Florida Gators

Florida vs. FGCU Series Notes
SEC Weekly Release
 
VIDEO LINKS: Kevin O'Sullivan discussing the upcoming season; Ryan Larson, JJ Schwarz & Logan Shore before the Gators' final practice prior to the opener
 
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Kevin O'Sullivan begins his ninth season at the helm as No. 1 Florida opens its 2016 campaign by hosting FGCU of the Atlantic Sun Conference in a weekend series. The Gators will be starting their 56-game regular season at McKethan Stadium for the 16th-consecutive season and the 28th time in 30 years. Game times this weekend are at 7 p.m. on Friday, 4 p.m. on Saturday and 1 p.m. on Sunday. The first 500 fans at McKethan Stadium on Friday night will receive Opening Night T-Shirts and Gator Legend Mark Ellis will be throwing out the ceremonial first pitch by representing the 1996 SEC Championship squad that advanced to that season's NCAA College World Series.
 
Junior right-hander Logan Shore will face Eagles' redshirt senior right-hander Brady Anderson in Friday's season opener, junior left-hander A.J. Puk will oppose FGCU junior right-hander Sterling Koerner in game two of the series on Saturday and Gator sophomore right-hander Alex Faedo will meet redshirt sophomore right-hander Mario Leon in Sunday's finale.  
 
All three games of the weekend series can be heard through FloridaGators.com and on the Gator IMG Sports Network with Jeff Cardozo and Steve Russell and the entire series will be carried on SEC Network+. These games will be available through participating TV providers only through WatchESPN. Live stats for each game will be available on FloridaGators.com and fans can also follow updates of each game on @GatorsBB, the official Twitter account of the Gator baseball team.
 
