OMAHA, Neb. — It wasn't supposed to be like this.
This was the
year. They had battled through the grind of a season and an under-seeded
regional and super regional, through rain delays and stifling heat to
get here as the No. 1 seed.
They were healthy and focused and came to Omaha with a swagger.
But on Saturday night in the bowels of TD Ameritrade Park there were hushed tones and fallen faces for the Florida Gators.
“It's going to be tough,” said senior Preston Tucker. “But it's been done before. If anyone can do it, we can.”
It wasn't supposed to be like this.
They
came to Omaha with their baggy throwback uniforms with confidence and
charisma. They were in a perfect situation because there was a team on
the other side of the bracket that was even a bigger longshot and was
receiving the most attention. They would slide in here under the radar,
even if they had won 25 of their last 27 games.
They had talked with their chests out about “belonging” in the bracket with the mighty SEC teams.
But on Saturday evening in the bowels of TD Ameritrade Park, they had the look of a team that had been through a hurricane.
“It's
going to be tough, very difficult,” said Kent State's Jimmy Rider. “But
that's the reason we play. You want to go up against the best.”
That's
the thing about the College World Series. Eight teams come here with
dreams of a dogpile, and two days into it there are four of them
wondering if they are about to play the last game of the season.
Florida
and Kent State will meet in an elimination game Monday at 5:10 p.m. For
one of them, a special season is about to end with a thud.
“The
quality of a championship team is being able to bounce back from
failure,” said UF freshman Josh Tobias. “We're a championship team.
We'll bounce back.”
But it's such a long bounce to get back in position to still win this thing.
Florida needs to win Monday to stay alive and that is all UF coach Kevin O'Sullivan is worried about.
“When you get into the losers' bracket,” he said, “you can't look too far ahead.”
There
is no question that Florida has the pitching depth to still make a run
in this tournament. Hudson Randall will go Monday for the Gators, and
O'Sullivan still has starters Jonathon Crawford and Karsten Whitson
available. Plus, with the days off, it's easier to bring pitchers back.
But
no matter what happens, Florida knows that the road to the championship
series will have to go through South Carolina again.
Both
Florida and Kent State coaches were disappointed with the way their
teams played on Saturday. The Gators had committed only two errors in
five NCAA games this year and committed three against South Carolina.
Kent State had only four hits against Arkansas and its only run came on a
Rider home run.
And as tough as it's going to be for Florida to
climb back into this thing, think how Kent State's Scott Stricklin
feels. You're in the CWS, you lose your opener and, hey, here's your
elimination game — the top seed in the tournament.
“Look at
Florida up and down that lineup and that pitching staff, it's just
unbelievably talented,” he said. “And I know it's tough. It's a daunting
task in front of us.
“We'll be ready to play. We told our kids,
enjoy it. Get it out of your mind. Get ready to play (tonight) again in
Omaha, Nebraska, which our kids are thrilled to be here. But that's the
thing. We've got to make sure that we're not just happy to be here. We
want to compete and get some wins and make a run at it. It's still
possible.”
