Baseball Heads To No. 8 Ole Miss
Thursday, March 20, 2008 | Baseball
Following a 6-1 conquest of No. 3 Florida State on Tuesday night that stretched its winning streak to seven games, Florida (15-3/3-0 SEC) visits Western Division leader Ole Miss (14-6/2-1 SEC) for three games at Oxford-University Stadium at Swayze Field. The Gators and Rebels have not met since the 2005 season, when UM captured the regular-season series in Oxford and then upended the Orange and Blue twice in three meetings at the SEC Tournament in Hoover, Ala.
Kevin O'Sullivan's squad started SEC play 3-0 for the first time since 2002 by defeating Auburn three times (7-1, 12-8, 6-2) at McKethan Stadium and joins Kentucky and Tennessee atop the Eastern Division standings. Meanwhile, Ole Miss claimed its first two meetings at Mississippi State (15-6, 11-6), before dropping the finale, 4-0.
Sophomore right-hander Billy Bullock (Balm, Fla.) (2-2, 2.78) will start game one Friday at 7:30 p.m. live on FSN Florida against UM junior right-hander Lance Lynn (4-0, 1.23). Bullock collected his first-ever SEC victory last Friday night by limiting Auburn to one run on five hits over 6.1 innings and matched his career high of six strikeouts.
In a matchup of right-handers on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. live on FSN Florida, junior Patrick Keating (Harrisburg, Ill.) (2-0, 2.41) will face Rebel junior Cody Satterwhite (2-0, 4.50). Keating worked five innings in his last outing, a 12-8 triumph over Auburn, in which he scattered seven hits and permitted one run.
Sunday's series finale can be viewed on GatorVision Online at 1 p.m. and will feature rookie righty Tommy Toledo (Tampa, Fla.) (3-0, 2.14) opposing Ole Miss sophomore left-hander Nathan Baker (1-2, 4.19). Toledo has worked at least five innings in each of his four starts and helped the Gators complete the sweep of the Tigers on Sunday afternoon by surrendering two hits and zero runs over a career-high six frames.
Sophomore center fielder Matt den Dekker (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) (.311, 19 runs, 15 RBI) enters the weekend on a career-high 12-game hitting streak in which he is batting .340 (17-for-50) with 16 runs and nine RBI. Junior left fielder Avery Barnes (High Springs, Fla.) (.424, 23 runs, nine stolen bases) has at least one hit in a personal-best 10-consecutive games, a 15-for-33 (.455) span.
After a .727 (8-for-11) beginning to league activity, freshman second baseman Josh Adams (Jacksonville, Fla.) (.393, 22 RBI, five doubles, four homers) looks for another strong weekend. Sophomore shortstop Cole Figueroa (Tallahassee, Fla.) is hitting .354 and leads the Gators in RBI (25), walks (14) and doubles (six). Sophomore right fielder Jonathan Pigott (Ormond Beach, Fla.) has a .322 average and infielder Clayton Pisani (Naples, Fla.) is right behind at .321.
Over eight appearances last season, including starts against Stetson, Florida State and North Florida, right-hander Clint Franklin (Orlando, Fla.) was 0-2 with a 12.21 ERA. The Orlando native collected his first collegiate victory with two scoreless and hitless innings against Miami (Fla.) in the finale on March 2 and notched his first save last Sunday. In eight games out of the bullpen in '08, the sophomore has worked 16.0 innings and sports a 1.69 ERA, second behind senior Josh Edmondson (LaGrange, Ga.) (1.45).
In front of a McKethan Stadium record crowd of 5,719 fans on Tuesday, junior left-hander Stephen Locke (Tampa, Fla.) (2-0) kept the high-powered Seminole offense scoreless over 5.1 innings and sophomore Kyle Mullaney (Jacksonville, Fla.) entered the game with the bases loaded in the eighth and recorded the final four outs to collect his second save. O'Sullivan became the first Gator head coach to win his initial encounter with FSU since Joe Arnold accomplished the feat in 1984.
The Gators worked out of several jams versus the 'Noles, as the visitors loaded the bases in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings and stranded 11 runners on the night. UF's pitchers held the top four hitters in Florida State's lineup to a combined 1-for-15 (.067). Senior Dustin Bamberg (Winter Haven, Fla.) belted his first homer with a solo shot in the second, classmate Jon Townsend (London, Ky.) drove in two runs and Barnes went 3-for-4 with an RBI single and his ninth stolen base.
The series between the Gators and Rebels is deadlocked at 37 wins apiece. However, UM holds a 23-14 edge in Oxford and has claimed eight of the last 10 meetings.
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