Baseball To Face FGCU For First Time Tuesday
Monday, March 10, 2008 | Baseball
The Gator baseball team (10-3) will host Florida Gulf Coast University (11-2) on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at McKethan Stadium in its lone midweek contest before starting Southeastern Conference play this weekend at home against Western Division rival Auburn (10-4). Junior LHP Stephen Locke (Tampa, Fla.) (1-0, 6.23) will make the start for Florida against sophomore RHP Pete Woodworth (2-0, 2.20).
The Gators began their season-long 10-game homestand with a 4-1 showing last week. UF overpowered Campbell twice (15-3, 15-0) but then suffered an 11-2 setback to Brown on Saturday afternoon. Head coach Kevin O'Sullivan's squad rallied for its fourth series win in five tries this year by knocking off the Bears, 8-7 and 13-2. Meanwhile, the Eagles raised their ledger to 5-1 in the Atlantic Sun Conference by sweeping Gardner-Webb (6-3, 10-2, 7-1) over the weekend at Swanson Stadium.
Locke will be making his second start of the campaign after notching the win over Eastern Michigan in game one of a twinbill on Feb. 27. The southpaw went five innings, giving up four hits and two runs, with four strikeouts and a walk. Locke has come out of the bullpen in his last three outings against Miami (Fla.) (March 2 - 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R), Campbell (March 5 - 1.0 IP, 1 K) and Brown (March 8 - 0.2 IP, 3 H, 4 R). The lefty has seven K and issued two walks in 8.2 innings and opponents are batting .235 against him.
After dropping the opener of its series with defending Ivy League champion Brown, UF rallied from deficits of 3-0 and 7-2 to forge a split of Saturday's doubleheader with an 8-7 victory on a pinch-hit, bases-loaded walk-off single by junior Avery Barnes (High Springs, Fla.). The Gators cruised to a 13-2 triumph in Sunday's finale by scoring 10 runs through the first three innings. Freshman RHP Tommy Toledo (Tampa, Fla.) (2-0) limited the Bears to two hits and a run and worked five frames for the third-straight start and the duo of sophomore center fielder Matt den Dekker (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) and senior third baseman Jon Townsend (London, Ky.) drove in three runs apiece. The Orange and Blue sent nine batters to the plate in both the first and second innings and has now out-scored foes 20-4 in the first frame and 29-10 in the second stanza. Sophomore RHP Clint Franklin (Orlando, Fla.) (2-0) threw a career-high four innings in the second matchup with Brown and did not allow a run to earn the win. UF's seven-game home winning streak came to a screeching halt with the nine-run loss in the first matchup with BU.
Currently second behind Barnes (.450) for the team lead with a .390 batting average, sophomore right fielder Jonathan Pigott (Ormond Beach, Fla.) enters Tuesday night's game riding a 16-game hitting streak dating back to a 0-for-1 outing at LSU on May 11, 2007. He completed last season by hitting safely in his final five games and has at least one hit in the 11 games he has batted this season. Pigott has a .419 (26-for-62) clip during the skein, although he missed Sunday's contest against Brown with an injured knee. He is pursuing the school record of 29 games held by Tim Olson that was set from March 5-April 22, 2000.
The Gator running game was a perfect 7-for-7 during the Brown series, bringing the team's success rate on the basepaths to 33-of-34 this season. Sophomore shortstop Cole Figueroa (Tallahassee, Fla.) (8-for-8) and Barnes (7-for-7) continue to lead the theft parade, while den Dekker stole both second and third base on Sunday to improve to 5-for-5. UF was 39-for-58 in stolen bases over 59 games last year.
Florida is hitting .305 as a team and has a staff earned run average of 3.50. Figueroa (.354) paces the club with 20 RBI, 11 walks and five doubles, Barnes occupies the top spot in runs (19) and hits (18), while freshman Josh Adams (Jacksonville, Fla.) is hitting .349 with 15 RBI and a team-best three homers. Senior Josh Edmondson (LaGrange, Ga.) has registered a team-low ERA of 0.73 and has 11 strikeouts in 12.1 innings. Sophomore Tony Davis (Cooper City, Fla.) has eight appearances and has not permitted an earned run in 4.2 innings.
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