Florida baseball's Kevin O'Sullivan talks Bethune-Cookman loss

Florida baseball's rollercoaster season continued on Tuesday night with a 13-7 blowout loss at the hands of the Bethune-Cookman Wildcats at Condron Family Ballpark. The disappointing defeat follows an impressive week that saw the Gators win three out of four against a pair of top-five teams.

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All six pitchers who saw action for the Orange and Blue allowed at least one run, with seven Wildcats crossing the plate in a seventh-inning rally that broke open a tie game. The bats had managed to keep pace with the visitors up to that point, but the late-inning levee had broken and the deficit was too much for Florida to overcome.

Following the game, Kevin O'Sullivan spoke with the media about what they saw that evening. Here is a look at everything he said.

Sully's opening response

"The guys obviously just didn't do what they were expected to do, as it was pretty clear when we started the game that we wanted Jackson to go two innings. Obviously, we couldn't get that and then to kind of keep things close, it didn't get away from us early.

"Went to, you know, went to Billy (Barlow) and Caden (McDonald) to kind of hold it together. And I thought they did a really nice job of doing that. And then we scored three to tie the game at five, and Eli (Blair) got a big out there to end the inning. And then this is the first time all year that I've taken somebody out in a mid-count.

"But we had just had the momentum and the two misses that he had were bad. They were not close. And I felt like going to Cooper at that point, he's got experience. You know, he started their season as our third starter and had a good start against Florida State. And obviously, the last two times out, he hasn't been as sharp as he'd like to be.

"So, yeah, it was a tough game to manage pitching-wise because it's a short week. And, of course, Ricky's not on the card. Josh (Whritenour) is not on the card. (Michael) McNeely's not on the card. Ernie (Lugo-Canchola)'s not on the card. So some of these other guys needed to step up, and unfortunately, we did not.

"And then offensively, I thought we did enough to win the game anytime he scored seven. But a big takeaway from us offensively tonight, I have to look at it a little closely, but I think we had like 19 flyball outs, and pop-ups, and we talked about that, that we really needed to hit the ball on a line tonight and put pressure on our infield. I think they came fielding in like .960 and we just hit a lot of balls in the air.

"So it was an effort on both sides. Yeah, of course, it's disappointing, but this is a crazy game. You know, 48 hours ago, we're excited that we beat Georgia, you know, two out of three.

"And maybe if this was on a Thursday-Friday-Saturday weekend, we would have maybe went to Ricky (Reeth). But coming off the injury, I don't want to put too much on him. We only have one day, you know, to get ready for Auburn. So we just needed some other guys to step up on the mound and they just weren't able to do that tonight."

How important is it to get Ricky back and in the game?

"It's extremely important. I mean, and you'll see moving forward, I hope that you'll see how important he is. And that's what I told him. When you look around the league right now, pretty much everybody's pretty much set on our three starters, and there's a lot of teams in our league that aren't set on their third starter. And you start looking at the stat sheet, and it really comes down to like five or six bullpen arms, you know, that's what people are starting to rely on on the weekends.

"But you need some of these other guys to step up into midweek. So that's kind of where we're at. Guys have kind of separated themselves tonight. Some guys could have pitched a little bit better and maybe pushed themselves into a little bit more of a role on the weekend, but maybe they're just not ready for that just yet.

"But we just got to hold this thing together until we get (Jackson Barberi) back because once we get him back, we'll be at full strength. And, you know, then I feel like our pitching will be right back where it needs to be. But moving forward, I'm excited about the start that we got out of Aiden and Liam; I do believe that Russ is going to bounce back and have a really good start for us this weekend.

"And like games like tonight are hard — like your main four relievers basically, I can't use them tonight. I just can't. I got to save them for you know, save them for Thursday and Friday. That's just the way it is. I mean, not that you're looking ahead, but you know, being a Thursday-Friday-Saturday made things a little bit more difficult.

"And if it was a Friday-Saturday-Sunday series and we'd had two days off for a couple of those guys to get an extra day's rest, it might have been able to handle it a little bit differently, but that was just not the case tonight.

Do you feel like this team would have been a little farther along at this point in the season?

"I don't want to single anybody out, because certainly there are some guys that I'm a little surprised that they're not further along than they should be. And I think Billy (Barlow)'s done a nice job for us. I think Caden's done a nice job for us.

"But some of the younger ones need to figure it out. And I think one of the biggest bullets we have to figure out and spend some time with Cooper Walls. We got to get him back to where he was."

