No. 4 Baseball Meets LSU At SEC Tourney On Wednesday
Tuesday, May 25, 2010 | Baseball
After claiming its first SEC Championship since 2005, top-seeded No. 4 Florida (40-13) will meet eighth-seeded LSU (36-20), the reigning national champion, in the third game of the double-elimination SEC Tournament on Wednesday afternoon in Hoover, Ala.The game, which will begin at 5:30 p.m., will air on CSS and be streamed live on GatorVision Online via ESPN3.com.
Freshman left-hander Brian Johnson (Cocoa Beach, Fla.) (5-2, 3.62) will oppose LSU junior right-hander Anthony Ranaudo (3-2, 8.49). Johnson was 4-2 with a 3.00 ERA in his nine league starts, with 30 strikeouts and 10 walks. The lefty worked one inning last Saturday at South Carolina (1 R, 2 H). Johnson has totaled 42 K and issued 11 walks and four of his five wins on the mound came in league action.
During the regular season, Florida posted its first sweep of LSU since 1996 and just its second over the Tigers in school history in Gainesville from April 30-May 2. UF batted .390 (39-for-100) and out-scored LSU, 28-14 over the three games. Thirteen of the 39 hits went for extra-bases, as the Gators had eight doubles, four homers and a triple. All three starting pitchers, sophomore LHP Alex Panteliodis (Tampa, Fla.), freshman RHP Hudson Randall (Atlanta, Ga.) and Johnson collected victories and registered a combined 1.40 ERA with 13 strikeouts and one walk in 19.1 innings.
Senior Matt den Dekker (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) hit a team-leading .615 (8-for-13) and led Florida with five runs and three stolen bases in three attempts. Johnson picked up the win and belted his first career grand slam and den Dekker went 5-for-5 with four RBI and four runs as UF notched a 13-6 win on Sunday. Johnson worked 6.1 innings, giving up nine hits and three runs (two earned), with four strikeouts and zero walks and went 2-for-4 with a career-high four RBI. He was supported by a Gator offense that banged out 16 hits, with all nine starters contributing at least one hit. Junior Josh Adams (Jacksonville, Fla.) poked two doubles and scored twice, while freshman Austin Maddox (Jacksonville, Fla.) launched a homer off All-American Matty Ott.
Randall limited LSU to one run over eight innings and was supported by an 11-hit attack in Florida's 7-3 victory over the Tigers on Saturday. The righty established a career high with seven strikeouts and scattered seven hits while working eight innings for the second time this year. den Dekker (2-for-4) moved the Gators in front for good in the third inning, while both sophomore Daniel Pigott (Ormond Beach, Fla.) and freshman Mike Zunino (Cape Coral, Fla.) were each 2-for-4.
Panteliodis fired five scoreless innings on Friday night before the game was suspended with the Gators holding a 7-0 lead in the bottom of the fifth. The lefty had four K and gave up four singles in picking up his career-high seventh win. Adams connected on a three-run homer in the second inning and sophomore Tyler Thompson (Tequesta, Fla.) was a perfect 3-for-3 with three RBI. Junior Kevin Chapman (Coral Springs, Fla.) pitched 2.2 scoreless and hitless innings to secure the 8-5 triumph and earn his eighth save.
The Gators will be making their league-leading 30th appearance at the SEC Tourney and are 47-50 (.485) all-time at the event. In the most recent meeting between Florida and LSU in SEC postseason play, the No. 6 seed Orange and Blue squeaked out a 5-4 upset win in 10 innings over the third-seeded Tigers during the first round on May 26, 2004.
A 10th-inning wild pitch allowed Jonathan Tucker to score the winning run as UF nipped the Bayou Bengals in the opening game of the competition. The Gators held the lead three different times, only to see the Tigers tie it up before snatching the victory in the extra frame. Tucker led off the 10th with a triple to left field that went underneath the glove of left fielder Ryan Patterson as he dove for the ball. The ball rolled to the fence and Tucker wheeled around the diamond and went into third standing up. Following a strikeout and intentional walk to C.J. Smith, LSU catcher Matt Liuzza was crossed up on a pitch from Jordan Faircloth and Tucker came home with the winning run. Current Texas Rangers' reliever Darren O'Day came on in the eighth inning and shut down LSU in earning the decision. The righty worked 2.2 innings and allowed a pair of hits with two strikeouts. O'Day secured the win after starter Justin Hoyman gave up nine hits and four runs (three earned) with three K and pair of walks in 7.1 innings.
