GAINESVILLE, Fla. — A month ago, on the morning of April 7, all eyes in Gator Country were aimed at the Alamodome. That is where the UF men’s basketball team would face Houston for the national championship.

By the night’s end, the Gators were dancing along the River Walk, and Walter Clayton Jr. was certified an Orange & Blue legend. As the sun beamed overhead for Todd Golden’s team, UF baseball coach Kevin O’Sullivan was engulfed by the shadows of a season spiraling downward.

The Gators woke up that Monday morning far from fresh, having been swept in a three-game home series against Vanderbilt, which dropped them to 1-11 in the Southeastern Conference. The thought of making the postseason seemed farfetched, eliciting memories of former NFL coach Jim Mora’s famous rant.

“Playoffs? Don’t talk to me about playoffs. You kidding me? Playoffs. I just hope we can win a game.”

The same O’Sullivan strolled into a press conference Tuesday night, displeased at the result, a 7-1 home loss to USF in Florida’s final midweek game of the regular season, but with a much brighter outlook. The Gators (33-17, 11-13) have won 13 of their last 16 games heading into a three-game series at No. 1-ranked Texas, and climbed into the middle of the standings in the ultra-competitive SEC. Ten SEC teams are ranked in the latest D1Baseball.com poll, including five in the top 10.

“We’ve been playing so well for the last month,” O’Sullivan said. “Everything is in front of us.”

On Deck ⏭️

The first-ever, regular-season meeting between Florida & Texas.#GoGators pic.twitter.com/H8n3tSFxGe

— Florida Gators Baseball (@GatorsBB) May 7, 2025

In their final game before the first regular-season series against the Longhorns, the Gators managed only three hits against the Bulls and used eight pitchers. The highlight was a strong outing by starter Matthew Jenkins, making his first appearance since March 19. Jenkins tossed 2 2/3 scoreless innings and struck out seven of the 10 batters he faced.

Florida returned to practice Wednesday with a clear agenda: forget about Tuesday’s loss and focus on the road ahead. After three games in Austin, Florida closes the regular season with three at Condron Ballpark against Alabama.

Florida’s late-season turnaround is reminiscent of a year ago when after sneaking into the NCAA Tournament with a 28-27 record, O’Sullivan’s team heated up at the right time, winning eight of 11 in the NCAA Tournament before being knocked out of the College World Series with a pair of losses to Texas A&M.

“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’s ability to overcome adversity has been key to its resurgence. The Gators lost a pair of Opening Day starters to season-ending shoulder injuries – center fielder Kyle Jones and second baseman Cade Kurland – and lefty reliever Frank Menendez to a season-ending elbow injury. Meanwhile, Jenkins (arm) and left-handed starter Pierce Coppola (undisclosed) have missed significant time. Jenkins returned Tuesday, and Coppola pitched an inning in Sunday’s win at South Carolina in his first outing since March 1.

The Gators swept the Gamecocks without injured shortstop Colby Shelton, who has missed the last five games following hand surgery. O’Sullivan said on Tuesday that Shelton expects to return, but there is no timetable for his recovery.

The Gators have stayed afloat primarily because of their offense, which entered the USF game ranked fourth in the SEC in batting average (.304), fifth in runs (390), and fourth in stolen bases (76). The issue has been on the mound. Florida ranks 14th in the league in pitching with a 5.14 team ERA.

However, with starters Liam Peterson (8-2, 4.09) and Aidan King (4-2, 3.29) holding the rotation together, the emergence of Jake Clemente as the closer has been critical in the second half of the conference schedule. Clemente, who made five starts before moving to the bullpen, has pitched to a 0.53 ERA over his last seven outings. He is 6-for-6 in save opportunities over that stretch and has struck out 29 and walked five over 17 innings.

For the Gators to come out with a series win over the Longhorns, Clemente will likely be called upon in the late innings.

While the trip to Texas is a first for the Gators – they have faced the Longhorns four times in program history, with all the games taking place at the CWS – the two men in the opposing dugouts are very familiar with one another. O’Sullivan and first-year Texas coach Jim Schlossnagle are two of the winningest coaches of their generation. When the Gators won the CWS in 2017, they beat Schlossnagle’s TCU team twice on their way to the title. Schlossnagle’s Texas A&M team made it to the CWS championship series a year ago, beating the Gators twice before losing to Tennessee.

O’Sullivan expects nothing but the best from the Longhorns at packed UFCU Disch-Falk Field starting Friday night.

“They’re playing a really clean brand of baseball,” O’Sullivan said. “They don’t beat themselves. They pitch. They hit. They play defense. They really haven’t hit that spot, other than last weekend at Arkansas, where they struggled a little bit.”

Texas (39-8, 19-5) rebounded from losing three in a row against the Razorbacks with a 9-3 win over Lamar on Tuesday. Texas is a strong candidate to earn the overall No. 1 national seed and has series wins over Georgia, Auburn, LSU, Texas A&M, Kentucky, and Mississippi State.

The Gators have won four consecutive SEC series over Missouri, Mississippi State, Arkansas and South Carolina to return to postseason relevancy.

That’s a long way from where they were on April 7, the distance amplified by what their campus counterparts accomplished that night in San Antonio.

“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.”