Florida just wasted a silver-platter path to Super Regionals and beyond

Heading into Sunday afternoon, everything was set up for Florida on a silver platter to not only advance out of Regionals, but to also waltz straight to Omaha. The Gators had their pitching staff in good shape, the bats were hot, and it looked like all the early-season woes would become a footnote in history.

Fast forward a little over 24 hours, and Florida’s season is done after a collapse by its pitching staff, combined with a couple of questionable decisions by Kevin O’Sullivan, along with Florida hitters who just couldn’t solve Troy on Monday night.

Florida loses to Troy and has its season end

O’Sullivan opted to start Cooper Walls, who began the year as the Sunday starter but quickly lost that job and was relegated to jumping back and forth between starting in the midweek and coming out of the bullpen.

It didn’t go well for Walls as he was immediately tagged for two runs in the first inning and pulled for Caden McDonald in the second.

But McDonald settled things down and gave Florida more than a fair shot to take control of the game. And while the Gators had some decent swings here and there, it was clear that they couldn’t catch up to the fastball with any consistency.

Mind you, it was a fastball from Troy that was hovering around 90 MPH, not some 97 MPH flamethrower or frankly someone throwing random junk Florida couldn’t figure out. And the problem for Florida is that even when it did something right, it combined it with something wrong. Kyle Jones hit a RBI single to pull things to 2-1, but got thrown out at second base in the process.

Then came the decision from O’Sullivan in the sixth inning that ultimately sent the game south. McDonald was cruising and was nearing 50 pitches for his outing. Given he had also thrown 26 pitches against Rider on Friday, one could argue O’Sullivan was trying to protect his arm.

So out came Russell Sandefer, who was the starter against Rider. He promptly walked three straight batters.

And in the decision that ultimately swung the game, O’Sullivan went with Ernesto Lugo-Canchola out of the bullpen with bases loaded and no outs. This was after Lugo-Canchola gave up two runs last night against Troy. Five runs later, three of which were charged to Sandefer, it was 7-1, and that was that.

Wasted opportunity for Florida

It’s the first time in program history that Florida started a Regional 2-0 and didn’t make it out to Super Regionals. And what ultimately ended Florida’s season was the inability of anyone on Florida’s staff not named McDonald or Jackson Barberi to get through their outing clean this weekend.

Liam Peterson was shelled on Sunday.

Walls and Lugo-Canchola were hand-picked from the transfer portal ahead of this season and were shelled on Monday night.

The reality is that O’Sullivan pushed all the wrong buttons on Monday. He went to Sandefer hoping to catch lightning in a bottle, and it didn’t work. He went to Lugo-Canchola even after he got tagged last night, while Joshua Whritenour was "saved" for later. In addition, guys like Ricky Reeth and Luke McNeillie were sitting right there after not pitching on Sunday.

And again, whatever approach Florida’s hitters had on Monday was also an issue, as they couldn’t catch up to a 90 MPH fastball. For good measure, all the defensive woes that plagued Florida to start the season also came flooding back.

Florida ends its season 41-21.

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