Kevin O'Sullivan on Florida reaching Omaha: 'We never lost faith'

Coming into the NCAA Tournament, there was a lot of debate about where the Florida Gators stood in the field. However, as head coach Kevin O’Sullivan recently explained, the Gators themselves never lost faith in their ability to make it to Omaha.

In the end, Florida was right not to lose faith, as with the Gators’ win over the Clemson Tigers in the Super Regional Florida is on its way to Omaha for the College World Series.

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“The players will tell you, we never lost faith in our team,” Kevin O’Sullivan said. “I just think we just weren’t very consistent, but there was a reason for it and our pitching was just really young. They just kind of hung in there and kept getting better and better, but at some point, when you do get in the tournament, everybody starts with a clean slate.”

Florida was one of the SEC teams to make the NCAA Tournament despite just having a 13-17 conference record this season. Despite that, Florida was not considered a bubble team going into the NCAA Tournament, according to Matt Hogue. Since then, the Gators have proven why on their way to Omaha.

Pitching has been a key place of growth for Florida, as O’Sullivan pointed out. That notably goes for pitchers like freshman Luke McNellie, who has struggled at times this season but has only allowed one run in his last four appearances. Another freshman, Frank Menendez, has been nearly as good, only allowing one earned run in his last three outings.

“I think that’s the message,” O’Sullivan said. “Get in and everybody’s got the same record. So, just stay the course and keep trying to get better and better, and we’ve had two or three freshmen arms that have really improved throughout the year, which has obviously helped us get to this point.”

Kevin O’Sullivan credits Florida’s ‘resiliency’ to beat Clemson in wild 13-inning game

To advance to Omaha, Florida needed to beat Clemson in a wild 13-inning game. That was a win Florida was able to muster thanks to its resiliency, according to Kevin O’Sullivan.

“It was just back-and-forth,” O’Sullivan said. “We really had a tough decision to make with bringing Neely back in. We really tried to get through the eighth inning there and just use him for the ninth. But we showed a tremendous amount of resiliency against an outstanding Clemson team. I’m just awfully proud of our players.”