Baseball Hosts Siena On Opening Weekend
Tuesday, February 19, 2008 | Baseball
Kevin O'Sullivan will make his head coaching debut this weekend as Florida begins its 2008 campaign by hosting Siena College of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference in a three-game weekend series. The Gators will be opening at McKethan Stadium for the eighth-consecutive season and the 20th time in 22 years. The 21st head coach in school history, O'Sullivan hopes to improve upon the 8-11-1 (.425) mark established by his predecessors in their inaugural games.
Sophomore right-hander Kyle Mullaney (Jacksonville, Fla.) will oppose Saint junior right-hander Craig Chaput in Friday's opener at 6:30 p.m. Mullaney made 18 appearances, including five starts, and was 4-2 with a 4.25 earned run average as a rookie. Over 55 innings, he registered 24 strikeouts and issued 22 walks. Fans will be able to watch the game live for free on GatorVision Online.
Saturday's matchup at 2 p.m. will pit Gator junior right-hander Patrick Keating (Harrisburg, Ill.) against Siena junior southpaw Matt Moberg. Keating drew the assignment against South Carolina in the 2007 Southeastern Conference Tournament and is set for his second career start. He was 3-2 with a 5.79 ERA in 21 appearances last season and collected two saves.
Freshman RHP Tommy Toledo (Tampa, Fla.) will make his collegiate debut for the Gators in Sunday's finale at noon and will be opposed by sophomore left-hander Craig Marcellus. Toledo was a third-round pick of the San Diego Padres in last June's Major League Baseball Draft and was 9-2 with a 1.01 ERA in his final season at Alonso High School. He was named the Hillsborough County Player of the Year and received top player recognition from both the Tampa Tribune and the St. Petersburg Times. Siena's trio of starting pitchers this weekend accounted for 32 of the Saints' 45 starts last season, over half of the team's total innings pitched and seven of the club's 12 victories.
Sophomore Cole Figueroa (Tallahassee, Fla.), a first-team Freshman All-American in '07, will start at shortstop and is the top returning player on offense. He hit .332 with 50 runs batted in, 48 runs and 11 homers and led the squad with 30 multiple-hit games. Senior Jon Townsend (London, Ky.) (.280, 34 RBI, 12 doubles) will handle the hot corner and sophomore Clayton Pisani (Naples, Fla.) (.254, 19 RBI, 11 runs) will start at second base. Limited to one game last season after tearing the ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) in his right elbow on opening night and undergoing season-ending surgery, senior Brandon McArthur (Seffer, Fla.) will take over the duties at first base from All-American Matt LaPorta.
Another difference that Gator fans will notice this season is that catchers will be calling the pitches. Sophomore Hampton Tignor (Sarasota, Fla.), who made 23 starts as a rookie behind the dish, will be the primary signal-caller. Over 32 games in 2007, he hit .286 with 12 runs and 11 RBI. Tignor threw out nine of 22 runners attempting to steal.
The Gators' starting outfield will consist of junior Avery Barnes (High Springs, Fla.) in left, sophomore Matt den Dekker (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) in center and sophomore Jonathan Pigott (Ormond Beach, Fla.) in right. Barnes had a .293 clip with 40 runs and 27 RBI last year and is expected to bat leadoff, while the duo of den Dekker and Pigott snagged SEC All-Freshman Team honors.
Florida returned 11 pitchers from last season's roster and lost four. The biggest losses were Bryan Augenstein, a seventh-round draft pick of the Arizona Diamondbacks who was 8-5 in a team-high 16 starts with 105 strikeouts and a 4.98 earned run average in 112.0 innings, and RHP David Hurst (2-2, 3.44 ERA, six saves, 27 appearances). Sophomore RHP Billy Bullock (Balm, Fla.) (2-7, 6.31) worked 61.1 innings and started 15 games last season, junior LHP Stephen Locke (Tampa, Fla.) (3-3, 6.95) started nine games, sophomore LHP Kevin Chapman (Coral Springs, Fla.) (2-1, 4.23) appeared in 19 games with six starts and Mullaney (4-2, 4.25) participated in 18 games and had five starts against SEC competition down the stretch.
Besides O'Sullivan and first-year assistants Craig Bell and Brad Weitzel, Florida has a total of eight newcomers on its roster. Sophomore catcher Buddy Munroe (Miami, Fla.) transferred from Clemson, while the remaining seven players are true freshmen. Josh Adams (Jacksonville, Fla.) and Chris Freshcorn (Tampa, Fla.) can play either in the infield or outfield, Evan Chambers (Lakeland, Fla.) plays in the outfield and the quartet of Cody Barnes (San Mateo, Fla.), Toledo, Travis Lawler (College Station, Texas) and Justin Poovey (Granite Falls, N.C.) are right-handed pitchers.
UF kicks off its 94th season of competition looking to rebound from a 29-30 performance in 2007. The finish marked the program's first losing record since 1990 (29-30) and represented just the second time since 1976 (21-27) that the Gators endured a sub-.500 showing.
The last two Florida clubs which had losing records turned things around quite nicely the following year. Jay Bergman's 1977 squad went 39-18 overall and captured its first Eastern Division title since 1969 with a 14-9 SEC mark. UF also made its first trip to NCAA Regionals since 1962. Joe Arnold engineered an even more noteworthy turnaround in 1991, when he directed the Gators to a school-record 51 victories, the program's most recent SEC Tourney crown and a berth at the NCAA College World Series.
UF sports a 52-40-1 (.565) record in its previous 93 opening day contests, including a 32-20-1 (.613) record at home. The Gators have claimed 19 of their last 25 lid-lifters and 13 of their last 16 season debuts in Gainesville. VMI used a four-run fifth inning and effective pitching to hand Florida a 5-3 defeat in its opener last season. UF has started the year on its own turf in 10 of the past 11 seasons, with the lone exception a 12-6 victory at Hawaii on Jan. 20, 2000.
February 22 marks the latest that the Gators have begun a campaign since 1979, when UF pinned a 17-5 defeat on Clemson at home on Feb. 24. Recently enacted NCAA legislation called for a universal start date for practice (Feb. 1) and this marks the first full weekend of college baseball action around the country.
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