UF coaches Kevin O'Sullivan (baseball) and Tim Walton (softball) might as well have slapped hands this past week.
Similar to a wrestling tag-team duo, one (Walton) heads out of the ring of success while the other (O'Sullivan) enters.
Maybe it's not a fair comparison - the softball team is only 13 years old compared to the 98-year-old baseball program - but in the last 11 years, when college baseball and softball have each had three NCAA Tournament tiers (Regionals, Super Regionals and World Series), the UF squads have reached the Super Regionals in the same year only one time.
This year.
And if only one is going to make that leap over the next few years, fans should plan to spend a lot of time at McKethan Stadium, home of the baseball team.
Expectations do have some impact on such a perspective, but the facts are just as supportive.
UF baseball and softball saw their seasons end recently. Both had a twinge of disappointment. The feelings were quite different, however.
The baseball team finally exorcised its Miami demons, advancing out of a NCAA Regional that contained the Hurricanes for the first time in 11 tries. The Gators were promptly swept by Cinderella stand-in Southern Miss, which didn't even know if it would make the NCAA Tournament.
The softball team entered the Women's College World Series as a three-loss No. 1 seed for the second straight year and with the experience of 2008 expected to put the Gators over the hump in 2009. UF proceeded to watch its best pitcher ever lose her edge and be swept by Washington in the WCWS championships series.
Despite each team being swept in a three-game series, these events were seen through much different lenses. Yes, the teams were at different levels of play and the closer a team gets to a championship, the more bitter the disappointment.
The true answer, if it hasn't already been hinted at enough and you couldn't guess, is expectations.
The UF softball team rightfully set its sights on a national title and nothing less. There was debate among the alligatorSports staff about whether or not the team would have more or less than its five losses of 2008. Turns out we were all wrong - it was a push.
Now consider the baseball team for a second. Only one writer predicted the Gators would even reach the Super Regionals, and he was mercilessly mocked.
Don't expect similar expectations in the years to come.
It's all about window of opportunity, and the baseball team's just opened while the softball team just saw its shut.
The baseball team loses at least five players in 2010 - a starting left fielder (Avery Barnes), a backup catcher (Teddy Foster), one decent right-handed pitcher (Patrick Keating), one pretty good lefty (Stephen Locke) and a great story in a sixth-year starting third baseman (Brandon McArthur). Relief pitchers Tony Davis and Billy Bullock, both juniors, as well as center fielder Matt den Dekker were taken in the MLB Draft and will decide whether or not to return to Gainesville.
Not only did UF finally defeat Miami in the Regionals, but O'Sullivan showed he could lead a winning postseason team sweeping the Regional after opening his time in Gainesville with a 1-6 postseason record. The Southern Miss sweep drops him to 4-9, and the home losses do hurt, but the Golden Eagles were a hot team and the Gators' shaky young pitching couldn't be expected to have a second straight dominant weekend.
As for softball, the Gators lose seven players, including four key starters (Ali Gardiner, Kristina Hilberth, Stacey Nelson, Kim Waleszonia). The most important of these, of course, being Nelson who leaves Gainesville holding basically every UF pitching record.
Walton admitted Nelson might be one of the best players he ever coached, and he's only in his fourth year at UF. He has also said he doesn't plan on anyone else wearing Nelson's No. 42, an appropriate gesture for a great player, but one that nonetheless brings focus to the point that UF had to win this year.
Rising junior and next year's No. 1 pitcher Stephanie Brombacher may be great, but it's unfair to expect anyone to be the next Nelson.
Some recent history on the diamond in Gainesville doesn't speak well either for Walton, who just wrapped up his fourth season in 2009.
In 2005, a fourth-year baseball coach (Pat McMahon) led a team returning many players from UF's first trip to Super Regionals in 2004. That 2005 baseball team earned a No. 7 national seed and made it all the way to the College World Series before being swept by Texas in the finals. UF missed the NCAA Tournament in 2006 and 2007, and McMahon was promptly fired.
Then, O'Sullivan took over as leader of the baseball team.
Now, he might be taking over the post of having the most successful UF team on a diamond.
