No. 7 Baseball Concludes Road Trip At USF
Tuesday, April 20, 2010 | Baseball
No. 7 Florida (25-10/10-5 SEC) completes its season-high eight-game road swing in Tampa versus USF (16-19/8-4 Big East) on Wednesday night at 7 p.m. The game can be seen on the Bright House Sports Network via CSS. The Gators are coming off their first series victory at Kentucky since 2004, while the Bulls dropped all three games at Rutgers before traveling to Stetson on Tuesday night. This will be UF's final non-conference road tilt this spring.
The Gators opened their third season under Kevin O'Sullivan with a dramatic sweep of USF between Feb. 19-21 at McKethan Stadium by scores of 6-2, 9-1 and 7-6 in 10 innings. It was the third year in a row that Florida started the campaign with a three-game sweep (Siena in 2008, No. 8 Louisville in 2009, USF in 2010). UF's trio of starting pitchers, redshirt sophomore RHP Tommy Toledo (Tampa, Fla.), freshman LHP Brian Johnson (Cocoa Beach, Fla.) and sophomore RHP Anthony DeSclafani (Freehold, N.J.) yielded zero earned runs in 13.1 innings and did not allow any extra-base hits. Senior center fielder Matt den Dekker (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) notched three-consecutive multiple-hit outings and was 6-of-13 (.462) out of the leadoff spot against the Bulls.
Last weekend, the Gators posted their second-straight SEC road series triumph by winning two of three games at Eastern Division rival Kentucky. UF emerged victorious in the first two games, 10-8 and 6-3, before the Wildcats salvaged the finale, 6-5. Later chosen as the SEC Freshman of the Week, Austin Maddox (Jacksonville, Fla.) batted .538 (7-for-13) against UK, homered in all three games and boasted a slugging percentage of 1.462. He also paced UF in RBI (five) and runs (five) and six of his seven hits on the weekend went for extra-bases, as he had three dingers and three doubles. Maddox leads Florida in batting average (.369), RBI (42), multiple-hit games (17), doubles (13), multiple-RBI games (12) and slugging percentage (.698) and is the team leader in SEC play with a .369 clip, 21 RBI and eight homers. Sophomore Preston Tucker (Tampa, Fla.) (.349, 28 RBI, 6 HR) belted a pair of homers at UK and increased his hitting streak to 10 games, matching his career long.
Despite enduring a 90-minute rain delay in the top of the eighth inning in the series opener, Florida posted a 10-8 victory over Kentucky for O'Sullivan's 100th victory. Maddox (3-for-5) snapped a 6-6 tie with a towering three-run homer with two down in the seventh and den Dekker (.333, 25 RBI) (2-for-3) opened the eighth with a round-tripper before the rain delay. The Gators overcame a 3-0 deficit with a five-run fifth. Junior Kevin Chapman (Coral Springs, Fla.) (1-0, 1.37) recorded the final six outs and had four strikeouts to collect his seventh save, while senior Jeff Barfield (Perry, Ga.) (2-0, 3.26) earned the decision. Third baseman Bryson Smith (Watkinsville , Ga.) (.245, 12 RBI) returned to the lineup after missing 14-straight games with an injured finger.
Sophomore reliever Greg Larson (Longwood, Fla.) (2-1, 8.00) threw 3.2 scoreless and hitless innings and Tucker drove in three runs to lift UF to a 6-3 victory on Saturday. After allowing a leadoff double in the fourth, UF's pitching staff held the Wildcats without a hit until there were two outs in the eighth and the hosts stranded 14 runners in the ballgame. Maddox went 3-for-5 with two runs and freshman catcher Mike Zunino (Cape Coral, Fla.) (.220, 19 RBI) put the Gators ahead to stay with a third-inning round-tripper.
Kentucky avoided the sweep with a 6-5 win on Sunday. The Wildcats raced out to a 6-0 lead through three innings. Junior Josh Adams (Jacksonville, Fla.) (.234, 24 RBI, 6 HR) brought the Gators within a run in the ninth with a two-run homer with one down before redshirt junior Matt Little recorded the final two outs. Tucker (2-for-5) and Maddox (1-for-3) each homered in the setback. Freshman LHP Steven Rodriguez (Miami, Fla.) (0-0, 0.59) hurled a career-high five scoreless innings and registered a personal-best five strikeouts.
Gator Bytes
*Coach O'Sullivan is 5-0 against USF and this is the first time he will be facing the Bulls in Tampa.
*The Gators are riding a seven-game winning streak in the series dating back to an 11-5 loss at Red McEwen Field on May 11, 2005.
*Tucker enters the week on a team-high 10-game hitting streak in which he is hitting .352 (12-for-34), with eight RBI, five runs and three doubles.
*Maddox, who has started games at designated hitter (16), third base (11), first base (seven) and catcher (one), is riding an eight-game hitting streak in which he is 14-for-35 (.400) with 14 RBI, nine runs, five homers and four doubles.
*Sophomore Daniel Pigott's (Ormond Beach, Fla.) six-game hitting streak is one shy of his career high. He is batting .318 (7-for-22) with five RBI and three runs during the skein.
*Adams is batting .375 (6-for-16) over five games against USF and went 3-for-9 (.333) with four runs and four RBI in February' series.
*Opponents are 20-for-30 on stolen-base opportunities against the Gators, while Zunino has thrown out eight of 25 runners.
*UF is 51-of-72 on the basepaths and is fifth in the SEC in thefts. den Dekker is 12-for-16 to lead the team and needs one more stolen base to match Adam Davis (2004-06) and Roger Holt (1975-77) for eighth on the school's career list with 55 SB.
*Chapman, who made 11 appearances last year and 30 total in his career entering this season, is 1-0 with a team-low 1.37 earned average in 18 appearances covering 26.1 innings. He is tied for second in the SEC with seven saves.
*Led by 11 from Billy Bullock, Florida totaled 13 saves in its 42 victories in 2009. UF has 11 saves already this year from four players: Chapman (seven), Barfield (two), as well as sophomores Larson (one) and Nick Maronde (Lexington, Ky.) (one).
*Left-handed batters are 2-for-17 (.118) against Barfield, who has collected both of his wins in league action (Vanderbilt, April 2; Kentucky, April 16).
*Tucker is batting .365 (27-for-74) and Maddox is hitting .354 (29-for-82) with runners on base, with Tucker at .389 (14-for-36) and Maddox at .340 (17-for-50) with RISP.
*Sophomore Tyler Thompson (Tequesta, Fla.) (.387) and den Dekker (.382) are the most effective starters with two outs, while sophomore Ben McMahan (Windermere, Fla.) is 6-for-10 (.600) with two down in an inning. Maddox leads the Gators with 20 two-out RBI and McMahan is 3-for-7 (.429) as a pinch-hitter.
*Leadoff batters are 0-for-14 against Rodriguez, who boasts an 0.59 ERA in nine appearances over 15.1 innings.
*Florida has clubbed three homers in three-consecutive games after having 10 homers in the previous 10 games entering the Kentucky series.
*The Orange and Blue enjoy a 233-156 scoring advantage, led by a 49-19 disparity in the sixth inning and a 28-9 cushion in the fourth frame.
*Scoring first, the Gators are 17-2 (.895) and their opponents are 8-8 (.500).
*UF is 18-2 (.900) when having more hits than its foe and 6-8 (.429) when out-hit.
*The Gators are 1-7 (.125) when their opponent scores in the opening stanza and are on the short end of a 22-16 margin in the first inning.
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