No. 6 Baseball Game Against No. 9 LSU Suspended In Fifth Inning
Saturday, May 1, 2010 | Baseball
Friday night's series opener between No. 6 Florida (28-11/12-6 SEC) and No. 9 LSU (32-10/11-7 SEC) at McKethan Stadium was suspended in the bottom of the fifth with the Gators holding a 7-0 lead due to heavy rains and unplayable field conditions. The teams will play the regularly-scheduled game at 2 p.m. on Saturday, live on ESPNU, and then pick up tonight's contest 30 minutes following the completion of the game.
UF opened the scoring in the first inning on an RBI single into right field by freshman Austin Maddox (Jacksonville, Fla.) off junior right-hander Anthony Ranaudo. Junior Bryson Smith (Watkinsville, Ga.) laced a one-out single into right field and sophomore Preston Tucker (Tampa, Fla.) followed with a base-hit to give UF runners on the corners. Maddox lined a single that brought across Smith but Ranaudo worked out of further trouble by having freshman Brian Johnson (Cocoa Beach, Fla.) hit into an inning-ending double play.
Junior Micah Gibbs and senior Matt Gaudet began the second with back-to-back singles off sophomore Alex Panteliodis (Tampa, Fla.). A fielder's choice by junior Leon Landry erased Gaudet at second but left runners on first and third base. Panteliodis picked Landry off first and had freshman Alex Edward ground out to end the frame.
Junior Josh Adams (Jacksonville, Fla.) cranked a three-run bomb to give Florida a 4-0 lead in the bottom of the inning. Freshman Mike Zunino (Cape Coral, Fla.) extended his hitting streak to five games with a one-out double and sophomore Tyler Thompson (Tequesta, Fla.) lined a single off Ranaudo's leg for runners on the corners. Adams sent a 3-1 pitch from Ranaudo into the left-field bleachers for his seventh round-tripper of the season.
UF tacked on three runs with two down in the third to build a 7-0 lead. Ranaudo was replaced by sophomore righty Joey Bourgeois prior to UF's at bat after allowing six hits and four runs in two innings. Maddox collected his second hit with a one-out single up the middle and Johnson drew a walk for a pair of runners aboard. After senior Matt den Dekker (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) popped up in the infield, Zunino sliced an RBI single to plate Maddox for the fifth run. Moments later, Thompson rifled a bases-clearing triple into the right-field corner to balloon the margin to seven runs.
Landry started the fifth with a sharp single into right field and moved into scoring position on a grounder by Edward. Sophomore Tyler Hanover advanced his teammate to third with a grounder before Panteliodis had sophomore Grant Dozar ground out to Adams to close the stanza.
In the bottom of the frame, Johnson led off with a single into center field and den Dekker legged out an infield hit. Zunino laid down a sacrifice bunt to push both runners into scoring position but then play was suspended at 9:40 p.m. with Thompson batting and a 2-1 count.
Over five innings, Panteliodis allowed four singles and had a couple of strikeouts. The Gators held an 11-4 advantage in hits at the time the game was halted.
Game Notes
· Tonight marked the first time that the Gators hosted the defending national champion since Miami (Fla.) was in town for the 2002 NCAA Gainesville Regional.
· Austin Maddox singled in his first two at bats for his 18th multiple-hit game of the season.
-UF-
