OMAHA, Neb. — Josh Adams' lips quivered as he spoke. With tears streaming down his face, Florida's second baseman was helpless at the podium, unable to process where it all went wrong.
After rolling through the first three games at the College World Series, the Gators, the preseason and postseason favorite to win their first national championship in school history, were swept by South Carolina in the best-of-three finals, losing 5-2 in Game 2 on Tuesday night after an excruciating 2-1 loss in 11 innings Monday.
While the reigning national champions successfully defended their title, Florida left Omaha with an even deeper hollow feeling than a season ago.
"It's nice to make steps. But to be honest with you, the idea is to win this thing," coach Kevin O'Sullivan said. "There's a lot of disappointed players in that locker room right now. ... We wanted to finish this thing off."
After a two-and-out in 2010, the Gators said they knew what to expect, knew what heartbreak felt like.
Now they really do.
"It hurts a lot more this year. Making it to the finals and making it that much closer and having it ripped away from you is heartbreaking," sophomore ace Hudson Randall said.
Florida played with an all-or-nothing mentality for five months, but the Gators seemingly ran out of gas at the most inopportune time.
For just the fourth time all season — and first since May 5 and 6 at Arkansas — the Gators lost back-to-back games.
"It was definitely an improvement, making it to the finals and all. We understood what it took to get this far, but in the end we didn't have quite enough," Randall said. "We didn't play well enough as a team. We've had a great year and a great season, but we fell short in the end."
Although Florida had a dominant regular season and NCAA Tournament, winning a school-record 53 games wasn't enough.
While UF had Southeastern Conference rival Vanderbilt's number all season — the Gators won five of six, including eliminating the Commodores in the CWS - Florida labored against South Carolina, losing four of five.
Leading 1-0 in the eighth inning of Monday's Game 1, Florida coughed up the late lead and squandered multiple precious scoring opportunities. The Gators were left wondering what if after the Gamecocks again worked their Houdini magic late, escaping a bases loaded jam and throwing out the winning run at the plate.
All season, the Gators were a team that relied on pitching, defense and timely hitting. But in the CWS Finals, the clutch hitting and web gems were largely absent.
In the brief series, UF went 2 for 16 with runners in scoring position with just a pair of RBIs.
Florida also committed seven errors during the — four in the CWS Finals.
"All you can really do is say what if. But it doesn't matter anymore," Adams said. "Just got to get back at it. Got to get back at it next year."
For seniors like Adams, there will be no new season. No chance at reprisal. But many Florida players could have that chance, as the Gators will return arguably the most talented team in the country.
"I'm not really looking forward to next year yet, but we do have a good group of core guys coming back," Randall said.
"We'll be all right," O'Sullivan said. "We've got the whole rotation coming back. [Austin] Maddox closing full time. [Nolan] Fontana, Zunino. We'll be back.
