GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Kevin O’Sullivan has settled on a rotation for opening weekend. Sophomore Liam Peterson will get the ball on Opening night, followed by redshirt sophomore Jake Clemente on Saturday and redshirt junior Pierce Coppola will anchor the weekend on Sunday.
Peterson made 18 appearences during his true freshman campain, inclduing 16 starts (15 on the weekend). He tied for the team high in games started while ranking fourth in innings pitched and strikeouts. It was a lot to ask of the freshman, who went through his share of ups and downs and growing pains.
“In all fairness to him. He was thrusted into a role last year that he may not have been ready for, but we made a conscious decision that we were gonna stick with it. And we got to a certain point where he was arguably, other than Brandon, our most talented pitcher, even though he didn’t have the experience,” O’Sullivan said of Peterson’s freshman season. “But he had a chance to play for the USA team this summer and he had a really good fall. I mean, everything is there for him to be one of the better Friday night pitchers in our league. And now we just gotta go out and do it and he’s gotta learn. He’s gotta be able to stay away from the big inning. He can’t let one thing snowball and affect the next inning or the next hitter. And that’s all part of the maturity process, and hopefully he’ll take that next step.”
Clemente returns to Florida for his third season. After missing the 2023 seaosn with injury, Clemente made 19 appearences including two starts in 2024. He worked 28.2 innings and struck out 39 batters against 20 walks, finishing with a 2-0 record, 5.34 ERA and .234 batting average against. Clemente was his best when Florida needed him most. He started and provided 3.1 innings of one-run ball in a must-win game against Oklahoma state in the Stillwater Regional on June 3, allowing three hits and three walks while striking out two.
Coppola has had a long road at Florida. He started the Sunday game of opening weekend in 2022 before missing the rest of the season due to a back injury, which required surgery. A shoulder injury kept him off the field in 2023 before he was able to finally get back on the mound in 2024. For the first time since he enrolled in college, Coppola was able to have a healthy offseason, something that has helped him this fall and spring.
“His last two outings he’s thrown more strikes than he did in the fall and the early part of the spring. That was really, really encouraging,” O’Sullivan said. “His misses have been smaller. He’s worked awfully hard on the other aspects, holding runners. He’s missed two years so there’s a lot of things that went into this but I’ve been really encouraged the way he’s thrown the ball the last two times out.”
The No. 7 Florida Gators will host Air Force this weekend at Condron Family Ballpark. First pitch is set for 6:30 p.m. on Friday, 4:00 p.m. on Saturday and noon on Sunday.
