Florida baseball coach Kevin O’Sullivan expresses regret over incident at Conway Regional
By Sydney Hunte
Published:
Florida baseball starts its season off at home on Friday with a three-game series against UAB.
Kevin O’Sullivan, though, won’t be in the dugout.
The longtime Gators head coach will serve a three-game suspension after a video showed him in a profanity-laced tirade toward officials during an NCAA regional in Conway, S.C., in June. O’Sullivan was angry over a delayed start time to the Gators’ elimination game vs. East Carolina after the Pirates’ game the previous evening finished at midnight.
Despite O’Sullivan’s apology a day later, Florida AD Scott Stricklin in August announced a three-game suspension to be served during the Gators’ season-opening series against UAB.
“I don’t want to go back to that, but certainly the one thing I can say is I regret it,” O’Sullivan said on Friday, via a video from WESH-TV sports director Daren Stolzfus. “(The) last thing I want to do is misrepresent Florida or myself or anybody, for that matter. It’s just (that) I handled it poorly.”
The Gators ended up losing that elimination game against ECU, bringing their season to an end in regionals a year after a College World Series appearance. They’re No. 13 in the preseason rankings and are picked to finish seventh in the always-stacked SEC.
As far as the incident in Conway is concerned, O’Sullivan simply wants to turn the page.
“I did what I needed to do as far as apologies,” he said. “Obviously, I’ve got a three-game suspension coming up to start the season. I certainly accept that. And as far as I’m concerned, I’ve moved forward on that.”
Sydney is an Atlanta-based journalist who has covered everything from SEC and ACC football to MLS, the U.S. men's national soccer team and professional tennis. His work has appeared on such platforms as SB Nation, Cox Media Group and FanSided.
