The frustration was evident in Kevin O’Sullivan’s voice after Florida baseball finished its opening weekend of the 2022 season with a losing record.
“I certainly didn’t expect that out of some of our older hitters,” said the Florida baseball coach.
He was referring to a scenario that looked a lot like Florida at its worst last season when the approach at the plate was less than ideal.
On Sunday, it was the Gators striking out 11 times making it 31 for the weekend. As a result, they only scored in one inning and lost the rubber game to the Liberty Flames, 5-3.
After the game, UF did not make players available because they were having a team meeting. Presumably, the penchant for striking out was a part of that meeting.
“The offense needs to take pressure off the younger arms,” O’Sullivan said. “We had a good two-strike approach in the preseason. Maybe the game sped up on them.”
It was the second straight season that Florida has lost the opening weekend series. Last year, it was against Miami. This time, it was a Liberty team that was throwing relievers out there with 97 mph fastballs.
The Flames were NCAA Regional finalists a year ago and you could see why. They were almost flawless in the field all weekend and worked Florida’s pitchers on two-strike counts at the plate.
Certainly, that was the case on Sunday when freshman Pierce Coppola sailed into the fifth inning with a shutout. But he got beat by Gray Betts on a two-strike ground-rule double down the left-field line to put a runner in scoring position.
Adam Anderson then launched a 2-0 pitch over the fence in left to make it a 3-2 game. The eventual winning run scored an inning later after a two-strike walk.
“They were the difference in the game,” O’Sullivan said.
Florida had taken the lead in the bottom of the fourth when Josh Rivera doubled home Wyatt Langford, who had walked. BT Riopelle followed with a long homer to right after narrowly missing one two pitches earlier.
But that was it for the Gators, which is part of the reason O’Sullivan was so frustrated. Florida only had two hits the rest of the game, a single by Rivera and a bunt single by Colby Halter.
There was also this – Florida was finally able to host a series without restrictions for attendance and the fans showed up. The announced attendance for the three games was 18,190 or 6,063 per game.
“They’re a good team,” O’Sullivan said of Liberty. “They’re pitchers attacked us the entire weekend. There’s never anything positive about a loss and you don’t want to be down 1-2 after the first weekend. But when you play good teams, you’re going to have an idea where you are at.
“If we play nobody and we go 3-0, I have no idea where we are.”
Where Florida is at right now is kind of where they were much of last year. One week into the season, Florida is hitting .186 as a team.
The one good thing was the defense, which played errorless ball.
“It’s a long season,” O’Sullivan said. “We have veteran hitters and young pitchers. We must take the pressure off those young pitchers by expanding leads.”
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