Everything Kevin O’Sullivan said after Game 2 vs. Missouri

The Florida Gators baseball team earned another series victory on Saturday afternoon in Gainesville with an 11-7 come from behind victory over Missouri.

There were a number of topics to discuss including a 4-0 first inning deficit, Tyler Shelnut’s performance in the outfield, the performances on the mound and more.

Here’s everything Florida head coach Kevin O’Sullivan said following the Florida victory.

O’Sullivan on the Florida offense answering Missouri runs:

“Yeah, Wyatt (Langford) had a good day with three hits. Of course, Tyler (Shelnut) had another good day at the plate. Mikey Robertson’s been swinging the bat good, so we showed a lot of resilience today. We fell behind four runs, got punched in the face there. They were certainly the aggressor, but we battled back and had a couple big innings offensively. So it wasn’t real pretty, but at the end of the day, we figured out a way to come back, and it says a lot about our team. We’ve done that quite a bit this year.”

O’Sullivan on how Tyler Shelnut has performed, looking to solidify the right field position:

“Well, I mean we’ve still got other options. We’re not going to turn our back on other players, but he’s certainly swinging the bat good right now.”

O’Sullivan on whether Jac Caglianone will start game three:

“I don’t know yet. I’m gonna talk to the staff, and we have a couple different options, so we’ll figure it out.”

O’Sullivan on how the defense is continuing to play at a high level:

“Yeah, I mean it all starts with BT (Riopelle) behind the plate and up the middle. Cade’s (Kurland) really improved defensively at second. Of course, Josh (Rivera) is one of if not the best shortstop in the country in all phases. And obviously, Michael (Robertson) made a heck of a catch there in the ninth, so it all starts up the middle. Obviously, Colby (Halter) does a great job at third, and Cags, he picked that ball early in the ballgame to finish an inning. So yeah, I mean defensively, we’ve been good.”

O’Sullivan on the offense not hitting home runs but getting timely hits:

“We did. We did, and we got a lot of looks. I don’t know how many pitchers they used. I think they used about eight pitchers or so, so it was a lot of different looks. So sometimes that’s not easy when you’ve seen a different arm every time you come to the plate.”

O’Sullivan on Hurston Waldrep’s performance:

“Well, I mean there’s a lot of stuff behind the scenes. I mean we got notice this week that there’s some discrepancy in his delivery where he’s stepping forward. I mean we’re 11 weeks in, and we’re now getting word of it. And we didn’t have enough time to make some adjustments with that. I mean if there’s something with his delivery that’s illegal, I wish we’d have found out before the 11th week of the season to be honest with you. We didn’t have enough time to make adjustments this week. If you watched him, he went through the full delivery to try to make some adjustments, different feel comfortable, obviously, and that’s on me. I’ve got to get some more clarification of what we need to do to help him. But, you know, it’s just unfortunate that we’re getting this information 11 weeks in. I mean we’re on TV all the time, so it’s not like they haven’t seen Hurston pitch before. So it’s my responsibility to get with some of these people and figure out what we need to do exactly.”

O’Sullivan on whether that notice came from the SEC:

“No.”

O’Sullivan on the level of frustration of such a late notice:

“Yeah, it’s frustrating; we’re 11 weeks in. I mean if there’s something with his delivery that we need to clean up then we could’ve done it after week one, week two. So that’s I’m all I’m gonna say about it.”

O’Sullivan on whether the notice was why Waldrep went overhead in his pitching motion:

“Yeah.”

O’Sullivan on Ryan Slater’s performance on the mound:

“I thought Ryan was really good, came in, tough spot. He threw a bunch of sliders, and I think they were sitting on sliders, and he stole some outs with his fastball. I felt the slider that he threw with the two-run homer was a good pitch. It just got up in the wind. And then the ball just kind of falls in right field; it just hit inside the line. And of course, Tyler (Shelnut) probably, he was upset with himself for diving for the ball, but that’s a mistake that you would expect somebody who hasn’t played a whole lot of outfield, and you know, he’ll learn from it.”

O’Sullivan on working with Shelnut playing in the outfield:

“Yeah, it’s been a work in progress. We’ve talked about it since the beginning of the year to be honest with you. And it all started; we really started to ramp up some more when Wyatt (Langford) was out for a couple weeks, so we started looking at some different options.”

O’Sullivan on how Josh Rivera has been swinging the bat recently:

“Well, I don’t know about that. He’s been swinging the bat really well. I think we just had one off weekend, and that was last weekend against South Carolina. That’s a collective group, but I think he’s been swinging the bat great all year long.”