Florida baseball: Gators' pitching staff will be all hands on deck

OMAHA, Neb. — Kevin O’Sullivan has taken the Florida baseball team to Omaha eight times. Here, the margin for error in the double-elimination format at the College World Series is minuscule.

While coming from the loser’s bracket isn’t necessarily a death sentence, it certainly complicates your chances of winning a national title. In fact, 37 of the last 41 teams that won the last game here also won their opening game in Omaha.

“The whole key is you have to do everything you possibly can to win game one. Then if you are fortunate enough to win game one, you have to do everything you possibly can to win game two,” Kevin O’Sullivan said on Thursday afternoon. “Right now the plan is to do whatever we can to win tomorrow, and Sproat will obviously start.”

Brandon Sproat turned down third-round money after being drafted 90th overall by the New York Mets. The slotted signing bonus for that pick was $691,300, a number Sproat could have gotten more than as well. This year he’s led the Gators on Friday nights. O’Sullivan took a slight risk in Regional saving Sproat for game two on Saturday but that decision was more based on Jac Caglianone not throwing a lot in Hoover and Sproat being able to stay on his normal rest was a factor.

One thing to keep an eye on this week will be how Sproat handles pitching on the road. This season the ace has been shaky when pitching away from Condron Ballpark. In five road starts, Sproat is 1-2 with a 6.67 ERA. He’s thrown just 27 innings in those outings, allowed 30 hits, 21 runs — 20 earned. His one neutral site game — in Hoover — was a fine tuneup for the NCAA Tournament. Sproat lasted

All hands on deck for the Florida Baseball pitching staff

In Kevin O’Sullivan’s dream scenario, Brandon Sproat fires an 80-pitch complete game and the Gators win while the pitching staff and bullpen remain rested. That may not be the case, so he delved into how he’ll handle the rest of the rotation.

“We’ll start Sproat. Then obviously we have (Brandon) Neely that we have stretched out in the SEC tournament, so he won’t be a one-inning guy. We’ll go to him when we need to,” O’Sullivan said. “Cade Fisher threw the big game against Texas Tech in the night game, so he is available. Everybody is available. What happens is your third starter sometimes gets put in a different role. With Cags because he didn’t throw last weekend, obviously. But if you are fortunate enough to win the first one and you have an opportunity to win the second one, then somebody has to beat you twice.”

Winning that second game is pivotal. 27 of the last 32 have started the tournament off 2-0. The Gators will turn to Hurston Waldrep, who has been phenomenal in the NCAA Tournament. Waldrep will likely be the only pitcher off-limits for the Friday opener. Even Jac Caglianone could be asked to come out of the bullpen — something he hasn’t done this season.

“That third starter, sometimes his role changes a little bit. From a coaching standpoint, makes you a little nervous. You don’t want to put your players in a position that they might not be used to, but at the same time, you have to — you have to win with your best, and sometimes you have to roll the dice and take some chances.

That dice roll worked out well for the Gators in 2017. During the National Champion run, Florida started 2-0. The Gators sent Jackson Kowar to the mound against TCU to get its third win and into the CWS Final. he faltered, allowing four runs over five innings of work. He came back later that week and pitched 1.2 innings against LSU in the final game of the season.

The Gators have set defined roles for their pitching staff this season. It’s been one of the reasons the team has made this run to the College World Series. In a perfect world, those roles will work and they’ll maintain that in Omaha. If not, O’Sullivan knows he needs to adapt because winning the final game is astronomically easier if you win the first two.