It seems like he starts better in coming out in the pens — is that a thing for pitchers in general?

"Well, I get that question a lot, but if you think about it in the big leagues, every guy that in a pen started their whole life. And when you really simplify things — and Coop and I have had some really good conversations — when it really comes down to, regardless of what your role is, whether it be a starter, middle reliever, or closer, your job is to get outs regardless.

"Now, there's some guys that can handle coming in with people on base and can handle that, and there's some guys that need to start getting clean. You know, so we'll keep working at it, but every year it's the same thing. You know, every year we've been successful, gone to Omaha or whatever, it's always boiled down to five or six arms.

"And you just need some other guys to step up in the midweek."

It just feels like a rollercoaster, although overall, you guys have played well this season

"I mean, you could look at it one of two ways. Jackson Hoyt got his first start tonight, and obviously, he didn't handle it the way he wanted to. He's not the first person I've ever coached as a freshman that didn't handle it. But we're trying to develop some depth on that left-handed side, if we can get one more guy to help us other than Ernie.

"I understand the question, and I think it's valid — that it seems like it's been a little up and down. But we're two games out of first in the league. Our RPI going in tonight was four. We've got the number two strength to schedule. So there's a lot of metrics there that line up that we're in position to where we need to be.

"Now, have we had some bad losses? Yeah, so has everybody else. But I can't let this one affect going into the weekend. This one's over. Obviously, we did not pitch well. We had too many balls in the air. But all of us coaches together need to make sure that they're in the right frame of mind going into Auburn, because we're no different than we were 48 hours ago, beating Georgia at Georgia.

"So, I mean, you know, it's just one of those nights. But like I said, that whole thing would have changed if we were playing for Friday-Saturday-Sunday. Maybe I throw Ricky out there for an inning. And he's got two days rest. Maybe I use Ernie for an inning, and he's got two days rest, but it's just the way the schedule's set up this week — we weren't able to do that.

What's the message to ensure this loss doesn't linger going into a big series?

"I mean, they're disappointed. I mean, I'm meeting with them literally lasted probably about a minute and a half. That's about it. We'll talk about our mistakes. We'll talk about the bunt defense. We'll talk more about Auburn tomorrow.

"I do know this about Aub. They do throw strikes. Their pitchers all throw strikes. So we're going to have to hit if we're going to be successful this weekend. I think they lead the nation at least number of walks per nine. But the good thing is three of our first five series in the league have been on the road.

"So now we're entering the second half of the season, and it's with three of our five series are at home. So hopefully we could take advantage of it. And to answer your question, I've seen it. I've seen everything. I think in 2017, I think it was a game against South Florida towards the end of the year.

"You have to look, but I think we walked more people in that game in the history of Florida baseball. Wow, I mean, it was like 18 walks. I actually had somebody call up to the press box in like the fifth or sixth inning and ask, like, what's the record? And we were like, we were like at 15 walks through like six and like you know, so things can change in a hurry.

"And if you think about our team in '17, we had the three really good starters with (Alex) Faedo, (Brady) Singer and (Jackson) Kowar. We had one left-hander that we relied on, and that was (Nick) Horvath that we'd bring out of center field.

"And we had to close 19 games. We were pretty thin that way. But we've got a little bit more depth, but I can't let this one leak in and into Thursday. We'll have some, you know, it'll be a tough weekend. Every weekend's tough.

"So the main focus tomorrow will be hitting the ball more online. We'll probably have to be active on the base paths because they're not going to give us many free passes. I think they walked four all last weekend against Kentucky.

"And we'll work on some of those fundamentals. Like, I'm anticipating that they're probably going to be lower-scoring games. So you know, we're going to have to clean up that bunt defense a little bit, the standard and drive back and then drive back pick and that type of thing."

The pitching staff has allowed the fewest home runs in the SEC — what do you attribute that to?

"Well, I think we have more guys that can sink the baseball. There's not as much emphasis on pitching up in the strike zone. And we got three really talented pitchers, and all three of them can pitch to both sides of the plate.

"And a lot of times, pitchers feel more comfortable just pitching to one side, but Aiden could go fastballs in on both righties and lefties. And so can Russ, and so could Liam, and it kind of sets up everything else with their secondary pitches.

"So you know, maybe they have something to do with it, but they're all really talented."

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This article originally appeared on Gators Wire: Florida baseball's Kevin O'Sullivan talks Bethune-Cookman loss

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