The UF baseball team faces Texas Tech on Tuesday in an elimination game at the College World Series in Omaha, Neb. (Photo: Will Pantages/UAA)
College World Series Primer: Gators vs. Texas Tech
Tuesday, June 21, 2016 | Baseball, Scott Carter
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By: Scott Carter, Senior Writer
OMAHA, Neb. -- The Gators arrived here with visions of the program's first national title.
First, they need a win.
The No. 1 overall national seed, the Gators face Texas Tech on Tuesday afternoon (5 p.m. ET) in an elimination game. Florida and Texas Tech, the No. 5 seed, are the only national seeds remaining in the College World Series after Miami was eliminated on Monday by UC Santa Barbara.
In an NCAA Tournament highlighted by underdogs overcoming the odds, the Gators will try to win one for the favorites after losing to upstart Coastal Carolina, 2-1, on Sunday night.
The Gators came within a win last season of advancing to the CWS championship series. To reach the championship final in 2016, Florida must win four in a row starting today against the Red Raiders, who lost their opening game in Omaha to Texas Christian.
While the Gators fell in their opener due to a pitching gem from Coastal Carolina starter Andrew Beckwith, Texas Tech was done in by a timely home run from TCU freshman Luken Baker, whose three-run homer in the top of the ninth inning Sunday afternoon crushed the Red Raiders' bid for their first CWS victory in school history.
Gators DH JJ Schwarz and the rest of the lineup will try to muster more than one run today against Texas Tech. (Photo: Tim Casey/UAA)
"The ball has bounced our way quite a bit lately,'' Texas Tech coach Tim Tadlock said. "The ball didn't bounce our way [Sunday]."
Neither did it for the Gators.
Coastal Carolina took an early lead Sunday when Zach Remillard hit a high fly ball down the right-field line that bounced on the edge of the foul line. The hit was first ruled foul, but after the first video replay review in CWS history, umpires reversed the call to an RBI double. The Gators tied the game on Jeremy Vasquez's RBI single in the fifth, but Remillard answered with an RBI triple in the sixth.
That was all Beckwith needed.
Florida finished with seven hits but did not have a baserunner after the sixth as Beckwith mowed down the final 10 Gators in order.
Florida coach Kevin O'Sullivan will hand the ball to sophomore right-hander Alex Faedotoday with Florida's season on the line. As good as Faedo has been this season, he can't do it alone.
Here is a closer look at the matchup:
*****
FLORIDA
Record: 52-15 Regular season: 44-11 (second in SEC East) Coach:Kevin O'Sullivan, ninth year (396-188, .678) All-Time NCAA Tournament: 98-68 CWS appearances: 10 (1988, '91, '96, '98, 2005, '10, '11, '12, '15, '16) CWS record: 14-20 CWS titles: None Noteworthy: Florida seeks to avoid a two-and-out trip to Omaha for the second consecutive time as the No. 1 overall national seed; the 2012 Gators lost both games in the CWS as the tournament's top seed ... First meeting in school history with Texas Tech ... Gators sophomore Alex Faedo (13-2, 3.25 ERA) gets the start; Faedo suffered his second loss of the season in his last outing, a 2-0 setback to Florida State in Game 1 of the Gainesville Super Regional ... Faedo averages 11.51 strikeouts per nine innings; Texas Tech hitters are prone to striking out; TCU pitchers struck out 15 Red Raiders on Sunday ... Florida is one of five schools -- Florida State (21), Clemson (12), North Carolina (10) and Northern Colorado (10) -- to make at least 10 appearances in the CWS without winning a title ... Florida struck out 12 Coastal Carolina batters on Sunday to increase its NCAA-leading total to 662 ... Reliever Dane Dunning tossed 2 2/3 scoreless innings Monday and has allowed only one run in 14 1/3 innings in five NCAA Tournament appearances ... First baseman Peter Alonso singled in his first trip to the plate against Coastal Carolina and is 14-for-29 (.483) with four doubles, four home runs and 11 RBIs in seven NCAA Tournament games.
Quote of Note: "He's been great for us all year long. I watched a little bit of the TCU-Texas Tech game and I think they got, like, six right-handers in the lineup. So we'll run him out there. I feel great with him on the mound. And I feel very confident but we're going to have to obviously swing the bats a little bit better." -- Gators coach Kevin O'Sullivan on starting sophomore Alex Faedo on Tuesday
*****
TEXAS TECH
Record: 46-19 Regular season: 40-14 (first in Big 12) Coach: Tim Tadlock, fourth year (148-94, .612) All-Time NCAA Tournament: 25-24 CWS appearances: 2 (2014, '16) CWS record: 0-3 CWS titles: None Noteworthy: Texas Tech won the Big 12 Conference regular-season title for the first time in 19 years and advanced to Omaha by defeating East Carolina in the Lubbock Super Regional ... Red Raiders first baseman Eric Gutierrez is a four-year starter and was Big 12 Conference Player of the Year; he entered the CWS hitting .326 with 12 HRs and 58 RBIs ... Outfielders Tyler Neslony (.314, 10 HRs, 58 RBIs) and Stephen Smith (.318, 10, 39) provide Gutierrez with support in the lineup ... The Red Raiders are 39-2 when holding opponents to five runs or less ... Reliever Robert Dugger was 6-0 with a 2.34 ERA entering the CWS, but in the loss to TCU, Dugger served up the three-run homer to Luken Baker in the top of the ninth to put the Red Raiders in the loser's bracket ... Red Raiders center fielder Tanner Gardner, who leads the team with a .384 average,has a 10-game hitting streak and was 2-for-4 with a run scored in Monday's loss to TCU ... Texas Tech is 3-2 all-time against current SEC schools in the NCAA Tournament ... Red Raiders are 2-0 in elimination games this postseason, beating Dallas Baptist in the regional and East Carolina in the super regional ... Freshman right-hander Davis Martin is expected to start today's game; Martin is 9-1 with a 2.73 ERA, with 58 strikeouts and 24 walks in 82 1/3 innings ... Shortstop Orlando Garcia went 2-for-5 against TCU, his fourth multi-hit game of the NCAA Tournament.
Quote of Note: "We can play a little defense on the infield. Our outfield arms probably aren't the best in the tournament by any stretch. But we've got some guys who can swing the bat out there.'' -- Texas Tech coach Tim Tadlock
