Kevin O'Sullivan makes a shift to better Gators' baseball program

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — In a fall scrimmage against Georgia prior to the 2021 season, Kevin O’Sullivan’s Gators took the field in Jacksonville against the Georgia Bulldogs. His team was, as usual, comprised of some of the best high school recruits that the MLB hadn’t stolen away in the draft. They were talented but young. Georgia, on the other hand, was old. They had experience and it opened O’Sullivan’s eyes to a changing landscape.

The transfer portal has taken college football and basketball by storm, but it was slower to integrate into baseball. College baseball is unique. The No. 1 recruiting class in the country is typically picked apart by the MLB Draft. With only 11.7 scholarships to hand out, coaches have to get creative when building their rosters. The free year of eligibility given due to the COVID season only furthered that mess for a sport that already had a roster crunch.

O’Sullivan resisted change. There was a formula that had won five SEC regular season titles, two SEC Tournaments, hosted eight NCAA Regionals, and seven Super Regionals, not to mention a National Championship in 2017. Why change that?

It’s clear that college baseball is changing. That became apparent when the Gators started SEC play in 2022 with a 6-12 record, the worst under O’Sullivan. The young club grew up and finished the season 9-3 down the stretch but didn’t make it out of the Gainesville Regional.

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Gators roster shows a philosophical change

O’Sullivan has built one of the best college baseball programs in the country. That was at risk of being lost without change.

At some point in the offseason, O’Sullivan decided he and his staff, led by assistant coach Chuck Jeroloman, would recruit the transfer portal with the same intensity that he recruits the high school ranks. The success with B.T. Riopelle certainly showed that the portal could be used as an asset.

So they went to work.

The gem of the transfer portal is right-hander Hurston Waldrep. The Southern Miss transfer is D1Baseball.com’s 14th-ranked college prospect. In 2022 he went 6-2 with a 3.20 ERA for the Hattiesburg Regional champion Golden Eagles. He struck out 140 batters in 90 innings pitched. He’ll likely start the season pitching on Saturday for the Gators.

The Gators added infielder Dale Thomas (Coastal Carolina), infielder Tyler Shelnut (Santa Fe), outfielder Richie Schiekofer (Rutgers), and two-way player Clete Hartzog (Wallace Dothan) in the offseason, to bolster the nation’s No. 2 recruiting class.

Thomas and Shelnut will have opportunities to start. Thomas, in particular, brings a veteran presence and experience to a roster, that as usual, is loaded with young talent.

Fresh off 2022 All-Sun Belt Second Team honors, Thomas set career highs last season in games started (59), games played (59), hits (62), batting average (.284), slugging (.688), home runs (13), triples (two), doubles (15), runs (49), RBI (49) and stolen bases (five). He slashed .281/.376/.481 across his Coastal Carolina career. That includes 18 homers, three triples, 19 doubles, 84 runs, 75 RBI, and eight steals while posting a .951 fielding percentage.

The Gators’ roster will have a solid mix of talented youth and, thanks to a new approach to the transfer portal, valuable experience to boot.

The season kicks off on February 17 when the Gators host Charleston Southern at Condron Family Ballpark.