Kevin O’Sullivan breaks down Florida’s quiet offensive night vs. Ty Floyd

Offense didn’t come easy for Florida in its 4-3 loss against LSU in Game 1 of the College World Series finals. While outsiders speculated on the explanation behind Florida’s struggles, Gators head coach Kevin O’Sullivan gave the simple answer.

“It was a combination of things. We had a game plan coming in. And he threw good. I mean, it’s really that simple. But from our standpoint, when you look back, there were some swings with two strikes that were maybe a little bit too big, swings that we hadn’t taken in the past or in a while,” O’Sullivan said following the loss.

In the contest, Florida recorded just six hits on 38 at-bats (.157). Moreover, the Gators struck out 20 times in the loss. The quiet offensive night was a stark contrast from recent Florida performances.

In 11 NCAA Tournament games, Florida is averaging 4.9 runs per outing. Then again, in 10 of those contests, the Gators weren’t looking down the barrel of Ty Floyd’s cannon-of-an-arm.

“We took some fastballs on the outer half of the plate, early in the count, to get us behind the count. He threw just enough breaking balls to keep us off his fastball. And we chased a bunch of up fastballs and [Ty Floyd] pitched really good,” O’Sullivan said.

In eight innings against Florida, the LSU pitcher dealt 17 strikeouts, smashing the single-game record for the most strikeouts in a CWS finals, which was set last year by Oklahoma pitcher Cade Horton with 13 strikeouts. Additionally, Floyd tied Arizona State pitcher Ed Bane (1972) for the second-most strikeouts in a CWS game.

Floyd was relentless. The 6-foot-2 junior’s velocity was still touching 95-96 miles after seven innings of grueling work. Despite Floyd’s timeless performance, the Gators were in it until the end, taking the Tigers to extra innings. While the loss was painful, it was also encouraging.

“In games like this it comes down to one at-bat, one pitch. They walked two guys in 11 innings. We walked eight. And it’s part of it. It wasn’t our best night, but we played 11 innings and lost by a pitch on a 1-0 count.

“We didn’t play our best baseball, but the message tomorrow is, you know, we’ve got nothing to lose at this point. We’re in the College World Series and playing in the Finals. We lost by a run. Everybody’s disappointed, but we can’t let this leak into tomorrow,” O’Sullivan said.

With its season on the line, Florida will look for revenge against LSU in Game 2 of the CWS finals on Sunday. The two teams will face off at 3 p.m. ET. The game will be broadcast on ESPN.

The post Kevin O’Sullivan breaks down Florida’s quiet offensive night vs. Ty Floyd appeared first on On3.