Dooley’s Dozen: 12 things Florida baseball needs to do to get back to CWS

Pat Dooley dishes out his list of a dozen things the Gators have to do to make it to the College World Series.

Kevin O’Sullivan really likes his 2023 Gator baseball team.

Do you know who else likes their teams?

“Every coach in America,” O’Sullivan said. “We’re all undefeated right now.”

On paper, the Gators look loaded this year. Of course, “on paper” has a career record of unfilled potential and broken dreams.

Still, the preseason polls have O’Sullivan’s 16th Florida team ranked anywhere from second in the country to seventh. And pre-season polls are never wrong, he said sarcastically.

Sully is coming off a regional finals loss to Oklahoma and could see a team that was going to go into 2023 with momentum.

“In 2021, the season ended on a bad note,” he said, referring to a two-and-barbecue as a regional host. “But I was proud of the way your young team turned it around last year.”

Now, there is the question of Omaha. Florida has not been since 2018 (“It feels like a decade,” O’Sullivan said).

How do they get back? In this Dooley’s Dozen, we give you the 12 things that need to happen for Florida to make its eighth appearance in the College World Series under O’Sullivan.