Florida baseball is just a few hours away from opening up its 2019 campaign.
"I’m excited,”said Florida skipper Kevin O'Sullivan. “This offseason, it seems like it went really quick. Sometimes it seems long, but I think having all of these new faces and a huge turnover on our roster, it’s been a different fall and a different spring. Because of so many new faces."
The Gators open the regular season ranked sixth nationally.
This Florida side is loaded with youngsters. The bullpen is mainly composed by freshmen, while the corners will also be manned by freshmen with Kendrick Calilao at first base and Cory Acton at third, while early enrollee Jud Fabian will be at center field.
"There’s been a lot more coaching going on in the fall, since we’ve had so many new faces," said O'Sullivan. “I wish there was something you could say to kind of calm their nerves a little bit and keep their emotions more in check, but it’s opening night. I don’t think there is much you can say to ease their minds.
"Everybody’s excited. I think it even happens at the big league level," O'Sullivan added. "The fans are excited, the umpires are excited, the coaches are excited, there’s really nothing that you can do or say to kind of prepare them for that. You just hope a couple of guys can string some hits together and kind of loosen up a little bit. Think that’s probably the most important thing.”
With opening night jitters in mind, O'Sullivan decided to go with seniority on the mound. Junior RHP Tyler Dyson will start on Friday, since he started on Sundays a season ago, while RHP Tommy Mace and RHP Jack Leftwich will start on Saturday and Sunday respectively.
The good news for Florida is the return of shortstop, Brady McConnell, who missed most of last season with a wrist injury.
“He’s been great the whole fall, he’s been great this spring so I think he’s moved on from that and he’s obviously 100 percent now,” O’Sullivan said. “He doesn’t seem like a freshman to me.
“I think just being around and seeing it, sometimes you learn a lot. Obviously, you don’t want him to miss a whole year, but sometimes you sit on this side of the fence and kind of look at things and reflect a little bit, you might have a different outlook on things. He probably learned a lot last year.”
The Gators open the regular season against Long Beach State on Friday night with first pitch set at 6:30 p.m.
“We’re young, but we’re talented,” O’Sullivan said. “There’s gonna be a learning curve and they’re gonna have to learn from some mistakes early on, but I fully expect that if we stay healthy and we could progress like we normally do, we got a chance to be a pretty good team at the end of the year.”
