No. 22 Gators Host USF Wednesday Night
Wednesday, April 22, 2009 | Baseball
No. 22 Florida (27-14) will host Big East leader USF (24-14) on Wednesday night at McKethan Stadium. The game will begin at 6:30 p.m. and be televised live on FSN Florida. The Gators dispatched Florida Gulf Coast, 12-3, in Fort Myers last night, while the Bulls are coming off a weekend trip to Villanova in which they took two of three from the Wildcats (6-4, 7-11, 6-4).
Sophomore left-hander Kevin Chapman (Coral Springs, Fla.) (1-0, 0.00) will be making his first start for the Gators since March 27, 2007, when he threw two scoreless innings against Bethune-Cookman in a 5-3 triumph. He will be opposed by USF junior lefty Teddy Kaufman (1-3, 5.57). In eight appearances this year, Chapman has scattered seven hits over 7.2 innings, with four walks and four strikeouts. The southpaw has permitted one unearned run and was the winning pitcher in UF's 17-6 rout of Eastern Michigan on Feb. 25 after working 2.1 innings in which he gave up two hits.
In the teams' last meeting, all nine starters contributed at least one hit as part of a 17-run barrage as the Gators cruised past USF, 12-2, on May 13 of last season in Gainesville. Clayton Pisani (Naples, Fla.) (2-for-4) set a career high with four RBI, Avery Barnes (High Springs, Fla.) collected three hits and Jonathan Pigott (Ormond Beach, Fla.) cranked a two-run homer in UF's final non-conference tilt of the year. Kyle Mullaney (2-4) picked up his second win by working three innings after Tommy Toledo (Tampa, Fla.) tossed four scoreless frames. The 10-run margin was UF's highest since 13-2 shellacking of Brown on March 9 and was the team's biggest run output since April 19, a 13-7 win over No. 17 Kentucky. The Gators totaled a season-high 30 bases against USF, with 10 singles, three doubles, two triples and two homers.
Florida used a six-run fifth inning and banged out 18 hits to down FGCU, 12-3, on Tuesday night in front of 5,147 fans at Hammond Stadium, home of the Ft. Myers Miracle. It was the largest crowd to watch the Eagles play as the home team in any sport. Junior Billy Bullock (Tampa, Fla.) (1-2) picked up his first victory since May 2 of last season with three scoreless innings, while freshman Preston Tucker (Tampa, Fla.) (1-for-6, three RBI) and junior Buddy Munroe (Miami, Fla.) (3-for-5, three RBI) each homered. The teams will meet again at McKethan Stadium on May 6.
Bullock replaced junior Jeff Barfield (Perry, Ga.) (3.0 IP, 2 H, 3 R) prior to FGCU's fourth at bat and limited the Eagles to one hit and zero runs over three innings. The righty also matched his season high of four strikeouts set at Florida State on April 14. Freshman Anthony DeSclafani (Freehold, N.J.) struck out two of the three batters he faced and freshman Will Jolin (Guilford, Conn.) closed the game with a pair of scoreless frames in which he registered a career-high three strikeouts and permitted two singles. Five different players turned in multiple-hit efforts as Florida held a commanding 18-5 edge in hits and its relief corps threw six shutout innings.
With the triumph over FGCU on Tuesday, UF improved to 10-5 (.667) against in-state opponents this year, with wins over Stetson (March 3 & April 15), Florida State (March 17 & April 14), UCF (March 18 & April 8), UNF (March 25), Bethune-Cookman (April 7) and FGCU (April 21) and setbacks to Miami (three over Feb. 27-March 1), Florida Atlantic (March 4), UNF (March 24) and FSU (March 31).
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