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Tuesday after Florida’s loss against USF, head coach Kevin O’Sullivan was unbothered. He’d already turned his attention to the weekend, where his squad had the chance to grab hold of a serious opportunity on the road against the then-top ranked Texas Longhorns.

“We’ve been playing playoff baseball,” O’Sullivan said. “This weekend will be no different. I think they have learned their lesson with the urgency we’ve got to play with. I just want them to finish.”

Florida did that just that, finishing off the Longhorns 4-1 Sunday after an 8-2 win Friday to take a massive weekend series against the now-No. 3 team in the county.

Rank and file

Florida hasn’t seen the Top 25 rankings on any outlet in a long time after its 1-11 SEC start. Last week, Baseball America included the Gators again, but they didn’t get the nod from D1Baseball. This week, Florida is No. 23 in the D1Baseball poll and was jumped up to No. 13 by Baseball America.

King’s reign

True freshman Aidan King has been solid all year for the Gators after transitioning into a starting role after the Miami series. But Sunday’s win is the best of his career so far.

King went seven innings without allowing a run, giving up just two hits and tossing a career-high nine strikeouts. His effort was enough for the win and to be named SEC Freshman of the Week, his third weekly conference award of the season.

The right-hander from Jacksonville has relied mostly on his upper-mid 90s fastball, but his secondary pitches have grown into a real part of his arsenal. His splitter looks like a riding fastball from King’s near-overhead arm slot before falling off the table. It profiles very much like the pitch that turned Hurston Waldrep into one of the nation’s best pitchers and a highly outed MLB prospect in 2023.

“Yeah, I don’t remember a freshman pitching on the road like this and pitching as well as he did, and if it has happened, it hasn’t happened in a long time,” O’Sullivan said.

Playoff push

With the Gators finally reaching the 13 SEC wins benchmark, especially against the No. 1 team in the country, they will certainly make a 17th consecutive NCAA tournament.

Even more important is that the season isn’t over. Florida has the 13th best RPI in the county. Next week the Gators host Alabama, ranked eighth in RPI, this weekend in the regular season finale. Then they’ll head to Hoover for the SEC tournament. If the Gators can win the series against Alabama and pick up one or two wins in Hoover, they’ll be firmly in the conversation to host a regional. It would be an unprecedented turnaround from the start of conference play.

“We have to finish,” O’Sullivan said. “I feel good about this group. We just need to play the brand of baseball that we’ve been playing for the past month.”

Florida hosts Alabama May 15 at 6:30 p.m. and will stream on ESPN SEC Network+.