ChompTalk.com

Florida head coach Kevin O’Sullivan has talked about playing with a sense of urgency. After Tuesday’s 7-1 loss to USF, he took solace in the fact that his players had learned to do so over the course of a 10-2 SEC rebound which put the Gators firmly in playoff contention ahead of a series against the No. 1 Texas Longhorns.

“We’ve been playing playoff baseball for the last month,” he said. “So this weekend will be no different. I think they’ve learned over the last month the urgency that we have to play with.”

That urgency came through Friday in Florida’s (34-17, 12-13 SEC) 8-2 win against Texas (39-9, 19-6 SEC). With Gators’ ace Liam Peterson and freshman flamethrower Aidan King still available, a potential series win against the No. 1 poll and RPI team in the nation on Saturday or Sunday would essentially guarantee a playoff berth and put Florida in the conversation to host a regional if it performed well against No. 23 Alabama and in the SEC Tournament.

Florida took off with a six-run first inning that would secure it the win regardless of the future ongoings. Hayden Yost and Ty Evans, who’ve been resurgent and key factors to the Gators’ success in the past two weeks, accounted for three of the six innings. Yost also scored Evans in the fourth for Florida’s eight and final run of the game.

Pierce Coppola, in his second appearance since returning from injury, kept a scoreless resume since his return and added another inning as an opener. He executed the plan to perfection, keeping runs off the board and staying under 45 pitches. He struck out three but once again hit two batters.

Perhaps the biggest factor in the win is bullpen management. Yes, Florida had to go to Luke McNeillie when Jackson Barberi couldn’t pick up behind an excellent scoreless four innings behind Billy Barlow, but the Gators got a productive close from Christian Rodriguez. That keeps Jake Clemente, Matthew Jenkins, Alex Philpott and Rodriguez and Barberi, who only threw 18 and 14 pitches respectively, available for the weekend. Caden McDonald also should be available.

Florida will seek a massive series win tomorrow at 2 p.m. on ESPN SEC Network+.