Kevin O’Sullivan sat in the dugout and talked to his team for 20 minutes immediately following Tuesday night’s game.
His message: Something needs to change.
“It’s all on us,” freshman designated hitter Brady Roberson said. “They can’t teach us much more than what they’ve been teaching us. We got to start playing with passion. We’re playing scared, almost. That’s not us.”
Florida (3-6) dropped its fifth straight game in a 7-6 loss to North Florida (6-2) in 10 innings at McKethan Stadium.
“This is not a time to panic or start pointing fingers,” O’Sullivan said. “We just got to play better.”
The Gators were again forced to lean on their struggling bullpen. Starter Keenan Kish lasted just two innings, giving up two runs on one hit and two walks. He threw 52 pitches.
Jonathon Crawford is the only Florida starter to last five innings this season. He tossed 5.1 hitless innings in Friday’s 8-2 loss to Florida Gulf Coast.
“Our starting pitching hasn’t been great,” O’Sullivan said. “We’re averaging, three-plus (innings) per start. I mean I know we’re on a pitch count, but I figured we’d be further along than three-plus a start, so the bullpen has been worked.”
With the game tied 4-4 in the top of the seventh inning, the Ospreys took the lead when Drew Weeks hit a leadoff triple to right-center off UF sophomore reliever Ryan Harris.
UNF went up 6-4 two batters later when Tyler Marincov scored on a single up the middle off the bat of third baseman Paul Karmeris.
Harris threw a career-high 3.2 innings and 60 pitches. He gave up three runs and picked up the loss.
During Florida’s five-game slide, the bullpen has surrendered 24 earned runs on 34 hits in 30 innings.
Through nine games last season, Florida relievers had thrown a total of 35.2 innings.
“We can’t go the whole year like this,” O’Sullivan said of the bullpen’s workload.
In the bottom of the ninth, the Gators rallied.
Casey Turgeon led off with a single, and Jordan Shafer followed with a double. A Zack Powers groundout brought Turgeon home to make the score 6-5, and Shafer crossed home with the tying run on a Taylor Gushue sacrifice fly to center.
UNF center fielder Alex Bacon reached on an infield single to begin the 10th.
After advancing to second on a sacrifice bunt from Kyle Brooks, he moved to third thanks to a Harris balk.
Catcher Corey Bass then hit a double over Harrison Bader’s head in center field to drive in the game-winning run.
“I feel like we’re going to come out to practice one of these two days and turn it around,” Roberson said. “We need the light switch to turn on.”
Contact Josh Jurnovoy at jjurnovoy@alligator.org.
Sophomore catcher Taylor Gushue calls out to the mound during Florida’s 4-3 loss to Duke on Feb. 15 at McKethan Stadium.
