No. 20 Gators Host No. 16 Ole Miss In Pivotal Series
Thursday, April 16, 2009 | Baseball
No. 20 Florida (25-12) and No. 16 Ole Miss (26-10) will clash at McKethan Stadium in a crucial SEC matchup, as the Gators and Rebels are currently tied for fourth in the league standings with 9-6 marks. All three games will be carried live on GatorVision Online.
Junior right-hander Jeff Barfield (Perry, Ga.) (2-0, 2.78) will start Friday's opener at 6:30 p.m. against Rebel southpaw Drew Pomeranz (3-1, 4.01). In his last outing, Barfield retired the first 10 Auburn hitters he faced before a tornado warning interrupted his start and the game was suspended. He is tied for the team lead with 30 strikeouts in 35.2 innings and has limited foes to a .248 batting average.
Saturday's contest at 4 p.m. will feature Gator senior lefty Stephen Locke (Tampa, Fla.) (1-0, 2.60) versus UM right-hander Phillip Irwin (5-2, 3.44). Locke notched his first victory of the campaign last Saturday with a gutsy eight-inning effort that evened the series on the Plains. Over 17.1 innings, the lefty has 14 strikeouts and permitted three walks.
Ole Miss All-American righty Scott Bittle (3-2, 1.93) will take the mound in Sunday's finale at 12:30 p.m. against a Florida pitcher to be determined.
The Gators' current 14-game home winning streak is their longest since taking 14 straight decisions from Feb. 21-March 14, 2004. UF claimed its first five outings at McKethan Stadium this season before being swept by No. 10 Miami (Fla.) between Feb. 27-March 1 and falling short in a mid-week matchup with Florida Atlantic on March 4. The Orange and Blue is 19-4 (.826) at home and 6-8 (.429) on the road.
The series against the Rebels begins the second half of SEC play for the Gators, who begin 9-6 for the second-straight year. After having three of its first five league series on the road, UF will host Ole Miss and South Carolina over the next two weekends before traveling to powerhouses Georgia and LSU. The Orange and Blue will conclude the season at home versus Kentucky.
Last season, after Ole Miss overcame a 4-2 deficit in the ninth inning to capture the opener, 5-4, UF bounced back with a pair of victories (6-4, 10-2) to defeat the Rebels in a series held in Oxford for the first time since '97. The Gators had not captured their first two SEC series since 2004 and the triumphs over Auburn (3-0) and Ole Miss (2-1) marked the third time since 1994 they had won their first two league outings.
Right-hander Tommy Toledo (Tampa, Fla.) gave up one run over a career-high seven innings and the Gator offense used a four-run second inning and a three-run homer by Josh Adams (Jacksonville, Fla.) in the fifth to post a 10-2 victory on Sunday afternoon in the rubber game of the weekend series. Toledo permitted six hits and was boosted by a 14-hit offensive outburst. Brandon McArthur (Seffner, Fla.) went 3-for-4 and scored twice, Buddy Munroe (Miami, Fla.) (2-for-3) tallied three RBI and belted his first homer and Adams was 2-for-4.
Kyle Mullaney induced a game-ending 6-4-3 double play as the Gators had squared the weekend series with a 6-4 victory on Saturday. With two runners aboard and the Rebels looking to duplicate Friday's come-from-behind win, Mullaney had Cody Overbeck ground out to shortstop Cole Figueroa, who was able to turn UF's second double play of the contest to preserve the triumph for Patrick Keating (Harrisburg, Ill.). Keating yielded five hits and three runs over six innings, while Mullaney converted his third save opportunity.
Billy Bullock (Balm, Fla.) worked a career-high eight innings in the first matchup with the Rebels but was not involved in the decision. Designated hitter Dustin Bamberg went 4-for-7 (.571) in Oxford, Munroe was 4-for-10 (.400) with four runs and belted his first homer of the campaign in the finale and Figueroa was 5-for-13 (.385). The Gators batted .298 as a team, compared to .248 for the Rebels.
