June 15, 2007

Florida hires Tigers assistant

Observer News Services

GAINESVILLE, Fla. --
The Florida Gators hired Kevin O'Sullivan as coach Thursday to try to turn around a program that has fallen on hard times.

O'Sullivan has been pitching coach and recruiting coordinator the past nine years at Clemson, where he helped the Tigers to nine straight NCAA tournament appearances, and College World Series berths in 2000, 2002 and 2006.

He takes over a struggling Gators team that has missed the postseason the past two years under former coach Pat McMahon, who was fired last week despite compiling a record of 231-141-1. McMahon also led the Gators to the 2005 College World Series championship game, where they lost to Texas.

• Arizona State assistant Henry Thomas was hired as coach at Florida International. He was an assistant at Clemson in 1979-86 and also spent time at Georgia Tech, Miami and Louisiana State.

• Louisville joins UC Irvine as first-time CWS entries. Defending champion Oregon State and 2006 runner-up North Carolina are back, marking only the fifth time the previous year's finalists are making a return trip.

• Oregon State looks to join Texas (1949-50), Southern California (1970-74), Stanford (1987-88) and LSU (1996-97) as the only consecutive winners. ... The Beavers are 37-0 when leading after seven innings.

• Three of the past four CWS champions are in Omaha: Oregon State (2006); Cal State Fullerton (2004) and Rice (2003).

• UC Irvine is in its sixth year of fielding a baseball team after shutting down the program in 1992 because of state budget cuts.

• UC Irvine's Blair Erickson is the NCAA's career leader in saves with 53.

• Louisville's Chris Cates is the smallest player in Division I at 5-foot-3. He has 52 career sacrifices -- third in NCAA history.