Kevin O’Sullivan has one huge decision before Florida throws a pitch in Regionals

Now that Florida knows it has the ability to host both Regionals and Super Regionals, should they advance, Kevin O’Sullivan has a massive decision on his hands ahead of Florida’s opening game against Rider. In a normal series, O’Sullivan would start Aidan King in game one, Liam Peterson in game two, and Russell Sandefer in game three.

But given the wonky nature of the bracket at Regionals, O’Sullivan has to make the classic decision of whether or not to switch up his order ahead of Friday.

Kevin O’Sullivan has to decide whether to start Aidan King on Friday

Beyond getting to host, the major advantage Florida has by grabbing a top-16 seed is that it gets to open with a team that is only in the tournament because it won its mid-major conference. In Florida’s case, it will get to take on Rider, who did win the regular season and tournament title in the MAAC, but also has an RPI of 119 in large part because their 33-18 record was built on the 267th strength of schedule in the country. Rider didn’t play a single Quad One team this season and only played a Quad Two team twice, losing both times.

This leaves O’Sullivan with the decision to either throw King against Rider or to roll the dice and throw Sandefer in a bid to save King for a potential matchup with Miami on Saturday, which could potentially leave Liam Peterson available for a wrap-up game on Sunday.

The risk with a plan like this is that Sandefer hasn’t shown he can go deep into games with any consistency. Only twice this season has he made it past six innings, and he has only made it at least five innings in two of his past seven starts. 

If Sandefer goes out there and struggles to make it deep, it puts Florida’s bullpen behind the eight ball, even if the Gators still manage to win.

The safe plan is to let King mow through Rider, as he might be able to pitch a complete game if his stuff is on. That would still give the Gators Peterson to take on the Troy vs. Miami winner, and if Florida wins that, they wouldn’t have to burn any extra arms in the Sunday loser’s bracket game and could probably piece Sandefer, Jackson Barberi, Caden McDonald, and Joshua Whritenour together for nine innings.

There is precedent for O’Sullivan opting for the more aggressive approach. In 2023’s tournament run, he opted to lead with Jac Caglianone even though he was Florida’s Sunday starter. 

For our money, we would throw Sandefer against Rider, and if they can’t beat Rider with him on the mound, then they have far deeper problems.

Regionals are set to get underway on Friday at 1 PM.

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