Gators' hitting woes continue to baffle as O'Sullivan waits for lineup to heat up
Sunday, May 13, 2012 | Baseball, Scott Carter
Gators coach Kevin O'Sullivan and assistant Brad Weitzel watch Saturday's 2-0 loss to Mississippi State.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Gators coach Kevin O'Sullivan keeps doing the only thing he knows to do.
Each day when he arrives at the ballpark and fills out the lineup card, O'Sullivan writes in names so familiar they seem like family: Fontana, Pigott, Tucker, Zunino and Johnson.
They form the heart and soul of Florida's lineup. O'Sullivan knows what they can do. He has seen it over and over again on the way to back-to-back College World Series. He just hasn't seen it as much as he expected this season.
O'Sullivan witnessed something Saturday night that has happened only six times in his five seasons (309 games) as Florida's head coach: the Gators got shut out.
Mississippi State right-hander Kendall Graveman had a lot to do with that. He limited the Gators to only three hits over 7 2/3 innings, and reliever Jonathan Holder then closed out the Bulldogs' 2-0 win at McKethan Stadium.
The loss was a critical one in Florida's bid to win the SEC East regular-season crown and set up a rubber game against the Bulldogs on Sunday in the final home game of the regular season.
"It's a really tough pill to swallow,'' said reliever Keenan Kish, who pitched 3 2/3 shutout innings to keep the game close. "Every loss hurts. We've got to be able to bounce back tomorrow and leave this one behind us."
O'Sullivan wants to leave the struggles at the plate behind. While the Gators' pitching has been showing signs of rounding into postseason form lately, the offense is playing catch-up. And slowly.
In the two games against Mississippi State – Florida won 4-1 on Friday night – the Nos. 1-4 hitters in the lineup are a combined 2-for-31 (.065).
They were without Brian Johnson on Saturday – he was scratched from his scheduled start due to a sore hamstring – but veterans Nolan Fontana, Daniel Pigott, Preston Tucker and Mike Zunino were in the lineup and failed to get a hit.
The top four hitters combined to go 0-for-15 on Saturday.
Freshman outfielder Justin Shafer accounted for two of Florida's three hits. The Gators' best scoring opportunity came in the fifth when Shafer led off with a single and moved to third on Austin Maddox's single.
Josh Tobias then drilled a line drive that Bulldogs third baseman Sam Frost snagged. The inning ended when Vickash Ramjit grounded into a double play.
Another scoring threat down the drain and more questions about the lack of offense.
"I think we've just got to stay positive,'' Shafer said. "We know we can hit. We've got to come out here and do it."
O'Sullivan will continue to do what he has done all season on Sunday. He'll write those same names onto the lineup card and hope they start coming up with some hits.
That's the only solution he has.
"We just could not do anything offensively. This has been a yearlong thing,'' O'Sullivan said. "We've just got to do a better job offensively. We've got to manufacture runs. When we get opportunities to score, we've got to have really good at-bats.
"The bottom line is that this team is going to go as far as it can with the guys who have been here the last three or four years. They've just got to have better at-bats. We know they can do it. They will do it – just hopefully sooner than later."
