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Message Received. Gators Turn O'Sullivan's Criticism into Win Over Florida State

After heavily criticizing his team's energy during last weekend's series at Alabama, Kevin O'Sullivan gave his team a challenge ahead of Tuesday's win over FSU.
Cam Parker|
The Florida Gators, seen here earlier this season against Kennesaw State, had a big bounce-back win over Florida State on Tuesday.
The Florida Gators, seen here earlier this season against Kennesaw State, had a big bounce-back win over Florida State on Tuesday. | Kyle Lander / Florida Gators on SI

JACKSONVILLE-- After a disappointing series sweep to Alabama, which saw the Florida Gators get no-hit on Friday before blowing a 4-0 lead to fall 14-7 on Sunday, head coach Kevin O'Sullivan heavily criticized his team's energy and effort, leading to what he said was one of the most difficult plane rides of his career.

Taking time to collect his thoughts and write down notes of what he wanted to improve, O'Sullivan led a team meeting on Tuesday, where he addressed the team's body language, complaining about umpires, walk issues by reliable relievers and overall energy.

"It was a heart-to-heart," he told Florida Gators on SI. "I'll be honest with you, it wasn't an easy one."

Message received.

The Gators on Tuesday looked like a completely different team in a 5-0 win over rival Florida State. Pitchers Russell Sandefer, Luke McNeillie and Jackson Barberi combined for 16 strikeouts, with all three having one inning each where they struck out the side. Florida's infield defense, short-handed as Brendan Lawson continues to recover from an injury, had some issues, but Kolt Myer's hustle play in left field was a big highlight.

The bats, cold for the early part of the game while battling extreme wind, came alive late with a four-run seventh inning with a bases-loaded walk and singles from Ethan Surowiec and Blake Cyr.

The win was acceptable. The response to O'Sullivan's was celebrated.

"We got one of the best programs in the country for two decades now, and it was a heart-to-heart, and I couldn't be more proud of the way they responded," O'Sullivan said.

Sandefer and McNeillie, specifically, needed Tuesday's performance to go their way.

Just days after O'Sullivan said Sandefer was making a push to be the Sunday starter, the UCF transfer had his worst outing of the season in Sunday's game against the Crimson Tide, giving up three earned runs and two walks in just 1/3 inning of work. He bounced back with four strikeouts, no walks and one hit in three innings as Tuesday's starter.

McNeillie, after giving up three earned runs, two hits and two walks in one inning on Sunday, bounced back with six strikeouts against just two hits in three innings of work on Tuesday. Limited by an injury throughout his junior campaign, O'Sullivan secretly gave McNeillie his own personal challenge against the Seminoles.

"I was going to take out McNeillie and bring in Barberi, but I got out there about halfway and said, 'To hell with this. I'm leaving him in there,'" O'Sullivan said, adding that he did not tell McNeillie about his decision. "... I was thinking to myself, in the long run, he needs to get through this thing now... He doesn't need to rely on somebody else to get the third out of the inning."

The bats had their own challenge: "You can't play and umpire at the same time."

After going a combined 13-for-94 against Alabama, including being no-hit for the first time since 1963, Florida simply needed better at-bats. In O'Sullivan's eyes, this included less complaining about calls from the umpires and more doing what is needed to score runs.

Message received.

Five hits won't break any records, but drawing eight walks to go with the five hits, while adding strong base-running and successful bunts to move runners over, led to one of Florida's more efficient offensive outings this season.

"They took it in a positive way," O'Sullivan said of his criticism and message. "I was just brutally honest with them, and that's not going to be us."

Now, the new challenge for the roster will be to continue to bring the energy and carry over Tuesday's performance into a weekend road series at Arkansas. Previously, O'Sullivan discussed the difficulties of playing on the road in the SEC. On Tuesday, he added that he couldn't explain Florida's road struggles early in SEC play, especially with a non-conference road series at Miami every other season.

"Every weekend's a battle. That's why every mistake that you make gets magnified on the weekends," O'Sullivan said. "If you couple that with the bad body language and doubt or whatever it might be, that just makes things almost impossible to win on the road."

While Florida looks to carry over Tuesday's momentum into the rest of the season, another goal for O'Sullivan is to build "championship-type players." Pointing to the 2017 national championship team, which started SEC play by getting swept on the road by Auburn, O'Sullivan said that group had great mental toughness, highlighted by 19 one-run wins.

Nine years later, and with a positive result on Tuesday, O'Sullivan is looking to see a similar response the rest of the way.

"Hopefully they're learning, but we have a way of playing the game, and we're gonna do it the right way," O'Sullivan said. "Tonight was a really good step in the right direction."

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Cam Parker
CAM PARKER

Cam Parker is a reporter covering the Florida Gators, Auburn Tigers and Clemson Tigers with a degree in journalism from the University of Florida. He also covers and broadcasts Alachua County high school sports with The Prep Zone and Mainstreet Daily News. When he isn't writing, he enjoys listening to '70s music such as The Band or Lynyrd Skynyrd, binge-watching shows and playing with his cat, Chester, and dog, Rufus.

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