Florida is set to have the worst record of any of the eight teams in the 2024 College World Series. With that said, their arrival in Omaha will represent a resilience that the Gators have had to show game in and game out over this last stretch of their season to even give themselves this opportunity.
Kevin O’Sullivan discussed Florida’s fight coming down to the end this year following their 11-10 victory over Clemson on Sunday to sweep the Super Regional and advance to the MCWS. He said that his team might actually be better off right now than others because they’ve become used to playing with an urgency because that’s what they had to do to even make the tournament to begin with.
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“I’ve said this numerous times. We had put ourselves in position to where we needed to get over the .500 mark to qualify for the tournament,” O’Sullivan said postgame. “Honestly, the last month of the year, we’ve been playing, pretty much, playoff baseball. Every game mattered every Tuesday game mattered midweek. Then we had to finish it off at Georgia, win two out of three there.”
Florida sat at 28-26 at the end of the regular season with that series win in Athens that O’Sullivan referenced. They played so-so baseball throughout but won enough to have more wins than losses in the end. Although they lost quickly in Hoover to fall to 28-27, they still managed to make the field of 64.
Since then, though, Florida has played their best. During the Stillwater Regional and Clemson Super Regional, the Gators are 6-1 and have won five straight. That includes four consecutive wins against both hosts to advance past each round.
One could say that Florida just happened to hit their stride at the right time. However, O’Sullivan knows these steps are ones that his team has been prepared to make for a month now.
“Had to go on the road against, like I said yesterday, an outstanding Oklahoma State team. Was a really tough place to play. Then, obviously, this is a tough place to play,” said O’Sullivan.
Again, all the other teams already going to Omaha with Florida have anywhere between 45 to 55 wins. They just may not have the same determination as the Gators, though, after they’ve made the most of their last few weeks of play.
“I think us going through that, those struggles and having every game matter the last two to three weeks of the year, you know, probably helped toughen us up a little bit,” said O’Sullivan.
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