Coach O’Sullivan Talks About the Upcoming Weekend Against Texas A&M
The Florida Gators host the Texas A&M Aggies for a pivotal weekend series starting tonight. After dropping two of three over the weekend against Kentucky, Florida got back to their winning ways against Florida State this past Tuesday.
Coach O’Sullivan and a few of the Gators starters made themselves available to the media on Thursday afternoon at McKethan stadium.
When asked if they had faced any pressure being ranked No. 1 until this past weekend, outfielder Buddy Reed said: “I really didn’t think that we as a team had pressure being No. 1. Obviously we were No. 1 for a reason. We have great players. Great offense, great defense, great pitching. Now I guess that we’re not [No. 1], we still have to come to the ballpark everyday. We gotta play. We’ve gotta have a great series coming up against Texas A&M. They’re going to come in fired up — obviously they’re No. 1, but I don’t really think that matters to them either.”
“I don’t think the ranking have anything to do with how we’re playing or how they’re playing,” he added.
For the most part, the players agreed that the win against FSU was a great way to build momentum coming into tonight’s matchup against the Aggies.
“That was huge,” said pitcher Logan Shore.
Looking forward to the series, Shore noted some of the strengths of Texas A&M’s lineup. “They’ve got some guys with some power, they’re pretty consistent, and like I said, they’re older guys that have been around the block a few times. As a pitching staff, you have to execute pitches. You have to make quality pitches early.”
Coach O’Sullivan mentioned that he’d like his team to be forced to play at a higher level mentally to prepare for tough matchups down the stretch. “I think playing a team like [Texas A&M] is going to force bullpen players to rise to the occasion.”
If the Gators can take at least two out of three at home, it would speak volumes in proving that the weekend series against Kentucky was more of an anomaly than anything else.
