Baseball America just ranked them the No. 1 team in the nation.
They return their entire weekend rotation and nearly their whole starting lineup. They added a top recruiting class, including a top-10 MLB Draft pick.
And yet, one questions lingers over the Gators baseball team: What happened at the College World Series last season?
Florida was drubbed twice in Omaha, Neb., en route to an early exit and disappointing finish to an otherwise successful season.
“We don’t really talk a whole lot about last year,” coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “It was pretty obvious we didn’t play well. We’ll use it as motivation from time to time, but last year was last year.”
Despite fielding an extremely young team, Florida was dominant throughout the 2010 campaign and arrived in Omaha ready to capture the school’s first national championship. Led by five Freshman All-Americans, UF rolled through the Southeastern Conference and was the first team to advance to the CWS.
But the unfailing pitching, timely hitting and error-free baseball the Gators played all season were absent in the Midwest.
Nerves, excitement, wide eyes and blind eyes were all reasons several Gators said they fell short in the tournament. O’Sullivan said those are simply easy answers, but truthfully, they just got outplayed.
Nevertheless, leaders like sophomore shortstop Nolan Fontana and senior second baseman Josh Adams admitted the environment affected the players mentally.
“We were blind going in,” Fontana said. “I feel like we know what to expect if we’re fortunate enough to make it back this year.”
Adams said the crowd, cameras and atmosphere are some things the team will be better prepared for if it reaches its goal of making it back to Omaha.
“We had no idea what the crowd was going to be like,” Adams said. “Playing here, you have 5,000 people in the stands, maybe 10 people tailgate. Playing there, you have 25,000 people in the stands and 10,000 people tailgate.”
Lessons learned from their hardship experience seem to be a driving force in their motivation to get back to college baseball’s most prestigious tournament.
“We were nervous,” Fontana said. “But ultimately, it is just another game. We’re looking forward to working day-in and day-out to get that the ultimate goal.”
“As a coach, you can give a player a lot,” O’Sullivan said. “You can coach a lot of different ways and give them lots of things to improve on, but one thing a coach can not give a player is experience.”
“Hopefully we can build on last year’s season and learn from the pluses and minuses,” he said. “Hopefully we can go a step further.”