desperately needs wins to reach the NCAA Tournament safely. The Gators haven’t missed the NCAA Tournament since 2007, so there’s a pretty lengthy streak on the line.

Friday’s opener against the Wildcats proved to be a heart-breaker. Florida blew an 8-6 lead with two outs and nobody on in the ninth inning, then fell in extra innings after knotting the game at 9-9 in the bottom of the ninth.

Still, O’Sullivan is encouraged by how his team is playing right now.

“We’ve been swinging the bat good,” O’Sullivan said. “We’ve been putting some good swings on the ball. Unfortunately yesterday we came from behind three different times late in the game. We fought till the end there, we just obviously weren’t good enough on the mound.”