Kevin O'Sullivan has been making moves, experimenting, and trying more things with his baseball club than he probably ever has in the middle of April. Sunday it paid off.
O'Sullivan pinch-hit Kris Armstrong for Jordan Carrion with two on and one out in the eighth inning and Armstrong sent a line drive over the wall in right field to give the Gators a 7-6 lead they would hold on to the rest of the way.
"His at bat on Friday night he hit the ball really hard against him as well," O'Sullivan said of Armstrong. "Obviously, the wind was blowing in, so he hit that ball right through the wind. It was a really big at bat for us."
After taking the loss on Friday it could have been the last time Christian Scott pitched in Knoxville. Instead, Kevin O'Sullivan turned to Scott after the Tennessee Volunteers (27-6, 9-3 SEC) had opened up the game 6-4 in the fifth inning. Scott promptly retired the first 10 batters he faced, striking out six in the process. Scott stymied the Volunteer bats long enough to keep the Gators in it and set the stage for Armstrong's clutch home run.
"He pitched great today for us," O'Sullivan said. "We extended him last weekend against Ole Miss. He gave us everything that he had today and he needed to. Getting that at out there in the ninth was big for him and hopefully moving forward his confidence will be at another level."
Florida scored first Sunday with a pair of doubles in the top of the second from Jordan Butler and Colby Halter but Hunter Barco gave the run right back to Tennessee when he gave up a double and walked three batters in the bottom of the frame.
Different inning, the same story in the fourth.
Florida retook the lead on Jacob Young's two-run home run to left field but Barco gave it right back to the Vols.
A one out double and a walk set the stage for Max Ferguson. The second baseman lined a ball into center field that was knocked down by the wind. Jud Fabian had come crashing in, trying to make a play but ended up in no man's land and the ball took a quick skip off of the turf under his glove and went all the way to the wall, leading to two runs and Ferguson standing on third. Jake Rucker grounded out but it was enough to plate Ferguson and give Tennessee a 4-3 lead.
Tennessee added two more runs on to the lead off of reliever Ryan Cabarcas before Scott came in and shut the Vols down for 4.2 innings.
"We showed a lot of resiliency," O'Sullivan said after the game. "Hopefully we can learn from this and move forward."
The win gets the Gators back to 6-6 in conference play, and 21-11 on the season. Florida will host Florida State on Tuesday night at Florida Ballpark.
SEC start similar to 2017
The 2021 Florida Gators are currently 6-6 in SEC play and underperforming by the expectations placed on them prior to the start of the season. If that sounds familiar then you've been paying attention to Flrodia baseball since at least 2017.
The 2016 Florida Baseball team went to Omaha but was quickly sent packing after losing their first two games. The 2017 team returned a lot on the mound and some quality bats and were expected to be a threat.
That narrative quickly changes when Florida was swept at Auburn and started their SEC schedule, you guessed it, 6-6.
That year Florida lost the first two games in a road series to Tennessee before winning a close game on Sunday to avoid a sweep. Sounds even more familiar.
The 2017 team used that Sunday win to catapult them the rest of the way. The Gators finished the rest of the SEC schedule with a 15-3 record to finish 21-9 in league play and went on to win the College World Series.
