Florida Gators 'going to make some changes' to fix midweek slump
JACKSONVILLE — Mike Rivera sat stoically on the wooden dugout bench, elbow on his knee with his hand propping up his chin as Florida Gators players packed their bags to head for the bus back to Gainesville. Rivera stared unblinkingly out at the scoreboard which still showed the final score: Florida State 14, Florida 3.
Rivera was a Freshman All-American in 2015. He’s a National Champion and he returned to Florida in 2022 to start his coaching career. In less than two full seasons coaching at Florida, he’s lost to Florida State as many times as he did in three years as a player — three. Without being able to hit or catch and affect the outcome, Rivera was left to watch as the Seminoles run-ruled the Gators, taking their first series win over Florida since Rivera’s freshman season in 2015.
Kevin O’Sullivan has been on the right end of this rivalry. The Gators are 35-21 against the Seminoles during his tenure and have won 22 of the last 28 meetings. While midweek games may be used to get young pitchers work or to figure some things out, the rivalry with Florida State trumps that.
“These games matter — these rivalry games matter and it means a lot to a lot of people,” O’Sullivan said after the game. “It means a lot to both schools, both administrations, both fanbases. You can’t come out here and play like this. This is not acceptable. Over the years we’ve understood that. For whatever reason we have not been able to get over the hump with this thing.”
Change is coming to the Florida Gators baseball schedule
Tuesday’s run-rule loss was just the latest chapter in a midweek game that has blemished the early season. The Gators are 11-5 when they play on the weekend — including 4-2 against top-five opponents in Texas A&M and LSU — but 3-5 and losers of their last four midweek games.
The NCAA mandates at least one day of the week off for baseball programs. For years the Florida baseball program has taken Mondays off — that will change.
“Monday is usually a day off. Enough of it. I’ve seen enough of this. There’s only so many rah-rah speeches you can give and try to get your team ready to play. Maybe we need to catch their attention on Monday and take off on Wednesdays. We don’t play anymore Wednesday games, so, we’ll practice on Mondays,” O’Sullivan said. “I probably should have done it a couple weeks ago, to be quite honest with you. Normally Monday is our day off, it’s always been. I’ve seen about enough of this.”
O’Sullivan and his staff made wholesale changes to the lineup last weekend on the road. Those changes helped spur the offense to beat the then No. 5-ranked Tigers in Baton Rouge. Those changes flipped the batting order on its head but it doesn’t seem like O’Sullivan is done tinkering.
“There’s some other changes we’re going to have to make,” he said. “We can’t keep playing from behind. We’re going to have to set the tone in the game. We can’t keep doing this because eventually, it’s going to have a mental effect on your offense. You can only come back so many times. We’re going to do a better job on the front end of games and we’ll figure it out.”
