No. 25 Gators Host Vols In SEC Home Opener
Thursday, March 19, 2009 | Baseball
Following mid-week victories over Sunshine State rivals Florida State (5-4) and UCF (7-3), Florida (11-7) heads back into Southeastern Conference action by hosting Eastern Division counterpart Tennessee (9-9) at McKethan Stadium. On the opening weekend of league play, the Gators dropped all three games at Arkansas, while the Vols fell twice in three meetings at home versus Auburn.
Junior right-hander Jeff Barfield (Perry, Ga.) (2-0, 0.55) will make his weekend starting debut in Friday's opener at 6:30 p.m. against Vol junior southpaw Nick Hernandez (1-1, 4.50). The contest will be carried live on Sun Sports. Barfield is tied for first in the SEC in both runs allowed (third) and earned runs allowed (one), is second with a 0.55 earned run average and seventh in opposing batting average (.200).
Freshman lefty Nick Maronde (Lexington, Ky.) (1-1, 2.14) will oppose UT junior righty Stephen McCray (3-0, 2.84) in Saturday's second game at 4 p.m. In his last outing, Maronde went five strong innings at Arkansas and had career-high five strikeouts, but was not involved in the decision.
Senior right-hander Patrick Keating (Harrisburg, Ill.) (2-3, 4.37) will start Sunday's finale at 12:30 p.m. against a Tennessee pitcher to be announced. Keating has come out of the bullpen in his last two appearances versus Arkansas and Florida State and he is 2-1 with a 3.63 ERA in three starts this year.
The Gators will be looking to end a regular-season drought against the Vols, as they have fallen by a 2-1 margin in the last five series dating back to posting a 3-0 sweep in 2003.
Sophomore Josh Adams (Jacksonville, Fla.) continues to lead the Orange and Blue with a .350 batting average and has 16 runs and 11 RBI. Junior Matt den Dekker (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) went 3-for-5 out of the leadoff spot at UCF on Wednesday night and raised his season ledger to .347 with team-highs in on-base percentage (.485) and walks (10). Senior Avery Barnes (High Springs, Fla.) is hitting .323 with 19 runs and 13 RBI, while sophomore Riley Cooper (Clearwater, Fla.) has a .304 average and seven extra-base hits.
Florida dropped its first SEC series of the season last April by falling twice in three games at Tennessee. The Vols came from behind to take the first two matchups, 5-4 and 12-6, before the Gators avoided the sweep with a 7-2 victory. The triumph on Sunday ended a season-high five-game slide. The highlight of the weekend was UF's second triple play of the season, which came in the fifth inning of game three with the bases full of Vols and none out. Hurler Stephen Locke had Jeff Lockwood line into a 4-6-3 triple play that kept the Gators ahead by a 6-2 score. Keating improved to 5-0 and Locke collected his first career save. Barnes was a perfect 3-for-3 with three runs and belted a solo homer in the win. He was 6-for-12 (.500) with five runs and five RBI in the series.
The Gators scored in the first inning of all three games at Tennessee. Florida batted .281 (27-for-96) in Knoxville and had a team earned run average of 4.30 and surrendered six homers. Billy Bullock (Balm, Fla.) received a no-decision in the series opener after going six innings and allowing three runs and a pair of runs. Tommy Toledo (Tampa, Fla.) suffered the loss in game two after yielding six hits and seven runs (one earned) over 4.1 IP in the second game.
Series Tidbits
*Florida has faced UT 106 times in Gainesville and has registered 71 wins.
*The Vols have claimed the last five regular-season series after the Gators had reeled off six series wins in seven years.
*Dating back to 1986, the winner of the opener between the Gators and Vols has gone on to take the regular-season series 20 of 23 times (exceptions: 2000, UF wins last two; 1995, UT wins last two; 1990, UF wins last two).
*The last extra-inning encounter occurred on April 13, 2002, when Florida used a two-run double in the 10th frame by David Klebonis to seize an 8-5 road win.
*There has not been a shutout in the series since the Gators blanked the Vols, 7-0, in Knoxville on March 21, 1987.
*The last one-run contest was a 5-4 Tennessee victory in the series opener on April 5, 2008.
Gator Bytes
*Florida is 9-4 at McKethan Stadium this year and has captured its opening SEC home series seven times in the past eight seasons (the exception was a 2-1 loss to Mississippi State in 2007).
*After swiping 109 stolen bases last spring, good for eighth on the school's single-season chart, Florida is just 14-for-26 on the basepaths and has not had multiple thefts since March 7 against Duquesne, a span of six games.
*The Gators rank 12th in the SEC in batting average (.275), fifth in earned run average (3.79) and 12th in fielding percentage (.957).
*Florida has SEC-lows in doubles (25) and home runs (11) but is tops in triples (nine).
*UF has been held without a round-tripper 11 times in 18 outings, including the last two. The last time the Gators had multiple jacks was versus Duquesne on March 6, when they had three.
*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 16 times in 29 opportunities for a .552 percentage.
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