No. 4 Baseball Wraps Up Non-Conference Schedule Against UNF
Monday, May 17, 2010 | Baseball
Riding a four-game winning streak, No. 4 Florida (37-12/20-7 SEC) hosts UNF (29-22/14-9 A-Sun) on Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m. at McKethan Stadium. The clubs split two meetings last season, with each team holding serve on its own turf.
Sophomore right-hander Tommy Toledo (Tampa, Fla.) (2-1, 3.57) is set to make his fifth start of the season, first since March 14 against Charleston Southern. In his last outing, the Tampa, Fla., native pitched a scoreless frame and notched a strikeout versus Florida Atlantic on May 12. Toledo has 20 K in 17.2 innings and has limited opponents to a .258 batting average. Left-hander Josh Patton (1-1, 9.58) will be on the hill for UNF.
In the last meeting between the Gators and Ospreys, Justin Poovey (Granite Falls, N.C.) threw a career-high 4.2 scoreless innings to lead the Gators to a 5-3 win over UNF on March 25, 2009. The right-hander allowed three singles and matched a then-season high with three strikeouts. Matt den Dekker (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) went 2-for-4 with two runs and belted his fourth homer as UF forged a split of the home-and-home series. The hosts plated two runs on two hits and three Osprey errors in the fifth to build a 4-1 lead before UNF closed the gap to 5-3 in the eighth. Billy Bullock pitched a scoreless ninth to notch his fourth save.
The previous night, UNF's Brian Wilson broke a scoreless tie in the eighth with a two-out RBI single and Preston Hale followed with a two-run double as the Ospreys used three unearned runs in the inning to post a 3-0 win in front of a record crowd at 3,194 fans at Harmon Stadium on March 24, 2009. Spencer Jones notched five strikeouts over two hitless innings and three UNF pitchers combined on a four-hit shutout with 12 K.
Over the weekend, Florida notched its first sweep of Georgia at McKethan Stadium since 2000 to remain tied on top of the SEC standings with No. 6 South Carolina (41-11/20-7 SEC). The Gators and Gamecocks will meet in Columbia starting on Thursday to determine the league's regular-season champion. UF has won four-straight and has claimed 11 of its last 12 contests.
Recently named as the SEC Freshman of the Week, shortstop Nolan Fontana (Winter Garden, Fla.) (.293, 20 RBI, 12 2B) batted .300 and drew three walks against the Bulldogs. The Gators improved to 27-3 at home this season and were 13-2 in SEC play on their own turf. UF was 5-for-5 basepaths in the finale and 10-for-11 in the series. Florida's bullpen earned wins in the first two games and did not permit any earned runs over 10.2 innings of work, with eight strikeouts and zero walks.
The Gators broke open a 2-1 contest on Sunday by plating seven runs with two down in the sixth. The seven runs matched Florida's season high in an inning set at Tennessee on April 11, and equaled at USF on April 21. den Dekker (.358, 38 RBI, 20 SB, 10 HR) extended his hitting streak to 12 games with a leadoff single in the eighth. Freshman LHP Brian Johnson (Cocoa Beach, Fla.) (5-2, 3.53) retired the first eight batters of the game, scattered six hits and gave up one run over 5.2 innings to earn the win. The southpaw is 4-1 with a 2.86 ERA in conference action. Sophomore Preston Tucker (Tampa, Fla.) (.335, 37 RBI, 13 2B, 9 HR) went 1-for-3 and drove in two runs, while improving to 7-for-7 on stolen-base attempts.
Sophomore Ben McMahan (Windermere, Fla.) (.396, 8 RBI, 2 HR) led off the bottom of the ninth with a solo homer as Florida took a 4-3 victory on Saturday afternoon. The Bulldogs had tied the game in the top of the inning on a two-out RBI single before the Gators answered with their second-straight walk-off victory to clinch their seventh-consecutive league series. Junior left-hander Kevin Chapman (Coral Springs, Fla.) (3-0, 1.26) picked up the win after surrendering an unearned run that tied the game. Freshman RHP Hudson Randall (Atlanta, Ga.) (6-3, 2.96) worked 5.2 innings, giving up nine hits and two runs, and totaled five K.
A bases-loaded sacrifice fly by freshman Mike Zunino (Cape Coral, Fla.) (.281, 35 RBI) in the bottom of the ninth enabled UF to pull out a 4-3 victory in the series opener. Down 3-2 entering the final frame, the Gators capitalized on a pair of Bulldog errors and scored twice without any hits to earn the win. Sophomore Greg Larson (Longwood, Fla.) (3-1, 6.52) tossed a career-high four innings out of the bullpen to register the victory by keeping Georgia scoreless on two hits. den Dekker (1-for-4) had multiple stolen bases in a game for the 16th time in his career and the fourth time this season.
-UF-
