Tuesday night was another midweek letdown for the Florida Gators, who lost to the Jacksonville Dolphins, 7-5, dropping the two-game season series to their in-state foes in the process. Combined with the loss to the Bethune-Cookman Wildcats last Tuesday, things have not gone well in between the weekends of late.
Cooper Walls, who lost his Sunday rotation spot earlier this season after a string of ineffective outings, got the start and looked great through his first two innings. However, a rough third inning got the Dolphins back in the game and their starter found his groove, keeping the Gators at arm's length as they outscored the home team through the remainder of the game.
After Florida's 14th loss of the season and third in midweek play, Kevin O'Sullivan spoke with the media about his team's performance. Here is an abridged look at what he had to say.
"It was the same thing that kind of got him out of the rotation at the beginning. We were planning on him only going three innings anyway, but obviously, the top of the third got them back into the ball game — so credit JU."
"Our personnel is our personnel. That's the issue at this level. There are no trades; there's no calling up people from AAA. Our players are who we have and we've got to just, bottom line, make them better and try to put them in positions to be successful. And obviously, Blake's been seeing the ball really well and Karson got a couple of hits tonight."
"To be honest with you, I thought that we would have better at-bats. He's throwing a fastball and a cutter. Pretty reminiscent of Saturday: we scored three in the first and we didn't score again until the 8th. It was those innings that we didn't score... the pitching was good enough for us to win tonight.
"Obviously, we made a couple more errors. We spent some time on Monday again, going over some defence stuff again. It's just when you make those mistakes, they come back to hurt you. And it's not from a lack of effort. It's not from a lack of practice. We're working on the things that we know we need to improve on. It's just a matter of executing, you know, in key spots in the game. And when a game comes calling, you gotta be able to perform.
"We had a really good head coaches meeting today and Mouse spoke. There's an expectation here at Florida in every sport and to put yourself in position to play for championships. It was a really good head coaches meeting, and I pulled a lot away from it. And I explained it to our players today: there are expectations here.
"The lack of energy at times is bothersome. Tonight was a great opportunity for us to put ourselves back in a better position going into the weekend, not to take anything away from JU because they obviously played better than we did tonight.
"But I didn't say a whole lot to the team at the end. I didn't want to say anything to make them feel worse than they probably do already. Probably need to have a day off tomorrow and we'll talk more about this on Thursday to get ready for A&M. But there is a — I'm not going to say a lack of understanding — but not a true understanding of what it's like and what the responsibilities are here.
"We've been Omaha more than anybody in the country over the last however many years that I've been here. We are expected to play for SEC championships. We're expected to be in Omaha. We're expected to be a top-eight national seed. And tonight was a night that we probably should have taken advantage of, honestly. And we'll keep trying to press the right buttons to try to get them going in the right direction.
"If I had all the answers, we wouldn't be sitting here right now, right? But now is not the time to point fingers, not the time to start blaming each other. But there does need to be a sense of urgency, quite honestly. We've got 15 games left; we've got 14 league games left.
"So the sense of urgency needs to come from within the players. You know? The only thing the coaches can do is try to prepare and look at your opponent and see what they do right and prepare for them. But they ultimately are the ones who have to go out and play and pitch.
"We can call certain things — a hit and run here or whatever, or we can call certain pitches in certain spots — but the players win the games. They deserve all the credit when we win, and unfortunately, when we lose, you know, that falls on the coaches, and we got to figure out how to get these guys motivated day in and day out.
"The disappointing part is the way we played this weekend. I thought they'd come out with a little bit more pep in their step, and for a reason, they didn't. I think they would admit that to you, too, if you ask them straightforwardly."
"Barb's out to 90 feet now, which is encouraging. I know Cash is going to get another X-ray on Friday, so we'll know exactly where he's at. And if he's good, then he'll start to hit this weekend — not necessarily in a game, but probably get him ready for Oklahoma."
"I see from an offensive standpoint, I think they got six right-handed hitters, three left-handed hitters. Obviously, their top two hitters are two of the best hitters in the country with Grohovac and Sorrell. They're very offensive.
"Pitching-wise, they go Sdao, and then obviously two right-handers after that — they throw a ton of strikes. But it's no different than the other weekend. But I'm going to look at it as an opportunity for us to get going again. We've shown flashes of being a really good team, but then we've also shown flashes of being inconsistent.
"And I think we deserve the credit when we played well and I think we deserve the criticism when we haven't. It's just that's the nature of athletics or anything in life, you know? When things are not going well there's going to be some criticism. And in this case, I can't argue with that, to be honest with you. But I also believe in this team, that we can get hot with anybody in the country, but saying it and doing it are two different things."
"I think they try to do that all the time. I think Michael does a great job in a bullpen, spends a lot of time talking with the pitchers one-on-one — not just about his time here at Florida, but his time in professional baseball. I think Mikey does the same thing.