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Pitching Continues to Frustrate Gators, Kevin O’Sullivan

The Florida Gators pitching staff has struggled with command throughout the season

Kyle Lander

Pitching continues to be perplexing for the Gators
Pitching continues to be perplexing for the Gators / Steven Branscombe-Imagn Images

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Within the first two innings of Tuesday night's contest with North Florida, the Florida Gators continued a very worrisome trend by issuing free passes to their opponents. 

Jackson Barberi and McCall Biemiller, Florida’s first two pitchers in these innings, combined for five walks, a hit one batter and 54 total pitches. And with this type of outing, Gators head coach Kevin O’Sullivan could only leave Condron Family Ballpark frustrated and disappointed despite taking home the win. 

“It’s frustrating,” O’Sullivan stated. 

As a staff, the Gators have issued 124 walks in 31 games on this year. Additionally, six Gators have at least 10 walks this season. 

Then, just recently in Game One against Ole Miss, Gators pitching dished out 13 walks. That is a season-high this campaign and the most since April 8, 2023, against Tennessee when they handed 18 of them. 

It’s hard to pinpoint where things are going wrong for his guys. Are they worried about giving up contact? Are they worried their defense won’t make the play? Only the players know. 

What the Gators head man does know, is that if they are letting doubt build up in their head, it’s hardly ever going to pan out for them. 

“I don’t know if it’s doubt creeping in; we’ve talked about that too,” O’Sullivan said. “If there’s doubt, you’re certainly not going to have success.”

On top of that, O’Sullivan stated they’ve tried conveying every message possible in different ways, but it just isn’t getting across to his players. 

“Disappointing thing is, we’ve talked about the same thing since the fall and for whatever reason the message isn’t getting across,” O’Sullivan said. “We’ve tried a lot of different messages to try to get this thing simplified for ‘em.”

One of the messages, or maybe even the main one, that O’Sullivan and his staff have tried to implant in their pitchers' minds is putting an emphasis on getting those first two strikes in the at-bat. When the pitcher is able to get those first strikes, stats have been on their side historically. 

“When you throw two of the first three pitches for strikes, batting average is historically .210 or less and every pitcher will take that,” he shared. 

However, it seems his guys haven’t really latched onto this idea. And at some point in their career, they’re going to have to because coaching can only help so much. 

“We’re going to have to keep coaching them, but at some point, they’re going to have to learn how to pitch and stop trying to grab velocity all the time,” O’Sullivan said. 

They’ll need to figure it out soon, though. Baseball doesn’t stop because you can’t figure it out. Games come at you through thick and thin. 

“Like I told them at the end, no one is going to stop,” O’Sullivan stated. “This thing is going to keep on going.”

In the SEC, every weekend is a battle. There are no free weekends, no matter the team or record next to their name. 

As for Florida, their next weekend series is against No. 23 Vanderbilt. This three-game series begins on Friday and runs through Sunday. The first game is scheduled to begin around 6:30 p.m. and will be broadcasted on SEC Network+. 

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Kyle Lander
KYLE LANDER

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