Coach has recharged Gators on brink of final

Kevin O'Sullivan is making it look easy.

It's not because the Florida coach is in the College World Series, which means the intricacies and complications inherent to baseball have to be handled by young men frequently not prepared for the mix of a welcoming embrace from America's Heartland and the steaming pressure they find in Omaha, Neb.

"It's not easy, and nobody here thinks it is," said O'Sullivan, who in his fourth season as coach has the Gators back in the CWS for a second consecutive year. "The thing is getting everybody to understand that just being here isn't the ultimate goal. That's a cliche, but it's important,"

O'Sullivan, 42, had zero years of experience as a boss on the college level when athletic director Jeremy Foley hired him away from a nine-year assistantship at Clemson.

Florida had gone two seasons without a postseason tournament invitation before Sullivan's arrival, but it hasn't been absent under his charge. Now the Gators (52-17) again have moved through region and super region competition to qualify for the CWS final field after going two-and-out in 2010.

"We're doing some things differently in preparations for each game and the entire stay," said O'Sullivan, whose team lost two straight — to UCLA and FSU — at the CWS last year despite being the No. 3 team in the country. "I made some mistakes last year."

Not so far this time.

The Gators play Vanderbilt today, one win away from the best-of-three title series. If they lose today, they'll get another chance at 2 p.m. Saturday against Vandy.

Foley is more than satisfied: "We hadn't achieved any consistency until Sully got here. We'd be in and out every year or every couple of years. Our goal was to be like Miami and Florida State, who have set a standard by having a chance to go to Omaha every year. We wanted to be considered one of those teams expected to challenge for a championship all the time.

"I wouldn't have told you we'd be 2-0 at the College World Series four years in, but I knew Sully would have a big impact."

VIRGINIA OUSTS CAL: Unbeaten Tyler Wilson carried a shutout into the eighth inning, Virginia used a four-run sixth to break open a close game and the No. 1-seeded Cavaliers eliminated California from the CWS with a 8-1 victory.

Virginia (56-11) will face defending national champion South Carolina in the Bracket 2 final. The Cavs need to beat the Gamecocks today and again Saturday to reach the final. The Cavaliers have No. 2 overall draft pick Danny Hultzen available to pitch today, but neither team has announced a starter.

The loss ends an improbable postseason run for California (38-23), which started the year with its program scheduled to be dropped in 2012 for budgetary reasons. A fundraising effort saved the program.

Kenny Swab singled and scored on a three-base error to start Virginia's big sixth.

Wilson (10-0) allowed five hits over a career-high 72/3 innings, retiring 11 in a row from the second to sixth innings.

Cal starter Dixon Anderson (4-4) took the loss. The ninth-round pick of the Nationals hadn't pitched since June 5.

football: Ohio State trustees will spend up to six weeks reviewing the athletic program after the scandal that led to the suspension of five players and the forced resignation of coach Jim Tressel. "We want to assure ourselves that there are no new issues in any existing athletics matters that have not been dealt with," Robert Schottenstein said. "We believe that is the case." … South Carolina redshirt freshman defensive back Victor Hampton, who was dismissed from the program last week, can return but has to "do some things" first, coach Steve Spurrier said. … Iowa State suspended freshman running back DeVondrick Nealy for a violation of team rules.

Basketball: Former Knicks assistant and executive Jeff Nix was named Wake Forest director of basketball operations. From 1992-2007, he spent eight years as a Knicks assistant, five years as the assistant general manager and two years as the director of scouting. … Boston University hired Boston College assistant Joe Jones as head coach. Patrick Chambers left this month to become coach at Penn State.