QUICK HITS ABOUT THE GATORS

• Florida returns 18 letterwinners from last year's squad, including six position starters - 1B Peter Alonso, SS Dalton Guthrie (played second base last season), OF Ryan Larson, OF Buddy Reed, C/DH Mike Rivera and C/DH JJ Schwarz. Of the club's 12 newcomers, 11 are freshmen and one is a junior college transfer (RHP Nick Horvath from Santa Fe College).
• UF will be replacing departed starters OF Harrison Bader (third-round pick of the St. Louis Cardinals), SS Richie Martin (first-round pick of the Oakland Athletics) and 3B Josh Tobias (10th-round pick of the Philadelphia Phillies).
• The Orange and Blue's entire weekend rotation returns in the form of junior RHP Logan Shore (11-6, 2.72 in 2015), junior LHP A.J. Puk (9-4, 3.81) and sophomore RHP Alex Faedo (6-1, 3.23), while junior RHP Dane Dunning (5-2, 4.03) drew 14 starts last year.
• The Gators have made the NCAA Tournament every year of Kevin O'Sullivan's tenure, the longest stretch in school history.
• Last year, the Gators (52-18) advanced to the NCAA College World Series for the fourth time in six seasons and were one victory shy of the CWS Finals.
• Florida made the CWS for the ninth time in school history (1988, 1991, 1996, 1998, 2005, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2015).
• UF reached the 50-win plateau for the second time in O'Sullivan's tenure and for the fourth time in school history. Its 52 wins were the second-highest total for the program (53 in 2011).
• The Gators have been a national seed in six of the past seven seasons (No. 8 in 2009, No. 3 in 2010, No. 2 in 2011, No. 1 in 2012, No. 2 in 2014, No. 4 in 2015) – the most national seeds in the country in that span.
• Florida set a school record with a .984 fielding percentage, the second-best clip in NCAA history.
• For the first time in school history, the Orange and Blue ended the seasons for Sunshine State rivals Miami and Florida State in NCAA play.
• The Gators overpowered the Hurricanes twice in Omaha, by scores of 15-3 and 10-2, and swept the NCAA Gainesville Super Regional over the Seminoles, 13-5 and 11-4.
• UF claimed its fourth Super Regional title in five appearances under Coach O'Sullivan and its first since 2012 with the sweep of the Seminoles.
• Florida was 12-3 (.800) in the postseason, going 8-2 (.800) in the NCAA Tournament and 4-1 (.800) at the SEC Tournament.
• The Gators made their 31st NCAA Tournament appearance and swept through the NCAA Gainesville Regional at McKethan Stadium by knocking off Florida A&M (19-0), USF (8-2) and Florida Atlantic (2-1).
• Florida brought home its seventh SEC Tournament Championship with a 7-3 victory over No. 9 Vanderbilt. It was the squad's first crown since 2011 and it defeated the reigning national champions three times in four meetings during the season.
• After dropping a 7-6 decision to No. 24 Arkansas in the SEC Tournament, the Gators reeled off four consecutive wins over Auburn (11-2), No. 24 Arkansas (10-0 in 7 innings), No. 1 LSU (2-1) and No. 9 Vanderbilt (7-3). The Tigers and Commodores were the top two seeds at the event.
• Schwarz, who went 2-for-5 with a run scored versus Vanderbilt, was chosen as the Most Valuable Player of the SEC Tourney after batting .526 (10-for-19) over the five games, with six RBI, five runs and three doubles. He joined Gator winners Rich Bombard (Pitcher, 1982),
• Brian Reimsnyder (Outfielder, 1988), Herbert Perry (Designated Hitter, 1991), Brian Purvis (Outfielder, 1991) and Daniel Pigott (Outfielder, 2011).
• The NCBWA Freshman Hitter of the Year, Schwarz was 28-for-57 (.491) with 23 runs and 19 RBI during the postseason and batted .333 (6-for-18) during the CWS. He set a Gator freshman record with 18 homers, including a school-record four round-trippers versus Stetson on April 7, and led the club with 73 RBI.
• UF played the toughest schedule in the nation and boasted the No. 1 RPI.
• The Gators led the league with three All-SEC Freshman Team selections, Guthrie, Rivera and Schwarz, giving O'Sullivan 17 recipients during his tenure.
• Florida's total of 12 newcomers was the No. 1 ranked recruiting haul according to Collegiate Baseball and was rated No. 2 by Baseball America and Perfect Game.
• O'Sullivan welcomed his seventh-consecutive top-8 recruiting class from Collegiate Baseball: 1st in 2009, 5th in 2010, 8th in 2011, 7th in 2012, 1st in 2013, 3rd in 2014 and 1st in 2015.
• Six Gator newcomers were drafted last June but elected to move to Gainesville: RHP Brady Singer was chosen in the second round with the 56th choice by the Toronto Blue Jays, INF Jonathan India was taken in the 26th round with the 781st pick by the Milwaukee Brewers, OF Danny Reyes was tabbed No. 1,1161 overall in the 39th round by the Boston Red Sox, INF Deacon Liput was chosen by the New York Yankees in the 39th round with the 1,173rd choice, LHP Hunter Bowling was taken in the 39th round by the San Francisco Giants at No. 1,176 and RHP Jackson Kowar was chosen by the Detroit Tigers with the 1,210th pick in the 40th round.
• Since O'Sullivan has been in charge, the Gators have lost just four weekend series in Gainesville to non-conference opponents: the 2009 Super Regional to Southern Miss (7-9, 6-7) and regular-season series to Miami (FL) (Feb. 27-March 1, 2009: 5-8, 1-2, 2-16), FGCU (Feb. 22-24, 2013: 2-8, 3-8, 4-7 (11) and Indiana (March 8-10, 2013: 1-4, 6-4, 4-7).
• Florida boasts a 231-69 (.770) mark at McKethan Stadium under O'Sullivan, including a 56-13 (.812) record in three-game series.
• Dating back to 2002, the Gators hold a 13-1 (.929) record in opening weekend series at home. In O'Sullivan's tenure, Florida have swept Siena (2008), Louisville (2009), USF (2010 & 2011) and Rhode Island (2015) and captured two of the meetings with Cal State Fullerton (2012), Duke (2013) and Maryland (2014).

 
SERIES NUGGETS
After the Gators had captured six of the seven previous meetings with FGCU, the Eagles notched a three-game sweep at McKethan Stadium from Feb. 22-24 in the second weekend series of 2013. UF notched a 5-3 victory in Fort Myers on April 16, 2013, before the teams split a pair of contests in Gainesville in 2014 (2-1 FGCU on Feb. 27; 4-0 UF on March 1). In the most recent meeting, the Orange & Blue posted a 7-1 win in Fort Myers on April 15, 2014. O'Sullivan is 9-5 (.643) against the Eagles, 6-5 (.545) in Gainesville and 3-0 (1.000) in Fort Myers.
 
WEEKEND PROMOTIONS & ACTIVITIES
 
Season and single-game tickets for the 2016 Gator Baseball season are on sale and can be purchased online through FloridaGators.com or by calling the Gator Ticket Office at 1-800-34-GATOR from 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m., Monday through Friday.
 
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