Florida Baseball: Why Kevin O’Sullivan had to take Brandon Neely out of the game
OMAHA, Neb. — Florida baseball manager Kevin O’Sullivan is a veteran. Even the most experienced coaches can make a mistake or let something slip in the heat of the moment. With his closer Brandon Neely on the mound in a tight game, he went to the mound.
It was just one too many times.
In regards to mound visits, the NCAA Rulebook dictates as follows.
Rule 9-4.
a. A coach is allowed to be involved in a maximum of 3 free trips of the 6 defensive charged conferences, plus one extra free trip in the event of an extra inning game.
1) A free trip is one in which the coach does not remove the pitcher.
Brandon Neely was inserted into the game in the seventh inning. He retired the only batter he faced and then the first two in the bottom of the eighth. An error and a single brought BT Riopelle to the mound to talk to his pitcher. Neely walked the next batter and O’Sullivan went out to try and calm his pitcher down in a huge situation. It was, however, the seventh mound visit of the game. Neely now had to come out.
“We keep it in the dugout. And I had a brief conversation with the umpire before the inning. It was totally my mistake. And no one feels more terrible about it than I do,” O’Sullivan explained after the game. “I told the team, I apologized to them at the end of the game. They just said they had my back.”
Brandon Neely and BT Riopelle react
“What the umpire explained to me was we ran out of visits and Sully was unaware,” Gators closer Brandon Neely said. “It happens to the best of us. it was a big situation and Sully came out to talk to me, calm me down in a big situation with a two-run lead. Unfortunately, I had to come out of the game.”
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The Gators’ 24-year-old backstop has been an extension of the coaching staff on the field. Riopelle explained the situation and also the team’s confidence in turning to Fisher.
“I knew I had one more visit for me,” Riopelle said. “I did not check with the umpire to see how many Sully had left. He came out and it’s a tough situation. It’s a pressure situation and you want to talk to your guy. Situations happen like that and you make mistakes. We took a visit and it was one more and ultimately if you don’t have any more you have to take him out of the game. Cade picked him up and he picked us up. There were many times this year when we had to pick each other up, staff included.”
“It was perfect, it was a lefty-lefty matchup. At that point, it was just whatever. He’s mad. Neely is upset because he wanted to come in at the end of the game and close it for us. I feel for him but Kop
Next up for the Florida baseball team
The Florida baseball team is 2-0 in Omaha and needs to win just one more game to advance to the College World Series Final. Florida will have Monday and Tuesday off. The Gators will play the winner of TCU and Oral Robert’s next matchup, which will be played on Tuesday night. Florida would need to lose two more times to be eliminated from the CWS.
