Kevin O'Sullivan jokes about LSU's Tre Morgan moving onto MLB

LSU had a season-saving play from Tre’ Morgan in the College World Series semifinals. Florida coach Kevin O’Sullivan had enough, in a joking way.

The Gators take on the Tigers in a three-game series for the national championship. But Morgan made a play that catapulted the Tigers into a walk-off win in extras.

That’s something O’Sullivan doesn’t want to see against his team.

“Yeah, I think I’ve seen enough of Tre’. I’m ready for Tre’ to move on to the next level,” O’Sullivan said with a laugh. “When they move into the outfield, I was always like this guy is probably by far the best defensive first baseman in our league. That just shows the versatility that he has. That was an incredible play last night.”

After a suicide squeeze attempt from Wake Forest, Morgan charged from first base and tossed the ball to home plate to get the runner out. It kept the game scoreless in the eighth inning.

O’Sullivan acknowledged it was quite the play, but something Florida also practices for certain situations.

“It’s a play we work on as well,” O’Sullivan said. “But it’s a gamble. Because if they don’t bunt, you leave first base unoccupied and the guy at first can steal. If he doesn’t bunt then you put your first baseman in a really tough position.

“But they gambled. They executed perfectly. He’s competitive at the plate. He hates to strikeout. I know that. He’s up there to swing the bat. He’s an emotional player. And I think the other players feed off of it.”

Morgan is part of a stacked roster for LSU. O’Sullivan said Florida has to be ready for him in all situations.

But he’s excited he only gets two, maybe three more games against the talented infielder.

“He’s a really good baseball player,” O’Sullivan said. “Really good baseball player. Like I said, he’s got a couple more games in him and then moving on to the next level. They’ll have to get a new first baseman next year and that’s their problem, not mine. (Laughter).”

This season, Morgan has a .314 batting average, nine home runs, 50 RBI, 80 hits,14 doubles, drew 34 walks, has a .422 on-base percentage and a .506 slugging percentage.

Safe to say, O’Sullivan has to worry about Morgan from his pitcher’s perspective too.

The College World Series finals get underway Saturday with first pitch scheduled for 7 p.m. ET.