Kevin O'Sullivan details Florida's ability to come back in games

Florida manager Kevin O’Sullivan saw his team come back to win Friday night over Virginia thanks in part to the long ball. The Gators hit three solo homers in the final two innings to erase their deficit and tie the ballgame.

O’Sullivan explained that the quick strike ability of the home run is such a key part of the team’s offense and ability to stick around in games.

“We had a chance to hit the ball out of the yard,” O’Sullivan said the 6-5 victory. “One swing of the bat, you can hit a two-run or a three-run homer, feel like you can get back. Not like we had to string together three, four, five hits in an inning to score. It was really important.”

Two-way star Jac Caglianone leads the nation in homers with 31 four-baggers but he isn’t the only player in the Gators lineup with big-time pop at the plate.

Potential No. 1 pick Wyatt Langford has hit 19 homers, shortstop Josh Rivera has 17 home runs and catcher BT Riopelle also has 17 homers.

In total, the team has 132 homers in 66 games this season, which is third-best in Division I. But that ability wasn’t able to come into play until later in Friday’s game because of the wind at Charles Schwab Field during the games.

“It’s like feast or famine out here,” O’Sullivan said. “You feel a three-run homer could get you back in the game. But if the wind is blowing in it doesn’t work to your favor. I talked to Chuck about the sixth, we were going to probably start to manufacture a run, put a hit and run and hit at some point because the wind was blowing in. Bottom line, you have to have the ability to score in different ways. If the wind is blowing in, it’s really hard to get out of here. And it’s crazy how the wind just changed, and it doesn’t take a whole lot to feel like really big.”

Riopelle hit a solo homer in the bottom of the eighth to make the score 4-3 before Virginia added a run in the top of the ninth to make it 5-3.

But the Gators weren’t done. Nine-hitter Ty Evans hit his fifth home run of the season to lead off the top of the inning before Langford heroically tied the game on a 1-0 pitch.

Florida would end up pulling off the come back later in the inning when Luke Heyman hit a sacrifice fly.

“I think the wind was blowing in seven, eight miles an hour,” O’Sullivan said. “All of a sudden…the flags, they weren’t moving, felt like, okay, if we can get a walk here and we can get back to the top of the order because every time we could flip the lineup over and get back to the top, we feel like we have a chance to score that inning. That’s how it worked out tonight.”