Growing Up: The Turnaround of UF Freshman Pitcher Luke McNeillie

Florida baseball coach Kevin O’Sullivan had seen enough. 

It was a March 6 midweek game against UCF when O’Sullivan stepped out of the home dugout, walked slowly toward the mound and signaled to the bullpen for a pitcher. The Knights had roughed up right-handed starter Luke McNeillie by tagging the true freshman for five runs on five hits in just over an inning of work.

This was the second consecutive start in which McNeillie failed to get more than three outs, putting his team in a deep hole early. 

Something had to change.

Rewind to the fall. McNeillie shined throughout preseason camp, mere months after arriving in Gainesville. He was ranked as the No. 2 right-handed pitching recruit from Georgia, according to Perfect Game. His fastball was full of life and the command was what you look for in a talented newcomer. He performed so well leading up to the season that O’Sullivan put the ball in McNeillie’s hand to start on the road against Stetson on Feb. 27 in the Gators’ seventh game of the 2024 season.

However, it seemed as if all the confidence in McNeillie was solely through O’Sullivan’s eyes. The freshman didn’t share that same belief.

It showed as McNeillie quickly allowed five runs in the first inning against the Hatters, getting pulled after throwing 40 pitches and recording only two outs. Perhaps it was freshman jitters, maybe the heckling from a raucous crowd in DeLand packed in a quaint stadium.

“Maybe it was his first start on the road?,” O’Sullivan said following McNeillie’s first start. “Obviously, he’s going to be much better than that moving forward.” 

Four days later, McNeillie was called out of the bullpen on the road once again in the sixth inning against Miami, but gave up four runs, including a back-breaking homer in just two innings.

Hoping for a bounce-back outing, the coaching staff gave McNeillie a chance to redeem himself just four days later against UCF, which featured five former Gators on its roster.

Boy, did that backfire.

The Knights knocked McNeillie around Condron Family Ballpark and he exited again after throwing just 29 pitches. 

“What you’d like to see is that when people do have a tough outing, that they have the ability to bounce back,” O’Sullivan said. “We just haven’t been able to do that quite yet.”

McNeillie was just five games into his Gators career. His earned-run average was sky high, rising to a staggering 19.89. His confidence, however, seemingly couldn’t have been much lower.

But that’s when one conversation started to change everything.

Junior All-American pitcher Brandon Neely said he spoke to McNeillie the day after the freshman’s disastrous start against UCF. Neely offered words of advice, focusing on an adjustment to McNeillie’s mental approach.

“We talked for a while about just having a clear mind,” Neely said. “[McNeillie] is just like me when he goes out there. He’s locked in and doesn’t care about anything else. He just wants to win.”

Neely knows a thing or two about freshman pressure. Two years earlier, he was thrown into the fire himself at Florida. He found immediate success in Gainesville, including throwing seven innings of shutout ball and striking out 10 against Southeastern Conference rival South Carolina. He earned a 2022 Freshman All-SEC nod.

The conversation lit a spark under McNeillie that quickly turned into a fire of redemption.

After giving up a startling 16 runs in his first five outings, McNeillie has been a different pitcher since SEC play started. In 19 innings, he has allowed just six runs, good for an ERA of 2.84. In that span, McNeillie has struck out 26 and only walked seven. He walked six hitters in his first five outings alone.

He’s not just being run out on the bump in blowouts to pad his stats. McNeillie is doing it in high-leverage situations against big-time teams. In SEC games, his ERA is an impressive 3.44.

“[My confidence] has grown for sure,” McNeillie said. “The biggest thing is to just stay [true to] myself and trust myself. It’s nice to know the coaches have trust in me to keep me in games in big moments.”

Perhaps the signature moment of McNeillie’s turnaround – and his season – was March 17 against a Texas A&M team that has since surged to No. 1 in the rankings. Despite his turbulent start, McNeillie’s name was surprisingly called in the ninth with the Gators clinging to a 4-2 lead, trying to seal a huge series victory.

After giving up a leadoff single against the powerful Aggies, who rank near the top of numerous national hitting categories, early-season flashbacks all but certainly crept into the minds of the 6,110 nervous fans at Condron Ballpark … and perhaps even O’Sullivan’s.

However, the 6-foot-3 righty wasn’t phased one bit. He painted a fastball on the corner to strike out A&M star outfielder Jace LaViolette for the first out, then induced consecutive ground balls to end the threat – and the game. A fired-up – and, undoubtedly, relieved – McNeillie yelled in celebration, flexing his muscles and pumping his chest. He was instantly engulfed by his teammates; they knew how much it meant to him.

Even O’Sullivan could see the newfound fire in McNeillie.

“This is what we saw from him in the fall,” O’Sullivan said after McNeillie’s first career save. “He didn’t give up a run in the fall. He just got off to a tough start.” 

He struck out four consecutive batters en route to a career-high six in his next outing against unranked Jacksonville. His hot streak continued with three more scoreless outings against LSU and  Mississippi State.

It was against the Bulldogs, though, when McNeillie really repaid O’Sullivan’s confidence. In another Sunday outing with a series victory riding in the balance, McNeillie tossed 3 ⅓ shutout innings, picking up starter Jac Caglianone and setting the stage for the Gators’ two-way star’s walk-off homer.

The performance capped his best weekend to date. He collected a pair of wins, tossing 4 ⅓ scoreless innings against the then-No. 21 Bulldogs and earned SEC Freshman of the Week honors. The difference? Just going back to basics.

“It’s just attacking hitters,” McNeillie said. “I was falling behind hitters early on. I was leaving balls up in the zone when I was getting behind. When I’m behind in the count and I throw the ball middle-middle, it’s easier to hit than if I’m ahead in the count and they have to think about not striking out.”

Since SEC play started, McNeillie has shown familiar signs of Neely’s stunning freshman campaign from 2022, when Neely anchored the Gators for the back half of the season and became the arm O’Sullivan trusted most in the NCAA Tournament.

This Florida team has 18 pitchers on its roster, 11 of whom are freshmen. O’Sullivan has had to manage the ups-and-downs of a young staff, hoping the Gators’ freshmen will grow up quickly. It has been McNeillie who has shown the most resilience of the group. 

That showed again Tuesday in another midweek outing.

After back-to-back outings in which he allowed two runs against South Carolina and Vanderbilt, McNeillie faced the same Stetson lineup that battered him in his first career start and retired the side in order on just eight pitches.

“I’ve given this a lot of thought,” O’Sullivan said. “Obviously, Luke McNeillie has figured some things out on the mound a little quicker than some of our other young pitchers. Unfortunately, the reality of it is, the way the [SEC] is built now — it’s older — it probably takes these talented freshmen 30, 35 to 40 games to finally figure it out.

“They’ve had to go through some tough stretches. They’re starting to understand what it takes to be successful in this league. The importance of every pitch and attacking the leadoff hitter of an inning. Or not walking the guy after a hit to give up the big innings.”

Will this turnaround last as the Gators try to make a late-season surge? It’s not going to get easier for Florida, which is 21-19 and faces four critical SEC series, including three against teams ranked in the top six in the country: a road trip to Arkansas this weekend, followed by home series against Tennessee and Kentucky. 

Neely understands what the freshmen are going through and he likes the progress McNeillie has made.

 “It’s hard,” Neely said. “You’re here for a reason. If the coaches think out of high school you’re good enough for this program, then you definitely are. So, just keep working.”