In its most recent action, UF had a stretch of 12 consecutive runs, including a seven-run outburst in the sixth, to cruise past Stetson on Wednesday, 15-4. The Gators' fourth win in a row was their 14th straight at home and enabled them to take both meetings this spring against the Hatters. Freshman Daniel Pigott (Ormond Beach, Fla.) was a career-best 4-for-6 with a three-run homer and scored three runs, junior Jonathan Pigott (Ormond Beach, Fla.) was 3-for-6 with a pair of RBI, while freshman Alex Panteliodis (Tampa, Fla.) (3-4) earned the decision with 1.2 scoreless innings versus the Hatters. Freshman Preston Tucker (Tampa, Fla.) (2-for-4, three runs) blasted a three-run homer in the first inning, giving him four-consecutive at bats with a round-tripper at home. Tucker belted his team-leading eighth homer, increased his RBI count to a team-best 49 and also raised his hitting streak to eight games. Although the home team ripped 18 hits, its bullpen surrendered one unearned run in 5.2 innings.
Gator Bytes
· In its four-game winning streak, Florida has out-scored its opponents by a 54-9 margin and its relief corps has permitted three runs (two earned) in 14.0 innings for a 1.29 earned run average.
· UF's season-best winning streak is five, set twice (Feb. 20-27; March 17-24).
· The Gators and Rebels have not met in Gainesville since UM posted a weekend sweep from May 14-16, 2004 (4-2, 3-1, 10-9).
· Until last season, Florida had dropped three regular-season series in a row to Ole Miss.
· Over the last eight outings, UF's offense has exploded for 98 runs and 108 hits, including 20 homers, 16 doubles and two triples, and sports a team average of .353 (108-for-306).
· Florida has scored 10 runs or more in 11 of its 23 home games this season.
· Tucker (.357) boasts a team-high eight-game hitting streak in which he is 18-for-36 (.500) with 30 RBI and seven homers. He has not struck out in his last 39 at bats dating back to April 4 at Vanderbilt.
· Senior Teddy Foster (Jacksonville, Fla.) is 7-for-14 (.500) over the last four games, with eight RBI, two homers and a double. In 37 career games entering the season, Foster had three RBI, two round-trippers and zero two-baggers.
· Senior Avery Barnes (High Springs, Fla.) had a season-high four hits at FSU, one shy of his career high against Kentucky on April 19, 2008. He entered his final campaign with five career homers and has six this season already. Barnes leads the Gators with 14 multiple-hit games.
· Junior Matt den Dekker (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) is edging closer to becoming the 10th Florida player in school history to reach the 100-RBI, 30-stolen base, 20-home run plateau. Entering the series with the Rebels, he has 93 RBI, 35 thefts and 20 round-trippers. Adam Davis was the last person to join the club during the 2006 season. den Dekker has scored a run in 10 straight contests.
· Since returning to the lineup on April 7 after a 10-game absence with a foot injury, junior Mike Mooney (Loxahatchee, Fla.) is 6-for-16 (.375) with eight walks, six runs, three RBI and two doubles. He has raised his average from .278 to .300 and the Gators are 14-6 (.700) this season when he starts at shortstop.
· Florida has committed only three errors in the last five games after having six during the series at Vanderbilt. The squad's fielding percentage of .962 is still the lowest in the SEC and its 55 errors are the most in the league.
· UF is 11-1 when scoring in the first inning and has done so in its last two games.
· The Gator pitching staff ranks first in the SEC with a 3.66 ERA in overall games, while the team's .306 batting average rates seventh. In league games, UF has the top ERA (4.39) and the second-best offense behind Alabama (.335) with a .319 clip.
· Adams has reached base safely in 36 out of 37 games this season, with the five-inning rain-shortened game versus Florida State on March 31 being the only game the third baseman did not reach.
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