No. 22 Gators Welcome USC For Key Series
Thursday, April 23, 2009 | Baseball
With four conference series left and teams battling to earn postseason berths, No. 22 Florida (28-14) hosts South Carolina (27-15) for three games this weekend at McKethan Stadium. The Gators (10-8) are tied for fifth in the league standings with Alabama (27-14), while the Gamecocks (9-9) are one game behind in seventh.
Friday and Sunday's games will be carried live on GatorVision Online and Saturday's contest is the SEC Game of the Week and will be shown beginning at 4 p.m.
Either freshman right-hander Anthony DeSclafani (Freehold, N.J.) (4-1, 2.75) or senior left-hander Stephen Locke (Tampa, Fla.) (2-0, 3.24) will start Friday's opener at 6:30 p.m. against Gamecock RHP Sam Dyson (6-2, 4.87). Whichever Florida hurler shown above does not start game one will draw the assignment in the second meeting between the clubs and will oppose left-hander Nolan Belcher (2-2, 4.25). South Carolina righty Blake Cooper (5-3, 4.73) will take the mound in Sunday's finale at 1 p.m. against a Florida pitcher to be determined.
The Gamecocks have enjoyed tremendous success against UF recently, having claimed 10 of the last 12 meetings. South Carolina took three of the four encounters last season and ousted the Gators from the 2008 SEC Tournament with an 11-3 victory in Hoover, Ala. The Orange and Blue have won just one of the last nine regular-season series (2-1 in Gainesville during the 2005 season).
Junior Mike Mooney (Loxahatchee, Fla.) delivered a walk-off single with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 10th to lift the Gators to a 5-4 decision over USF on Wednesday night at McKethan Stadium. UF had tied the game with a pair of runs in the ninth to send the game into extra innings.
In the decisive frame, junior Hampton Tignor (Sarasota, Fla.) drew a one-out walk from junior Joe Cole (1-2) and freshman Tyler Thompson (Tequesta, Fla.) delivered a pinch-hit single into right field. Senior Avery Barnes (High Springs, Fla.) came through with an infield hit to load the sacks and Mooney sent Cole's next pitch into left field to drive in Tignor with the winning run. Mooney also had a walk-off single to defeat No. 8 Louisville on Feb. 22 and the come-from-behind victory was the 17th for the Gators this season. Freshman Nick Maronde (Lexington, Ky.) (2-1) collected the win as UF's fifth pitcher of the night.
Last May, the Gators captured the opener at No. 12 South Carolina, 9-3, but then dropped the final two games of the series at Sarge Frye Field, 6-5 and 9-6. Barnes was 8-for-13 (.615) and scored five runs in Columbia. He was 3-for-3 on the basepaths and had three multiple-hit efforts against USC, as part of his 23 on the campaign. Cole Figueroa went 4-for-10 (.400) with five RBI and four runs versus the Gamecocks. Riley Cooper (Clearwater, Fla.) collected his first SEC hit with a two-run homer on Saturday and added another round-tripper on Sunday, when he was 2-for-4. He tied a school record by being hit three times in the opener and was 3-for-10 (.300) with four RBI on the weekend.
Right-hander Billy Bullock (Balm, Fla.) matched a career high with seven strikeouts over 5.1 innings in relief to propel the Gators to the victory on Friday. Bullock notched his first win since March 28 against LSU by limiting the Gamecocks to two runs after taking over for Tommy Toledo (Tampa, Fla.) (3.2 IP, 3 H, 1 R) and was supported by a UF offense that registered five multiple-hit outings and totaled 12 hits.
A bases-loaded, two-run single by South Carolina's James Darnell in the seventh inning lifted the Garnet and Black to a 6-5 victory on Saturday. Following five-straight games without a miscue, the Gators committed three errors. A four-run fifth inning helped USC overcome a 5-3 deficit on its way to a 9-6 triumph in Sunday's rubber game. Bryson Barber was 2-for-4 with three RBI and a two-run homer, Barnes chipped in with three hits and Kyle Mullaney fell to 0-4 after allowing three hits and two runs in two-thirds of an inning...A bright spot was the performance of RHP Clint Franklin (Orlando, Fla.), who worked 2.2 innings of scoreless and hitless relief. Patrick Keating (Harrisburg, Ill.) did not receive a decision after giving up seven hits and five runs in four innings.
