No. 3 Florida Meets No. 8 Florida State In Jacksonville Tuesday Night

Tuesday, March 29

Jacksonville, FL

6:00 PM

Florida Gators

Florida State

Tickets

Nelson Maldonado batted .615 in the Gators' series against Kentucky and homered in the first meeting with FSU.

No. 3 Florida Meets No. 8 Florida State In Jacksonville Tuesday Night

Monday, March 28, 2016 | Baseball

Round Two Between the Gators and Seminoles at The Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville

By: John Hines

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – No. 3 Florida (23-3) meets No. 8 Florida State (18-5) in the second of the three Sunshine State showdowns on Tuesday at 6 p.m. at The Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville. The Gators posted a 6-0 shutout of the Seminoles on March 15 in Gainesville and the squads will tangle in Tallahassee on April 12.

The game can be heard through FloridaGators.com on the Gator IMG Sports Network with Jeff Cardozo and Steve Russell and there will be no television coverage of the contest.

QUICK HITS ABOUT THE GATORS

Florida (23-3/4-2 SEC) spilt four games last week, defeating No. 19 Florida Atlantic (2-1) and then dropping two out of three contests at SEC Eastern Division rival Kentucky (12-5, 4-7, 4-5 (10)).
The Gators ran their winning streak to 17 games, the second-longest stretch in school history, by claiming the series opener against the Wildcats before UK captured the series by taking the next two games.
Despite a .615 (8-for-13) performance by freshman outfielder Nelson Maldonado (.262, 12 RBI), Florida was held to a team batting average of .248 by Kentucky. Maldonado is 15-for-39 (.385) since beginning the season 2-for-26 (.077) and boasts a career-best five-game hitting streak.
Sophomore shortstop Dalton Guthrie (.371, 22 runs, 12 RBI) and freshman second baseman Jonathan India (.308, 15 runs, 12 RBI) were each 4-for-13 (.308) in Lexington.
Redshirt sophomore pinch runner Tyler Marshall scored the winning run in the 10th inning on a wild pitch as Kentucky notched a 5-4 victory on Easter Sunday afternoon. The Wildcats scored twice in the frame after the Gators had taken a 4-3 lead. In the top of the 10th, junior Buddy Reed (.287, 22 runs, 16 walks, 11 stolen bases) reached on an error and moved to second on a wild pitch. Sophomore JJ Schwarz (.307, 24 runs, 22 RBI) gave the Gators a 4-3 lead with an RBI single into center field to score Reed.
Sophomore RHP Alex Faedo (5-0, 2.70) struck out eight batters over 5.2 innings but was not involved in the decision.
Senior Dorian Hairston snapped a 1-1 tie with a three-run homer in the fourth inning during Kentucky's 7-4 win on Saturday afternoon. UK tallied three runs in both the fourth and fifth innings. Maldonado (3-for-4) and India (2-for-4) had multiple-hit outings for the second straight day to lead the Gator offense.
Maldonado homered twice and drove in three runs and India chipped in with three RBI as UF posted a 12-5 win in the opener. Junior RHP Logan Shore (5-0, 2.89) won his 10th straight decision and was supported by an offense that had four players turn in multiple-hit efforts, highlighted by Maldonado (3-for-5, three runs). Guthrie was 2-for-4 out of the leadoff spot and scored twice, Reed was 2-for-5 with the go-ahead RBI single and India (2-for-5) scored twice and matched his career best with three RBI.
After trailing 1-0, Florida answered in the third with three runs on three hits to take a 3-1 lead. Maldonado opened the frame with his third homer to right field. India followed with a double into right center, went to third on a passed ball and Guthrie was hit by a pitch for runners on the corners. Reed put the Gators in front with an RBI single up the middle to drive in India and Schwarz delivered an RBI grounder to bring home Guthrie. Maldonado blasted his second homer of the game with sophomore Jeremy Vasquez (.266, 11 runs) aboard in the fourth for a 5-1 margin.
Maldonado became the first Gator to have multiple homers in an outing since Schwarz had a pair against Florida State during the NCAA Gainesville Super Regional on June 6, 2015.
Florida has a challenging week on tap, facing No. 8 Florida State (18-5/6-1 ACC) on Tuesday before welcoming No. 1 Texas A&M (21-3/4-2 SEC) for three games starting on Friday night.

DRAWING THE START
Freshman right-hander Jackson Kowar (2-0, 3.10) will oppose Florida State sophomore right-hander Drew Carlton (4-0, 3.08). Kowar has made seven appearances and three starts spanning 20.1 innings and has 26 strikeouts and six walks. The righty is coming off a start last Tuesday against No. 19 Florida Atlantic in which he registered six strikeouts over 4.1 innings but was not involved in the decision.

LAST MEETING BETWEEN THE GATORS & SEMINOLES
No. 1 Florida topped No. 11 Florida State, 6-0, on March 15 in the first of the squads' three Sunshine Showdown matchups this season. With their first shutout of the Seminoles in Gainesville since March 3, 1994, the Gators raised their winning streak to 12 games in front of a crowd of 5,917, the fifth-largest in McKethan Stadium history.

Junior Dane Dunning (2-0) scattered seven hits and totaled five strikeouts over 5.2 innings to earn the victory and was followed to the mound by freshman Jackson Kowar (2.0 IP, 1 H, 3 K), junior Kirby Snead (0.1 IP, 1 K) and junior Shaun Anderson (1.0 IP, 1 H, 2 K). The Gators turned a season-high three double plays and their pitching staff notched 11 strikeouts and permitted one walk.

Freshman Nelson Maldonado opened the scoring with a solo homer in the second inning. The Seminoles put their first two runners of the third inning aboard but Dunning had junior Quincy Nieporte ground into an inning-ending double play. In the bottom of the frame, sophomore JJ Schwarz (3-for-5) led off with a single into left field and junior Peter Alonso followed with his fourth homer to deep left field for a 3-0 Gator advantage.

Schwarz boosted Florida's margin to 4-0 with a two-out RBI single up the middle in the fourth that scored junior Buddy Reed. The Gators tacked on two more runs in the fifth on an RBI single by freshman Jonathan India and sophomore Jeremy Vasquez came home on a wild pitch with the bases full.

LAST MEETING BETWEEN THE GATORS & SEMINOLES IN JACKSONVILLE
No. 8 Florida State defeated No. 5 Florida, 8-3, on March 31, 2015, in front of 8,306 fans at The Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville in The Share A Little Sunshine Showdown to even the teams' regular-season series. Left-hander Bryant Holtmann limited the Gators to one run over five innings, John Sansone went 4-for-4 and the duo of Danny De La Calle and DJ Stewart knocked in a pair of runs apiece for the Seminoles. Josh Tobias belted a solo homer in the fourth inning to narrow the gap to 2-1 but the Orange and Blue was held scoreless until RBI grounders by Buddy Reed and JJ Schwarz in the ninth inning.

SERIES NUGGETS
Florida State holds a 127-108-1 (.540) advantage in the all-time series, including an 11-9 (.550) margin at neutral sites. Head coach Kevin O'Sullivan is 16-15 (.516) against Florida State, 10-1 (.909) in Gainesville, 4-5 (.444) in Tallahassee and 2-9 (.182) at neutral sites.

The Gators had claimed five straight meetings between the Sunshine State rivals before suffering back-to-back losses last season in Jacksonville (8-3 on March 31) and Tallahassee (4-3 in 12 innings on April 14). However, Florida claimed both contests of the NCAA Gainesville Super Regional, 13-5 and 11-4, to advance to the College World Series, and won the first meeting this season, 6-0.

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