Baseball Faces Bethune-Cookman On Tuesday Night
Tuesday, April 11, 2006 | Baseball
After four-straight road games, the Gator baseball team (20-16) returns to the friendly confines of McKethan Stadium on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. for its final mid-week home game of the season against Bethune-Cookman (18-20). The Wildcats enter the contest riding the momentum of sweeping North Carolina A&T in Daytona Beach by scores of 10-9, 7-2 and 16-5.
Junior Kris Gawriluk (Deltona, Fla.) (0-2, 4.43) will be making his fifth start of the campaign for the Gators. The right-hander has allowed 22 hits and 11 runs (10 earned) over 20.1 innings, with six strikeouts and five walks. Gawriluk's last start was on March 29 against South Florida, when he gave up two runs on four hits over three innings to the Bulls but was not involved in the decision.
Senior Raphael Kyles (3-4, 6.94) will take the ball for Bethune-Cookman. The 6'3” right-hander will be making his ninth start, a figure that will tie him for second on the club. Over 35.0 innings, Kyles has surrendered 58 hits and 34 runs (27 earned) and opponents are hitting .360 against him.
Florida and Bethune-Cookman have not met on the diamond since May 31, 2003, when UF notched an 8-6 victory at the NCAA Coral Gables Regional. The Orange and Blue has claimed all 18 meetings between the squads. Pat McMahon's team heads back into enemy territory for a crucial SEC weekend series in Knoxville versus Eastern Division counterpart Tennessee (19-13/3-8 SEC) beginning Friday night.
Florida dropped two of three games at No. 23 Kentucky over the weekend for its third-consecutive SEC series loss. The teams split the first two contests before the Wildcats claimed Sunday's rubber game, 8-6. Junior Matt LaPorta (Port Charlotte, Fla.) (.262, 20 RBI) bashed a homer in every game to match classmate Gavin Dickey (Tallahassee, Fla.) (.276, 26 RBI) for the top spot with seven homers. LaPorta was 5-for-12 (.417) in the series with five RBI and four runs. Junior Brian Jeroloman (Wellington, Fla.) (.248) set a career-high with a pair of HR in game two and matched his personal best of four RBI. The Gators batted .303 (33-for-109) on the weekend but had a 5.61 team earned run average.
Sophomore Bryan Augenstein (Sebastian, Fla.) fired his third complete-game of the campaign to lift the Gators to a 6-4 triumph on Saturday over the 'Cats. The righty has captured his last two starts and is now 7-2 with a 2.70 ERA. Augenstein has registered 64 strikeouts in 70 innings and is limiting foes to a .223 performance.
-UF-