Five-run second and eighth innings powered seventh-seeded South Carolina past third-seeded Florida, 11-3, in the first elimination game of the 2008 SEC Tournament on May 22 at Regions Park. Right-hander Nick Godwin scattered nine hits, permitted three runs and totaled seven strikeouts over seven innings for the win. USC's Mike Cisco notched his first save by tossing two scoreless frames in which he allowed one hit. Each team had 10 hits, with Matt den Dekker (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) 3-for-4 with three runs and Cole Figueroa a perfect 3-for-3. Bullock was on the hook for the defeat after surrendering six hits and five runs over 1.1 innings.
Senior Teddy Foster (Jacksonville, Fla.) (.349) is riding the crest of a career-high seven-game hitting streak entering the weekend, a stretch in which he is 11-for-22 (.500) with nine RBI and seven runs. Entering the campaign, the Jacksonville native had played in 37 games and had scored eight runs with three RBI. Before 2009, Foster had one hit in a game on 14 occasions and was 14-for-54 (.259) in his career. Heading into the USC series, he has totaled 15 hits and four multiple-hit outings.
After totaling 10 come-from-behind victories in its total of 34 wins last season, Florida has accumulated 17 triumphs when trailing this year in 42 games played. UF is 20-2 when leading after six innings, 5-7 when trailing and is 3-4 when tied after the frame.
Gator Bytes
· Head coach Kevin O'Sullivan coached in his 100th game at Florida on Wednesday night versus USF and improved to 62-38 (.620) with the extra-inning triumph.
· UF's defense has not committed multiple errors in its last 10 games. The streak is the longest this decade for the Gators.
· The walk-off win over the Bulls was Florida's fourth of the season and first since edging Alabama, 9-8, on March 28. The Gators had just two all of last season.
· Florida collected its first victory of the season when playing free baseball and its first extra-inning win since a 13-12, 11-inning victory over Vanderbilt on May 17, 2008. The Gators had dropped an 8-7 decision in 11 innings to Auburn on April 10.
· Locke (2-0, 3.24) will be making his second career start against South Carolina. The lefty drew the starting nod in game two of the series last May in Columbia and did not receive a decision after working 4.1 innings and allowing eight hits and four runs (two earned).
· All five of Locke's appearances this season have been starts and his strikeout to walk ratio is 19-4.
· DeSclafani (4-1, 2.75) is set for his sixth start of the spring, second against a league foe. The righty collected the series finale triumph at Auburn on April 12 with a 6.1-inning stint in which he held the Tigers to one run on four hits. DeSclafani registered six K that afternoon on the Plains.
· Over his last 11 appearances on the hill, DeSclafani has a meager 1.20 ERA, having permitted four earned runs in 30.0 innings.
· Mooney is 9-for-15 (.600) and has scored five runs over the past four games. He notched three-hit efforts against Ole Miss last Saturday and versus Florida Gulf Coast on Tuesday.
· Before picking up the victory over FGCU by hurling three scoreless frames, Bullock's most recent win had been at South Carolina on May 2, 2008.
· Sophomore Josh Adams (Jacksonville, Fla.) aims to continue his offensive production versus the Gamecocks. He leads the Gators with a .382 clip in league games and is 12-for-23 (.522) with 10 RBI, four doubles and two homers over the past two weekends.
· UF has not recorded a save in the last seven games dating back to a 5-1 win over Auburn on April 12.
· In the overall SEC statistics, the Gators rank first in pitching with a 3.70 earned run average, seventh in batting average (.304) and 12th in fielding percentage (.964). How ever, in league games only, Florida is second in pitching (4.46), third in hitting (.307) and ninth in fielding (.967).
· The Orange and Blue was also 10-8 last season entering its seventh SEC series. UF upended fifth-ranked Georgia twice in Gainesville (4-7, 7-2, 7-2).
· The Gators are 157-for-535 (.293) against left-handers and 282-for-908 (.311) versus right-handed pitchers.
· UF is 13-for-50 (.260) pinch-hitting, with junior Clayton Pisani (Naples, Fla.) 3-for-4 (.750), freshman Daniel Pigott (Ormond Beach, Fla.) 4-for-9 (.444) and Thompson 4-for-14 (.286).
· Florida has out-scored opponents, 37-16, in the first inning and is 16-6 when scoring first. UF has plated more runs than the opposition in seven of nine innings, the exceptions being the third (32-23) and eighth (29-23) frames.
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