GAINESVILLE, Fla.-- It was not an easy road for Florida baseball this season.

Honestly, if it were not for the Gators' road series win against Missouri, Kevin O'Sullivan's men may have stayed home this weekend.

O'Sullivan told reporters on Tuesday, he felt confident last week - even after the extra-inning loss to Texas A&M in the SEC Tournament - because he believed their resume was enough to earn a spot in the NCAA tournament.

The Gators did make it in and comfortably so. They will now travel to Lubbock, Texas for the regional.

"There wasn't a whole lot of reaction, to be honest with you," O'Sullivan said about finding out their tournament fate. "I think they were pretty optimistic that we were going to get in. Certainly a lot of people would have been disappointed if we didn't. I think they handled it well. I think if you ask them, there's probably a little sense of relief.

“It’s not like we backed in,” he added. “We went on the road and won that series at Missouri. And it just goes to show you that playing a tough schedule helped us."

O'Sullivan may not have been nervous, however, Jack Leftwich admits there were some nerves.

"It was hard, we were just looking at like D1Baseball projections and Baseball America, because after every game it changes, even if we aren't playing that game," Leftwich said. "So we knew who needed to win and who needed to lose to kind of help us get in. We were sweating it out a little bit, but I had a good feeling we were going to get in."

"I don't think if we sweep there that last weekend, I don't think we make a strong résumé for ourselves," said senior Nelson Maldonado. "We did it. We showed that we were capable of competing with these other teams and I'm glad we got in."

"When we saw it in the room, we were like, 'OK, we're playing DBU first and that's all we can focus on. We can't focus on anything else other than that one game,'" pitcher Tommy Mace said.

Florida (33-24) will play Dallas Baptist (41-18) in the first round on Friday night, while Texas Tech (39-17) will play Army (35-24) in the earlier game of the double-elimination tournament.

Although the Gators will eventually face either Army or Texas Tech, O'Sullivan learned quickly in his career that one can be over prepared.

In his third year heading to Omaha was a great feat. However, after preparing detailed reports on every team that made the College World Series that year, he quickly realized that he should not spread himself too thin.

“I had seven different folders, seven different reports on all the other teams in Omaha and we were recruiting," he recounted, “We played UCLA and we just weren’t prepared. I did a terrible job preparing us. I spread myself too thin. I just did not do a very good job.”

The Bruins won 11-3 and the Gators were then eliminated by Florida State. However, O'Sullivan is not having history repeat itself. The UF skipper is only focused on one team, Dallas Baptist.

“I haven’t done any work on Texas Tech or Army," he stated. "You get to this time of year, recruiting gets put to the side and your only focus is on that first game.”

“We have tried to implement that to all of the guys on the team, especially younger guys,” said Maldonado. “We have to focus on this one game..We got in, so we’re going to make the most of it.”

This is only Florida's third regional on the road since O'Sullivan's arrival in Gainesville.

“It’s a challenge,” said Maldonado. “We love playing at the Mac, but it will be nice to play on the road and see what we’re made of.”

This season has certainly had its fair share of ups and downs - Florida is coming in 13-17 in the SEC.

“It’s been a frustrating year,” O’Sullivan said. “Hopefully, we’re catching form right now.”

Dallas Baptist will provide a challenge for the Gators defense.

Florida has given up 59 home runs this year and Friday night's starting pitcher, Mace has allowed seven.

Meanwhile the Patriots is tied for 21st in the country with 70 home runs this season. DBU's Bryce Ball has hit 17 of the team's home runs, the most on the team. While fellow Pats infielder, Jimmy Glowenke, has only hit six homers this year, but he leads the team with 70 hits.

“They’re good, very well coached,” O’Sullivan said. “It’s going to be an offensive ballpark because the wind is always blowing out there. I’m going to tell the players this, it boils down to how we play.

"We've got just enough bullpen pieces that if we can get good starts out of our starters, I feel good about three or four of these guys out the pen. They've pitched in some really tough environments," O'Sullivan added. They've had some bright moments, they've had some tough moments, but obviously this time of the year they're not freshmen anymore."

"I'm so happy for this opportunity and I think all the upperclassmen deserve this," Mace said. "I think that just giving us the opportunity, hopefully we can show that we're better than what our season has shown so far. I think that we're just growing and that we're really young. I think that this is going to be a good time."