No. 25 Baseball Hosts No. 17 FSU On St. Patrick's Day
Monday, March 16, 2009 | Baseball
No. 25 Florida (9-7) and No. 17 Florida State (9-6) will meet on Tuesday night at McKethan Stadium in the first of three regular-season meetings. The contest will be carried live on GatorVision Online. The Sunshine State foes will also tangle in Jacksonville on March 31 and in Tallahassee on April 14. Since dropping a 6-1 decision in Gainesville on March 18, 2008, FSU has taken the last three encounters and eliminated the Orange and Blue from the NCAA Tournament last May with a 17-11 victory at the Tallahassee Regional.
In a matchup of freshman left-handers, Alex Panteliodis (Tampa, Fla.) (2-2, 6.50) will face Seminole hurler Brian Busch (0-1, 3.06). Panteliodis will be making his team-leading fifth start following a difficult outing last Saturday in which he surrendered five hits and five runs and issued a pair of walks in 1.1 innings at Arkansas. Over 18.0 innings this season, the left-hander has given up 26 hits and 14 runs, with five walks and five strikeouts.
Florida dropped all three games to the Razorbacks to begin Southeastern Conference play. It was the first time since 2001 that UF has been swept in its opening league series. The Gators were limited to a .222 (22-for-99) batting average by the Hogs and out-scored 23-10 in the series, although senior outfielder Avery Barnes (High Springs, Fla.) was 6-for-13 (.462) and sophomore outfielder Riley Cooper (Clearwater, Fla.) was 4-for-9 (.444). Barnes has an eight-game hitting streak and has a .362 clip with team-highs in runs (18), multiple-hit games (five), triples (three) and stolen bases (three). Cooper has a hit in four-straight games and is batting .347 with seven extra-base hits this year.
Freshman LHP Nick Maronde (Lexington, Ky.) (1-1, 2.14) had a career-high five strikeouts on Sunday, when he scattered five hits and gave up two runs (one earned) over five innings. Junior RHP Jeff Barfield (Perry, Ga.) (2-0) worked 5.2 innings in relief of Panteliodis on Saturday and lowered his ERA to 0.55. Barfield has made six appearances this season and allowed one earned run in 16.1 innings while holding opponents to a .200 showing at the plate.
Junior RHP Billy Bullock (Balm, Fla.) (0-1, 1.84) made his first start of the campaign in the opener at Arkansas and took the loss after a 3.1-inning stint in which he permitted four hits and six runs, although just two were earned. The Gators committed seven errors during the series, including a season-high five in the finale, and their fielding percentage of .954 ranks 12th in the SEC.
The Gators and Seminoles have struggled out of the gates in league play, as UF dropped all three games at Arkansas and FSU (1-3) fell twice in three matchups with ACC counterpart Boston College before losing once to unbeaten Virginia in a rain-shortened series.
Despite being on the short end three times in Fayetteville, the Gators (0-3) are just one game out of first place in the Eastern Division. All six conference series last weekend were between squads from the East and the West and the West claimed all six - five by 2-1 margins: Alabama over Georgia, Auburn over Tennessee, LSU over Kentucky, Ole Miss over Vanderbilt and Mississippi State over South Carolina.
Gator Bytes
*Florida is 8-4 at home, 1-3 on the road and 4-7 since opening the season 5-0.
*The last time that the Gators played on St. Patrick's Day was a 10-8 victory over Mississippi State in 2007.
*UF was kept under double-digit hits all three games by the Hogs and has not scored more than four runs since a 12-2 thumping of Duquesne on March 8.
*After swiping 109 stolen bases last spring, good for eighth on the school's single-season chart, Florida is 13-for-24 on the basepaths so far this season.
*The Gators rank 12th in the SEC in batting average (.276), fifth in earned run average (3.89) and 12th in fielding percentage (.956).
*Barnes is tied for the league lead in triples (three) and freshman Preston Tucker (Tampa, Fla.) is tied for the top spot in sacrifice flies (three). Barnes has reached as the leadoff hitter in an inning 15 times in 27 opportunities for a .556 percentage.
*Barfield is tied for first in the SEC in both runs allowed (third) and earned runs allowed (one), second with a 0.55 earned run average and seventh in opposing batting average (.200).
*Panteliodis has picked off a league-best four runners, including three against Duquesne on March 6.
*The Gators have played error-free baseball just three times in 16 games (Louisville, Feb. 21; Eastern Michigan, Feb. 24; Duquesne, March 8).
*UF has turned a double play in five-consecutive games and in seven of the last eight contests.
*Florida is batting .254 (50-for-197) against left-handers and .290 (97-for-335) versus right-handers. Cooper is 9-for-21 (.429) versus southpaws and junior Buddy Munroe (Miami, Fla.) is 7-for-16 (.438) against righties.
*Twenty-five of the Orange and Blue's 90 RBI this year have come with two out, led by Barnes (five), sophomore Josh Adams (Jacksonville, Fla.) (four) and Cooper (four).
*Right-handed hitters are 1-for-14 (.071) against sophomore LHP Kevin Chapman (Coral Springs, Fla.) and 5-for-35 (.143) against Bullock.
*Florida is a perfect 8-0 when leading after six innings but is 0-5 when trailing after six.
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