No. 2 Baseball Faces FGCU On Wednesday
Tuesday, March 23, 2010 | Baseball
Coming off a weekend sweep of Mississippi State to begin SEC play, No. 2 Florida (16-3/3-0 SEC) will host Atlantic Sun Conference leader Florida Gulf Coast (12-6/5-1 A-Sun) on Wednesday night at McKethan Stadium to conclude its season-high 11-game homestand. The game will start at 6:30 p.m. and be carried live on GatorVision Online.
Boosted by a perfect 5-0 week, head coach Kevin O'Sullivan's club climbed from sixth to second in the Baseball America poll released on Monday afternoon. This is the highest ranking for the Gators since the team was rated first by both Collegiate Baseball and the NCBWA on Feb. 20, 2006.
Sophomore Anthony DeSclafani (Freehold, N.J.) will be making his team-leading fifth start of the year against FGCU. Over 15.1 innings, the righty has allowed 14 hits and seven runs, with 13 strikeouts and just one walk. In his last two outings, DeSclafani is 2-0 with a 1.64 ERA and has limited opponents to a .184 batting average. He has posted victories over Illinois State (5.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 6 K) and Army (5.2 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 3 K). Junior Patrick Nathanson will be on the hill for the Eagles for his fifth start and sixth appearance. The righty has given up 26 hits over 23.0 innings, with 25 K and 13 walks. Nathanson was not involved in the decision during his most recent outing on March 16 against FIU in which he worked five innings and permitted three runs on four hits and two strikeouts.
In its last meeting against the Eagles, Florida's season-high eight-game winning streak came to a halt with a 17-5 defeat at the hands of FGCU on May 6, 2009, at McKethan Stadium. Zach Maxfield was 3-for-6 and drove in five runs, while Tim Roberson went 3-for-6 and clubbed a grand slam. Jacob Barnes picked up his first collegiate win with four scoreless innings in which he gave up three hits and registered a career-high six strikeouts. The Gators tallied all five of their runs in the fifth inning and were led on the night offensively by Jerico Weitzel (Ridgway, Pa.) (3-for-4), Preston Tucker (Tampa, Fla.) (2-for-5, RBI) and Jonathan Pigott (Ormond Beach , Fla.) (1-for-3, two RBI).
Florida used a six-run fifth inning and banged out 18 hits to down FGCU, 12-3, on April 21, 2009, 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. Billy Bullock picked up his first victory since May 2, 2008, with three scoreless innings, while Tucker (1-for-6, three RBI) and Buddy Munroe (3-for-5, three RBI) each homered.
Bullock replaced 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. DeSclafani struck out two of the three batters he faced and Will Jolin 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.
UF has played error-free baseball for the last five games and leads the SEC with a .985 fielding percentage, having committed 11 errors in 19 games. The Gators have not had multiple miscues in their last 10 outings since March 7 at Miami (Fla.), when they had a season-high three during a 4-2 triumph over the Hurricanes.
The Gators started conference play on the right foot by taking all three games from Western Division rival Mississippi State. Tucker (.389, 19 RBI) batted .417 (5-for-12) with four RBI and scored four runs in the series with the Bulldogs, while sophomore Tyler Thompson (Tequesta, Fla.) (.314) was 5-for-8 (.625) and made a pair of highlight reel catches in left field during the SEC opener. The Gator pitching staff compiled a 2.33 earned run average against MSU, while its trio of weekend starters - sophomore LHP Alex Panteliodis (Tampa, Fla.) (7.1 IP, 4 H, 2 R), freshman LHP Brian Johnson (Cocoa Beach, Fla.) (6.1 IP, 5 H, 1 R) and freshman RHP Hudson Randall (Atlanta, Ga.) (5.1 IP, 4 H, 1 R) each turned in solid outings.
Freshman Austin Maddox (Jacksonville, Fla.) (.367, 27 RBI, 6 HR) cranked a go-ahead three-run homer in the eighth inning to lift Gators past the Bulldogs in Sunday's finale, 4-1. It was the first sweep of the Bulldogs by Florida since May 3-5, 2002, and the first by the Orange and Blue over MSU in Gainesville since April 27-29, 2001. Junior LHP Kevin Chapman (Coral Springs, Fla.) (1-0, 1.20, four saves), who nailed down Saturday's 5-4 victory, threw 2.1 scoreless innings and matched his career high of four strikeouts to earn the win in game three. UF's bullpen worked 3.2 innings without permitting a run and the Bulldogs stranded 13 runners, including 10 over the final four innings.