Wednesday's encounter will mark the 15th time that Florida has met LSU during the SEC Tourney. It will be the first time in six years that the squads have tangled in Hoover and the Gators hold a 9-5 record in the previous tourney matchups. The only other school that UF has faced more often is Alabama, with the Tide holding a 9-7 edge in 16 meetings.
UF has five SEC Tournament titles on its ledger: 1981, 1982, 1984, 1988 and 1991. Oddly enough, all of these championships came at other venues besides Hoover when the event was held on campuses. The Gators have been the runner-up on five occasions: 1977, 1979, 1992, 1996 and 2000.
The Gators have now captured an SEC-best 20 division championships and their 11 league championships are tied for third behind LSU (14) and Alabama (13). UF repeated as the East winner for the first time since taking three in a row from 1996-98. Florida has also won SEC crowns in 1952, 1956, 1962, 1981, 1982, 1984, 1988, 1996, 1998 and 2005.
Florida claimed nine of its 10 SEC series and the team's 22 victories in league play was its highest total in school history, eclipsing 21 in both 1988 (21-6) and 1998 (21-8). During Kevin O'Sullivan's first two seasons at the helm, UF fi nished 17-13 and was the runner-up in the East in 2008 and claimed the division title last year with a 19-11 mark that was one game back of league co-champions LSU and Ole Miss.
Since dropping two of three games at No. 17 Ole Miss, the Gators took league series from No. 17 Vanderbilt (2-1), Tennessee (2-1), Kentucky (2-1), No. 4 Arkansas (2-1), No. 9 LSU (3-0), Alabama (2-1), Georgia (3-0) and No. 6 South Carolina (2-1). This stretch of eight-straight weekend triumphs in conference play was the longest for the Orange and Blue since the league went to a 30-game regular-season format starting in 1996.
Florida brought home seven SEC titles in 2009-10 (baseball, women's cross country, gymnastics, soccer, women's tennis, women's indoor track & field, men's outdoor track & field) to lead the SEC. This was the third time UF has collected seven SEC titles in a single season (1996-97 & 1997-98). UF's highest total is eight (1991-92) and Georgia equaled the SEC record with eight titles in 2005-06.
The Gators reached the 40-win plateau on Friday night for the 19th time in school history and have now posted back-to-back 40-win campaigns for the first time since 2004 (43-22) and 2005 (48-23). This season was the first time since 2002 that the Orange and Blue collected 40 wins during the regular season and was one shy of the single-season team mark of 41 set in 1989 (41-18 reg. season), 1991 (41-19 reg. season), 1996 (41-14 reg. season) and 1998 (41-13 reg. season). UF's 13 losses were its fewest in the regular season since the '98 club.
Florida is seeking to snap a three-game losing streak in the first round of the SEC Tourney dating back to a 9-8 victory over Arkansas on May 25, 2005. After missing the event in 2006, the Gators have since fallen to South Carolina (4-3 in 12 innings on May 23, 2007), Vanderbilt (7-3 on May 21, 2008) and Arkansas (8-5 on May 20, 2009). O'Sullivan has a 1-3 (.250) SEC Tournament record in two previous appearances.
UF was the second seed at last season's tourney and dropped an 8-5 decision to seventh-seeded Arkansas before staying alive with a 12-2 victory in eight innings over third-seeded Ole Miss. The Gators were sent home by the Hogs on Friday afternoon, 10-7. Right fielder Jonathan Pigott (Ormond Beach , Fla.) (three homers, 1.000 slugging percentage, second Gator with two homers in an SEC Tourney game) and first baseman Preston Tucker (Tampa, Fla.) (4-for-12, six RBI, three runs) were voted onto the All-Tourney team. LSU duplicated its 2008 crown with a 6-2 victory over Vanderbilt to etch its name on the 2009 trophy.
The last time that the Gators were the top seed at the SEC Tourney was in 2005. In round one, the Orange and Blue used a one-out single in the bottom of the ninth by Stephen Barton to complete a 9-8 triumph over eighth-seeded Arkansas. The Gators had trailed 6-2 in the eighth inning before rallying for six runs on three hits and two errors to even the score. The next night, Florida used late-inning heroics again to remain in the winner's bracket. After fourth-seeded Ole Miss overcame a 5-0 defi cit with four runs in the sixth and three more scores in the seventh to seize a 7-5 lead, the Gators responded with three runs in the seventh and two more tallies in the eighth to notch a 10-7 triumph. Needing one more win to advance to the championship game for the first time since 2000, the Gators suffered a 14-1 defeat in seven innings to Ole Miss on Saturday and then succumbed by a 4-2 score to the Rebels. Mississippi State downed their archrivals in the title tilt, 4-1.
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