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Kevin O’Sullivan shares injury updates on 3 Florida starters: OF lost for season
By Andrew Olson
Published:
Kevin O’Sullivan had discouraging news on the injury front as Florida (12-2) heads into the 4th weekend of the 2025 college baseball season.
O’Sullivan discussed injuries to 3 starters ahead of the weekend series against Harvard.
Starting centerfielder Kyle Jones is out for the season. The Stetson transfer injured his shoulder making a diving catch in the Miami series. Jones was hitting .313 with 2 RBIs in early action.
“I think Kyle is probably going to, unfortunately, miss the season,” O’Sullivan said, per Nick de la Torre of Florida Victorious.
The Miami series did a number on the Gators. Starting pitcher Pierce Coppola and 2B Cade Kurland were also injured against the Hurricanes.
Coppola was pulled during the 3rd inning of Game 2. He’s dealing with an undisclosed injury, but the latest from O’Sullivan was not encouraging.
The Florida coach said Coppola would not pitch in the Harvard series, with Aidan King filling in. O’Sullivan was unable to offer further details on when Coppola could return.
“They’re still meeting with doctors and getting second opinions. That type of thing,” O’Sullivan said, per de la Torre. “It’s a little premature for all of that.”
The news is especially concerning considering Coppola’s history. He threw only 4.1 innings in 2022 before missing the remainder of the season due to injury. Coppola then missed all of 2023. He would miss over 2 years before making his return on April 13, 2024.
Coppola was off to a strong start in 2025 as a member of the weekend rotation. The 6-8 left-hander has a 1.42 ERA in 12.2 IP allowing 2 earned rungs on 4 hits and 1 walk while striking out 23.
O’Sullivan was also unable to offer anything encouraging on Kurland, who hurt his shoulder.
“Cade, there’s really no timeline. It’s just a matter of how quickly he can strengthen his shoulder and stabilize that joint,” O’Sullivan said, per de la Torre. “It could be as short as 10 days, 2 weeks, or it could be longer than that. I really don’t know. Obviously, he’ll get out there as soon as he possibly can.”
Last season, as a sophomore, Kurland played in all 66 games, making 62 starts while dealing with a right-hand injury. He slashed .245/.346/.457 across 245 at-bats on the year.
Florida and Harvard begin the 3-game series on Friday at 6:30 p.m. ET. All 3 games will stream on SEC Network+.
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
