Baseball Hosts Auburn To Start SEC Play
Thursday, March 13, 2008 | Baseball
Florida (11-3) kicks off 10-straight weekends of Southeastern Conference action on Friday night by welcoming Auburn (11-5) to McKethan Stadium for three games. Last season, the Gators were 15-15 in SEC activity and took third in the East, while the Tigers were 10-20 and finished sixth in the West.
Sophomore right-hander Billy Bullock (Balm, Fla.) (1-2, 3.31) will start game one at 6:30 p.m. against AU redshirt freshman left-hander Grant Dayton (1-0, 0.64). Bullock made his first start of the season in the opener with Brown last weekend and was on the hook for the loss after allowing five runs (three earned) and six hits in five innings. Over a season-high 16.1 innings this season, he has a team-high 16 strikeouts and limited foes to a .218 batting average.
In a matchup of right-handers, junior Patrick Keating (Harrisburg, Ill.) (1-0, 2.63) will draw the assignment on Saturday at 4 p.m. against Tiger sophomore Scott Shuman (2-0, 2.70). Keating has not received a decision in his last two outings and most recently worked 4.1 innings, giving up six hits and three runs, in an 8-7 win over Brown last Saturday. He has a 3:1 strikeout to walk ratio in 13.2 innings.
Sunday's series finale will be carried live on Sun Sports at 1 p.m. and will feature rookie righty Tommy Toledo (Tampa, Fla.) (2-0, 3.00) opposing Auburn freshman southpaw Cory Luckie (2-1, 1.35). Toledo has worked five innings in each of his three starts and helped the Gators take the rubber match against the Bears on Sunday afternoon by surrendering two singles and a run.
Junior left fielder Avery Barnes (High Springs, Fla.) continues to pace UF's offense with a .432 average and occupies the top spot in hits (20), runs (19), slugging percentage (.614) and on-base percentage (.519). Riding an eight-game hitting streak, sophomore shortstop Cole Figueroa (Tallahassee, Fla.) rates third with a .360 average and has team-highs in RBI (22), walks (12), stolen bases (eight), doubles (five) and sac flies (four). He is second in hits (18), runs (18) and on-base percentage (.455). Although sophomore right fielder Jonathan Pigott's (Ormond Beach, Fla.) career-high 16-game hitting came to an end with a 0-for-3 outing against Florida Gulf Coast, he has a .364 clip.
With a 0.59 ERA, senior Josh Edmondson (LaGrange, Ga.) is currently second in the SEC behind Kentucky's James Paxton (0.57). Over 15.1 innings, the Gator reliever has struck out 13 batters and leads the league in opponent batting average (.106).
The Gators extended their winning streak to a modest three games with a 2-1 edging of FGCU on Tuesday night. Figueroa snapped a 1-1 tie with a sac fly in the eighth inning that scored Barnes, who had poked a one-out triple. Edmondson threw three scoreless innings without giving up a hit for his second win, while junior LHP Stephen Locke (Tampa, Fla.) worked a season-high six frames with five strikeouts and a run. Neither pitcher permitted a walk. Auburn had its string of seven consecutive wins ended by Appalachian State on Wednesday night, 4-2, in the final contest of an eight-game homestand.
The Gators will be facing off against former assistant coach Tom Slater, who is in his fourth year leading the Tigers. Slater was the squad's hitting coach during the 2004 season, when UF was 43-22 overall and advanced to NCAA Super Regionals for the first time in school history. He helped guide Florida's offense from a ninth-place ranking in batting average in SEC games to a second-place finish in '04.
After managing just a 17-17 showing at McKethan Stadium last year, Florida is off to a 10-1 (.909) start to 2008. The Gators were 7-8 (.467) against SEC foes in Gainesville last season and claimed two of its five league series by defeating Kentucky and Alabama.
Entering SEC play last season, the Gators were 10-10 after a 5-3 win over Army on March 14 and had dropped three of their five weekend series to that point. This time around, UF has taken 11 of 14 outings and has a 4-1 series record. Because of the compressed schedule, most schools have now played three weekend series and several midweek games.
In the most recent SEC statistics, Auburn (.301) and Florida (.299) rate 10th and 11th, respectively, in team batting average. The squads' pitching staffs fare much better, as the Gators (3.32) and Tigers (3.36) are third and fourth in team earned run average. AU is sixth with a .969 fielding percentage, while UF's clip of .960 is 10th.
In the teams' last series between March 23-25, 2007, Florida posted a weekend sweep on the road from No. 21 Auburn to move over the .500 mark on the season and grab a share of the league lead. It marked the Gators' second-straight trip to Plainsman Park that yielded three wins. Florida had not claimed an SEC series away from Gainesville since sweeping Vanderbilt over May 20-22, 2005. UF batted .314 (38-for-121), out-scored the Tigers, 30-19, pounded 10 doubles, drew 19 walks and was plunked eight times. Chris Petrie was 6-for-8 (.750) with three runs and two walks on the Plains. Figueroa snapped a 7-7 tie with a two-out RBI single in the 10th to lift the Gators to an 8-7 victory over AU on Friday night. Keating retired all six Tigers he faced, with a then-career-high four strikeouts, in the Gators' first extra-inning affair of 2007. Florida used a seven-run, seventh-inning outburst to hand Auburn a 12-9 setback on Saturday afternoon. Trailing 6-5 entering that frame, UF had three hits, drew five walks and was hit once to take a 12-6 lead. Petrie was a career-high 4-for-4 with two runs, Brian Leclerc went 3-for-5 with a pair of RBI and a couple of runs, while Matt den Dekker (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) snapped a 6-6 tie with a bases-loaded two-run single and notched three RBI. Edmondson matched a career-high with 4.2 innings of relief, giving up five hits and one earned run. David Hurst recorded the final two outs to pick up his second save. On Sunday, Matt LaPorta provided the Gators with a quick 2-0 lead in the first inning with a towering homer to left center and jacked a solo shot in the seventh. Hurst had a five-inning relief stint, scattering three hits and permitting one run, to collect his first victory of the campaign.
While Auburn leads the all-time series, 121-102-2, Florida has a 54-39 advantage in Gainesville. The Gators have claimed three of the past four series meetings.
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