GAINESVILLE, Fla. – As fireworks went off and the garnet-and-black streamers littered the field, South Carolina’s players raced to the mound to join the fun.
They formed the traditional dogpile to celebrate their second consecutive national championship on Tuesday night at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha.
The Gators leaned on their dugout railing. Barely anyone said a word. They watched the Gamecocks let their emotions run rampant. Florida coach Kevin O’Sullivan wanted his team to absorb the scene and remember it.
“We needed to show some class,’’ O’Sullivan said afterward. “I know this was hard for them. I didn’t want them to hang their heads. I wanted to them to hold their heads high, and as tough as it was to watch another team to celebrate, that was the right thing to do at that point.’’
O’Sullivan’s orders had added meaning for those Gators who will be back next season. By watching South Carolina celebrate, the younger Gators could carry the images with them back home and into the offseason.
The intended message is clear: that could be you one day.
The Gators won a school-record 53 games in 2011. They made back-to-back trips to Omaha for the first time in school history. And they advanced to the championship series after losing two games and returning home in 2010.
Still, they left with the national runner-up trophy. That’s not the one they wanted.
“It’s nice to make steps, but to be honest with you, the idea is to win this thing,’’ O’Sullivan said. “Our goal year in and year out is going to be to win a national championship. I think we have the pieces in place – the facilities, etc., to be one of those teams. We’re going to be back here.
“We want to finish this thing off.’’
The Gators appeared on the verge of taking a big step toward that goal on Monday night when they loaded the bases with nobody out in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 1. The score was tied 1-1.
All Florida needed to take a 1-0 lead in the series was a fly ball. Instead, South Carolina escaped the trouble with a pair of stellar defensive plays, won the game in 11 innings, and took Game 2 behind a strong outing by starter Michael Roth.
Just like that, the season was over and disappointment settled in.
“It hurts a lot more this year, making it to the finals and getting that much closer,’’ sophomore starting pitcher Hudson Randall said. “It’s definitely heartbreaking.’’
The Gators returned home late Wednesday afternoon knowing that the group of players who walked off the field Tuesday will never play together as a team again.
An emotional Josh Adams took several moments in the postgame press conference to regain his composure when asked to sum up the ride the 2011 Gators enjoyed. This was a team that people expected in Omaha from the season’s first pitch in February.
They didn’t disappointment. Once they got there, the Gators opened with a win over Texas and then back-to-back wins against SEC East rival Vanderbilt to advance to the championship series.
They finally met their match in the Gamecocks, who extended their NCAA-record win streak in the NCAA Tournament with a pair of wins over the Gators.
A senior who arrived at the same time as O’Sullivan in the summer of 2007, Adams is glad he remained committed to Florida once O’Sullivan took over the program after he had already signed. Adams is confident the Gators will someday finish off what the last two Gators teams have started: a tradition of playing in Omaha regularly.
“These coaches are the best coaches in the nation,’’ Adams said. “As a player they help you grow. I think they help you grow even more as a person. They are going to keep grinding. That’s the mentality we have here. That’s definitely what is going to leave with me. These coaches have done great things.’’
This is a team that will have question marks entering next season, most notably how to replace a bullpen loaded with depth. Relievers Nick Maronde, Anthony DeSclafani, Greg Larson and Tommy Toledo were all drafted earlier this month and are considering professional options.
Junior left-hander Alex Panteliodis, who won 11 games as a sophomore and made three clutch starts in the postseason, is likely to turn pro. The Gators also lose Adams and center fielder Bryson Smith from the everyday lineup.
Still, there is ample talent returning that will ensure the Gators of opening next season ranked high in the polls. The starting rotation of Hudson Randall, Brian Johnson and Karsten Whitson returns, as does closer Austin Maddox and left-hander Steven Rodriguez.
SEC Player of the Year Mike Zunino returns behind the plate and Preston Tucker, a junior outfielder/first baseman who led the team with 74 RBI, can return unless he signs with the Colorado Rockies, who drafted him in the 16th round.
The starting rotation alone makes the Gators a strong contender in the SEC once again.
“We’ve got a good group of core guys coming back,’’ Randall said. “We’ve got a lot of players who have played a lot. We understood what it took to get this far and we did it. In the end, we didn’t play well enough to get two more wins.
“Hopefully we’ll be back here next year.’’
That’s the plan. It will remain that way as long as O’Sullivan, who now has two CWS trips in his four seasons, is calling the shots from the dugout.
“On our way home we’ll already be talking about next year,’’ he said.
