No. 11 Gators Host Jacksonville On Tuesday
Tuesday, May 12, 2009 | Baseball
No. 11 Florida (35-17) will play its final non-league contest of the regular season on Tuesday when it hosts in-state rival Jacksonville (33-17) at McKethan Stadium. First pitch will be at 6:35 p.m. and the game will be carried live on GatorVision Online. Freshman left-hander Alex Panteliodis (Tampa, Fla.) (4-5, 4.08) will draw the start for the Orange and Blue and will oppose JU senior lefty Garrett Dunlap (1-0, 2.89).
The Gators dropped two of three games at No. 3 LSU over the weekend, while the Dolphins claimed two of three against Mercer to complete its Atlantic Sun schedule with a 19-11 record. JU will be the top seed for the A-Sun Tournament to be held in DeLand, Fla., starting on May 20.
At 17-10 in SEC play, the Gators enter their final series against Eastern Division rival Kentucky (26-24/11-16 SEC) holding a two-game lead on Georgia (34-17/15-12 SEC) in the race for the division title. Head coach Kevin O'Sullivan's club is one game behind league leader LSU (38-14/18-9 SEC). UF has not claimed a division crown or the overall SEC Championship since 2005. Alabama (35-15/17-9 SEC) is a half-game behind the Tigers, while Ole Miss (37-15/17-10 SEC) joins Florida in a tie for third place.
The Gators split a home-and-home mid-week series against Jacksonville last March, winning 11-6 in Gainesville on March 25 before falling on the road the next night, 8-5. In the opener, Josh Adams (Jacksonville, Fla.) was 4-for-5 and matched his then-career high of five RBI as UF enjoyed a 17-hit offensive attack. Dustin Bamberg drove in a career-high three runs, while Cole Figueroa and Jon Townsend contributed three hits apiece. Clint Franklin (Orlando, Fla.) threw 2.2 scoreless innings to pick up the win.
The tables were turned in Jacksonville, as the Dolphins overcame a 5-2 fourth-inning deficit and snapped a 5-5 tie with a three-run seventh. UF matched a then-season high with 13 runners left on base and its top five hitters in the lineup were a combined 1-for-16 (.063). One bright spot was the performance of Bamberg, who started the game at designated hitter and later pitched the final 1.2 innings with a career-high four strikeouts. Townsend added three more hits and finished 6-for-10 (.600) with four RBI in the series, while Adams was 4-for-8 (.500) and drove in five runs. Florida hit .347 (25-for-72) over the two games but its pitching staff had a 5.29 ERA.
This past weekend, UF salvaged the finale at No. 3 LSU with a 9-3 triumph on Mother's Day to end a three-game losing streak. After falling to the Tigers at Alex Box Stadium by scores of 10-1 and 4-0, the Gators rebounded on Sunday behind five strong innings from freshman Nick Maronde (Lexington, Ky.) (3-1, 3.96). The left-hander totaled a career-high eight strikeouts and limited the Bayou Bengals to three hits and a pair of walks. Maronde was supported by a Florida offense that banged out 15 hits and had a pair of three-run innings.
After each being held hitless during the first two games in Baton Rouge, the duo of freshman Preston Tucker (Tampa, Fla.) (4-for-5, three runs) and junior Matt den Dekker (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) (3-for-3, three runs, three RBI) played key roles in the win for the Orange and Blue. Junior Jonathan Pigott (Ormond Beach, Fla.) also went 2-for-5 and drove in three runs.
Senior Avery Barnes (High Springs, Fla.) (.359) had a hit in each contest to raise his hitting streak to a career-high 15 games. The left fielder is 26-for-68 (.412) with 19 runs and seven RBI during the skein. The Gators hit just .245 (25-for-102) at LSU, as den Dekker, senior Brandon McArthur (Seffner, Fla.), Pigott and Tucker each batted .333. Florida's pitching staff registered an earned run average of 5.76 over the three games, although junior Tony Davis (Cooper City, Fla.) threw 3.1 scoreless innings in two appearances.
UF's pitching staff rates second in ERA both overall (4.10) and in conference games (4.49). Tucker is batting .352 overall and his team-leading 65 RBI are three shy of Brad Wilkerson's freshman school record of 68 set in 1996. He leads the Gators in league action with a .373 clip and has driven in a team-best 34 runs. Junior Billy Bullock (Balm, Fla.) (2-2, 1.40) hurled a scoreless ninth in the finale and Florida did not commit any errors to improve to 12-2 when playing mistake-free this season.
Gator Bytes
· The Gators are 18-7 (.720) against non-conference opponents this season, including 14-5 (.737) at home.
· Panteliodis will be making his team-high ninth start against JU. He pitched one inning in the LSU series, a scoreless eighth on Sunday. As a starter, the southpaw is 3-3 with a 5.25 ERA and has 18 strikeouts and 11 walks in 36.0 innings.
· Barnes' 15-game hitting streak is the longest by a UF player since current junior Jonathan Pigott had a stretch of 16 games between May 12, 2007-March 11, 2008.
· Florida has not homered in its last four games, its longest drought since going without a big fly during the first four games of the campaign.
· Bullock is third in the SEC with 10 saves, behind Auburn's Austin Hubbard and LSU's Matty Ott, who have 11 apiece.
· Freshman Anthony DeSclafani (Freehold, N.J.) ranks eighth in the league with a 3.81 earned run average and is seventh by limiting opposing hitters to a .238 batting average.
· den Dekker is 14-of-15 on the basepaths this year and is a perfect 10-for-10 in league games.
· Tucker leads the Gators with 16 multiple-RBI games and is tied with Barnes for the top spot with 20 multiple-hit games. UF is 28-10 (.737) when the rookie starts at first base.
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