No. 5 Baseball Meets No. 2 FSU In Tampa On Tuesday
Monday, March 1, 2010 | Baseball
Sunshine State foes No. 5 Florida (5-0) and No. 2 Florida State (6-0) will meet in the first of four regular-season meetings on Tuesday at the inaugural Florida Four Tourney held at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa. Miami (5-1) and USF (1-5) will start the day's doubleheader at 4 p.m., with the Gators and Seminoles' matchup to follow.
Sophomore Anthony DeSclafani (Freehold, N.J.) (0-0, 0.00) will be making his second start of the season for the Gators and will be facing FSU for the first time. In his season debut, the right-hander kept USF off the scoreboard over 4.1 innings on Feb. 21 by allowing four singles and totaling four strikeouts. Junior RHP Geoff Parker (0-0, 11.25) is set for his second start and third appearance of the year on Tuesday for the Seminoles. In his initial start on Feb. 20 against Georgia State, the right-hander gave up five hits and five runs, with three K and one walk, in three innings to the Panthers.
In the Gators' most recent action, redshirt sophomore Tommy Toledo (Tampa, Fla.) (1-0) had a career-high seven strikeouts and senior Matt den Dekker (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) had a career-high four hits as Florida downed Siena, 13-3, last Thursday night at McKethan Stadium. Toledo picked up his first victory since March 23, 2008, at Ole Miss by working five innings, in which he gave up three hits and two runs. The righty retired the first dozen hitters of the contest and was supported by a Gator offense which tallied a season-high 20 hits. Eight of UF's nine starters had at least one hit as the Orange and Blue started 5-0 for the third-straight campaign under Kevin O'Sullivan.
The victory over the Saints featured numerous top performances as the Gators posted season-highs across the board in an assortment of categories:
*The top four hitters in UF's lineup were a combined 11-for-18 (.611) with six runs and five RBI.
*den Dekker (4-for-6) made it five-straight games with multiple hits and had two stolen bases, scored two runs and registered two RBI. The Gator center fielder is 22-for-60 (.367) with 13 RBI and 11 runs during his career-high 14-game hitting streak.
*Toledo retired the Saints on eight pitches to begin the game, then struck out the side in the second inning. He threw 59 pitches over five innings of work.
*The quintet of Florida pitchers combined for a season-high 11 K and issued two walks.
*Austin Maddox (Jacksonville, Fla.) (catcher) and Jerico Weitzel (Ridgway, Pa.) (third base) each made his first start of the season in the field. Maddox was 3-for-3 and contributed two RBI and Weitzel was 1-for-4 with two runs.
*Making his first start of the year at designated hitter, Ben McMahan (Windermere, Fla.) collected his first hit of the season with a second-inning single and finished a career-best 3-for-5 with two RBI, a solo homer and a pair of runs.
*Sophomore Tyler Thompson (Tequesta, Fla.) (3-for-3) notched his second career triple in the third and had a season-high three hits. He has a .625 (5-for-8) average with runners on base this year.
*The Gators' 20 hits were their most this year, exceeding the 12 against UCF from Wednesday night. UF totaled 20 hits for the first time since the 2009 NCAA Gainesville Regional against Miami (Fla.), when they had 22 in a 16-5 victory over the Hurricanes.
*Florida had 14 singles, two homers, its first two triples of the season and a couple of doubles.
*Freshman RHP Michael Heller (Bradenton, Fla.) collected his first strikeout in the sixth inning.
Gator Bytes
*Florida is looking to start 6-0 for the first time since 2002. Coach O'Sullivan's 2008 and 2009 Gator teams each began 5-0 before they fell to Miami (Fla.) - 8-4 on Feb. 29, 2008, and 8-5 on Feb. 27, 2009.
*The school record for consecutive wins to start a year is 11, set originally between Feb. 4 and 19, 1989, and matched between Feb. 2 and March 1, 2002. The 1989 squad under Joe Arnold was 44-22 and was ousted in the NCAA East Regional held at McKethan Stadium by Miami (Fla.). Pat McMahon's first Gator team went 46-19 and hosted the NCAA Gainesville Regional, where it dropped an 8-7 heartbreaker to UM to end its season.
*Florida is batting .343 (34-for-99) against right-handers and .329 (27-for-82) versus left-handers.
*Eighteen of the Gators' 39 RBI this year have come with two outs.
*Junior Kevin Chapman (Coral Springs, Fla.), who is tied with sophomore Greg Larson (Longwood, Fla.) for the team lead in appearances with three, has pitched 3.1 innings. Last season, the lefty appeared in 11 games and threw 11.1 innings.
*The Orange and Blue holds a 42-18 edge on the scoreboard this season, 7-0 in the opening frame and 21-1 over the first four innings.
*Sophomore Preston Tucker (Tampa, Fla.) (.300, four walks, four runs) is seeking his first RBI and first extra-base hit of the season.
*UF is 3-for-7 (.429) pinch-hitting, as sophomore Daniel Pigott (Ormond Beach , Fla.) (1-for-1), freshman Kamm Washington (Boynton Beach, Fla.) (1-for-2) and Weitzel (1-for-2) have delivered hits.
In the last encounter between the Gators and Seminoles, a five-run first inning and three homers powered Florida to a 10-2 victory over on April 14, 2009, in front of 6,345 fans at Dick Howser Stadium. The win enabled the Gators to claim the regular-season series.
Making his collegiate starting debut, Larson limited the Seminoles to one hit over a career-high 4.1 innings before reaching a predetermined pitch count. UF raced out to a 10-0 lead before the hosts got on the board in the seventh. The Gators sent nine batters to the plate and tallied five runs on four hits in the first stanza, highlighted by a three-run homer from Avery Barnes (4-for-5). Teddy Foster belted a two-run homer in the sixth and Josh Adams (Jacksonville, Fla.) delivered a two-run shot in the seventh for a 10-run cushion. Tony Davis worked 2.2 innings, giving up three hits and two runs, before Billy Bullock registered four strikeouts in two scoreless frames to close the game.
The Seminoles nipped Florida, 3-2, in a game that was shortened to five innings because of weather issues on March 31, 2009, at The Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville in front of a crowd of 6,251 fans. Jack Posey (2-for-3) snapped a 2-2 tie with a leadoff homer in the top of the fifth off Alex Panteliodis (Tampa, Fla.) and the Seminoles kept the Gators off the board in the bottom of the frame before the game was halted at 9:03 p.m. due to heavy rains.
Buddy Munroe delivered a game-winning single with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth to propel the Gators to a 5-4 triumph over Florida State at McKethan Stadium on St. Patrick's Day last spring. Munroe (3-for-5) had a career-high three hits and notched two RBI as Florida defeated FSU for the first time since a 6-1 decision on March 18, 2008. Davis earned the win after inheriting a bases-loaded situation in the ninth and limiting the high-powered Seminoles to just a run.
Florida State holds a 116-95-1 advantage in the all-time series, although Florida has a 7-4 edge in contests played at neutral sites. O'Sullivan is 3-4 (.429) in his tenure against the Seminoles.
-UF-
