Florida baseball's Kevin O'Sullivan explains confusion around pitcher's mound visits

OMAMA, Neb. -- Florida baseball found a way to pull out another tight ballgame when it held on to beat Oral Roberts at Charles Schwab Field on Sunday night in the College World Series.

But the game took a wacky turn in the 8th inning, when with two outs and the Gators clinging to a 5-3 lead, righty closer Brandon Neely was unexpectedly pulled from the game.

The reason? Too many mound visits.

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Per NCAA Rule 6, Section 5(f), each team is allowed three offensive conferences and six defensive (pitching) conferences per game, no more of three of which may include a coach.

After Florida's replay challenge of a safe call at first base was confirmed, Florida catcher BT Riopelle visited Neely, making UF's sixth defensive conference. The Gators made their seventh defensive conference when Florida coach Kevin O'Sullivan crossed the foul line.

That forced UF to change pitchers and turn to freshman lefty Cade Fisher, who had limited time to warm up.

O'Sullivan took ownership for the mistake and apologized to the team postgame.

"We keep it in the dugout," O'Sullivan said. "And I had a brief conversation with the umpire before the inning. It was totally my mistake. And no one feels more terrible than I do.

"But at the same time, it's like a player that has had a bad game or gives up a run there in the ninth or something, extra innings. You've got to move on from it."

Cade Fisher finishes it off

Fisher got out of the bases loaded jam by getting Oral Roberts left fielder Justin Quinn to line out to left field to end the eigth inning.

In the ninth inning, Fisher loaded the bases, and gave up a run on a force out. Then, with runners on first and third, Fisher got ORU catcher Jacob Godman to fly out to center to end the game for his second save of the season.

"We had complete faith in Cade Fisher," Florida shortstop Josh Rivera said. "We knew he was coming in there to do this job. And that was just amazing for him to come in there and fill up the strike zone and get that last out to Mikey."

Said O'Sullivan: "If there's one positive thing that came out of my mistake was Cade being able to come in and get the last four outs."