In front of a season-high crowd of 4,823 fans on Saturday, Florida snapped a 1-1 tie with a four-run seventh inning to clinch the series with a 5-4 decision… During a wild seventh frame, senior Matt den Dekker (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) (.358) put the Gators in front with a two-out bunt single, was on the back end of a double steal in which Thompson (2-for-3) stole home and Tucker (2-for-4, three RBI) capped the rally with a two-run double. Sophomore Nick Maronde (Lexington, Ky.) (2-0, 5.93) allowed one run and two hits over 1.2 innings to record the win, while Chapman battled through the ninth to secure his fourth save.
Panteliodis worked a career-high 7.1 innings and UF broke open a 2-1 game with a five-run sixth inning to take the opener, 7-2. The southpaw (5-0, 1.52, 20 K in 23.2 IP) allowed four hits and two runs, with three strikeouts and a walk. Maddox (2-for-4) poked a two-run double and belted a solo homer, while Tucker (2-for-4, two runs) homered.
Tucker paced the Gators with a .400 (8-for-20) average, 11 RBI, six runs, four homers and a slugging percentage of 1.050 over five wins last week. He enters the meeting with FGCU on an eight-game hitting streak, leads UF with a .389 batting average and is second on the club in RBI (19), runs (18), doubles (five) and homers (four). Tucker homered in four-consecutive games from March 15-20, the longest stretch by a UF player since Matt LaPorta set a school record by hitting a round-tripper in five-straight games between March 24 and April 1, 2007. He batted .417 (5-for-12) with four RBI and scored four runs during Florida's sweep of Mississippi State.
Gator Bytes
*Florida is 14-1 (.933) at home this season and is 32-5 (.865) at home in the month of March under Kevin O'Sullivan.
*Maddox (.367) is off to a terrific start to his collegiate career, leading the Gators in RBI (27) and home runs (six). He also paces the squad in slugging percentage (.671), multiple-RBI games (eight) and doubles (six).
*Freshman Nolan Fontana (Winter Garden, Fla.) has started all 19 games at shortstop and has yet to commit an error in 82 chances. Gator shortstops combined to make 21 errors in 2009. Fontana is hitting .323 and has drawn a team-high 16 walks.
*den Dekker is 7-for-8 on stolen base attempts this season and is 49-for-53 in his career. He needs four thefts to pass Mark Kiger (2000-02) for 10th on the school's all-time list.
*Florida is hitting .336 (73-for-217) against left-handers and .307 (130-for-424) against right-handers.
*Maddox is batting .417 (20-for-48) with runners on base and occupies the top spot on the club with 11 RBI with two outs.
*Thompson batted a team-high .625 (5-for-8) over the weekend and is 9-for-26 (.346) over the past 10 games.
*The Gators have a .238 (5-for-21) average when pinch-hitting. Sophomore Daniel Pigott (Ormond Beach, Fla.) has been called upon the most and is 1-for-7 (.143).
*UF is 13-for-33 (.394) with 37 RBI and one grand slam with the bases full this year.
*Fifty-six of the squad's 133 RBI have come with two outs, good for a .421 rate.
*Florida's eight saves this year are from four different relievers: Barfield (two), Chapman (four), sophomore Greg Larson (Longwood, Fla.) and Maronde, who rates first on the squad with 22 strikeouts in 13.2 frames.
*Opposing left-handers are 1-for-15 (.067) against Chapman and righties are 8-for-38 (.211). Leadoff hitters have reached base twice in 12 opportunities against him (.167).
*With runners on base, foes are 2-for-17 (.118) against Barfield and 2-for-13 (.154) versus freshman Steven Rodriguez (Miami, Fla.).
*The Gators are holding foes to a .219 (46-for-210) average with two outs.
*Florida is 11-0 this season when scoring first and are 11-1 when out-hitting their opponent.
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