No. 22 Baseball Faces Crucial Trip To Alabama
Thursday, May 8, 2008 | Baseball
With two series remaining in the race for the 2008 SEC Tournament, 22nd-ranked Florida (29-18) will visit Western Division rival Alabama (28-22) for three games this weekend. The Gators (13-11) currently occupy the fifth spot in the league standings, just ahead of the Crimson Tide (12-12). UF is 1-3 on the road in SEC series, defeating Ole Miss and falling to Tennessee, Kentucky and South Carolina. UA is a perfect 4-0 on league weekends at the Capstone, having handled Vanderbilt, Ole Miss, Mississippi State and Auburn.
Sophomore Billy Bullock (Balm, Fla.) (4-3, 4.13) will start Friday night's opener at 7:30 p.m. against UA left-hander Miers Quigley (4-4, 4.96). Bullock was the hero of the Gators' 9-3 victory at No. 12 South Carolina last Friday, as the right-hander worked 5.1 innings out of the bullpen with a career-high seven strikeouts.
Saturday's matchup at 5 p.m. pits UF junior lefty Stephen Locke (Tampa, Fla.) (3-2, 3.28) versus Crimson Tide right-hander Austin Hyatt (3-3, 4.84). Locke held the high-powered Gamecock offense to two earned runs last Saturday in 4.1 frames but was not involved in the decision.
The series finale will be carried live on CSS at 2 p.m. and feature right-handers Patrick Keating (Harrisburg, Ill.) (8-0, 3.22) and Robert Phares (2-3, 5.91). Keating had claimed his first seven league outings before departing the finale at USC in the fifth inning with the contest tied.
On Wednesday night, sophomore right-hander Kyle Mullaney (Jacksonville, Fla.) (1-4) threw five scoreless innings to notch his first victory and the Gators withstood a five-run ninth inning for an 11-10 win over Bethune-Cookman at McKethan Stadium. Trailing 11-1, the Wildcats scored three runs in the seventh, one in the eighth and used a grand slam by senior Osvaldo Torres in the ninth to pull to within a run.
The triumph matched UF's win total from the 2007 campaign, when the squad finished 29-30, and improved the Orange and Blue to 21-0 all-time against Bethune-Cookman. Four Florida players tallied two hits, freshman Josh Adams (Jacksonville, Fla.), sophomores Clayton Pisani (Naples, Fla.) and Hampton Tignor (Sarasota, Fla.) and senior Jon Townsend (London, Ky.). A six-run sixth had boosted the hosts' lead to 10 runs.
Behind a complete-game effort from righty Bryan Augenstein, the Gators eliminated Alabama from last season's SEC Tournament, 3-2. In what was his final appearance in a Florida uniform before signing professionally, Augenstein went the distance, scattering eight hits and registering eight strikeouts. It was the first complete game by a UF hurler at the SEC event since Connor Falkenbach blanked Georgia, 7-0, on May 28, 2004.
Florida claimed two of three meetings with Alabama last May in Gainesville. Making his second career start, Mullaney limited the Crimson Tide to two runs over 7.1 innings as UF captured the series opener with a 6-2 win on Friday night. The right-hander scattered nine hits and was supported by two home runs and three RBI from Cody Neer (3-for-4). Matt LaPorta saw his 20-game hitting streak end when he was 0-for-1 and walked three times intentionally.
Augenstein notched 10 strikeouts over eight strong innings and Townsend drove in a season-high four runs as UF secured the series triumph with a 9-3 victory on Saturday. The Gators clubbed three home runs and endured a 49-minute weather delay in the bottom of the eighth before collecting the win.
Alabama salvaged the finale with a 7-5 win in 10 innings on Sunday. The Gators overcame a 5-1 deficit with two runs in the seventh and a pair of scores in the ninth to provide the McKethan Stadium fans with free baseball. Cole Figueroa (Tallahassee, Fla.) cranked his ninth homer with a two-run job to reduce UF's defecit to 5-3 and Avery Barnes' (High Springs, Fla.) first career round-tripper with one down in the ninth closed the gap to 5-4. Austin Pride evened the score with a game-tying double but was stranded on third as the potential winning run in the home part of the ninth. David Hurst collected his team-leading sixth save on Friday but took the loss after yielding a leadoff double in the 10th to Matt Bentley. Josh Edmondson (LaGrange, Ga.) permitted a game-winning two-run jack by sophomore Tyler Odle. Led by the trio of Neer (.556), Townsend (.455) and Pride (.400), Florida batted .330 (36-for-109) and out- scored the Crimson Tide, 20-12.
Gator Bytes
*Florida is 3-5 in game one of SEC series, 6-2 in game two and 4-4 in the finale.
*The club's final mid-week tilt will be next Tuesday, when USF (25-21/10-11 Big East) visits.
*Barnes' 22 stolen bases are the most by a Gator since Adam Davis swiped 24 in 2005.
*Tied for fourth in the SEC with 17 doubles, Adams has gone without a two-bagger for eight straight games.
*Sophomore Matt den Dekker (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) is a perfect 16-for-16 in stolen bases and has established career highs across the board in batting average (.309), runs (42), RBI (42), walks (24), doubles
(seven) and triples (two).
*With seven sacrifi ce fl ies, Figueroa is within two of tying the single-season school mark shared by Mark Kiger (2000) and Brad Wilkerson (1997). Figueroa is tied for sixth nationally, while Tim Carrier of UNC Greensboro leads with 10.
*Since suffering a ruptured ACL on April 2, senior Brandon McArthur (Seffner, Fla.) is 13-for-34 (.382) and has driven in nine runs. Only Barnes (.452) has a higher clip during that 10-game stretch.
*The Gators have scored five or more runs in six-straight games (4-2) and have registered double-digit hit totals in five-consecutive contests.
*The squad's bullpen is 10-10 with nine saves and a 4.18 ERA and the starters are 19-8 with a 3.96
ERA through 47 games.
*den Dekker and Townsend enter the series riding six-game hitting streaks. den Dekker is 9-for-23 (.391) with six runs, fi ve RBI and fi ve thefts and Townsend is 7-for-20 (.350) with six RBI and three walks.
*Three Gator pitchers are listed among the top 10 in the league for lowest ERA: Keating (3.22, 7th), Locke (3.28, 8th) and freshman RHP Tommy Toledo (Tampa, Fla.) (3.33, 9th).
*Junior reliever Tony Davis (Cooper City, Fla.) (0-0, 4.50) is second in the SEC with 26 appearances and has totaled 14 innings.
*Florida is 6-12 away from Gainesville this year and has posted identical 2-1 road series wins over No. 8 Miami (Fla.) and No. 8 Ole Miss.
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