No. 1 Baseball Clashes With Florida Atlantic In Jupiter Tuesday Night
Tuesday, February 22, 2011 | Baseball
Each sporting 3-0 records, No. 1 Florida and Florida Atlantic will meet at Roger Dean Stadium, the spring training home of the Florida Marlins and St. Louis Cardinals, on Tuesday night. The game will begin at 6:30 p.m. and air live in North/Central Florida on FOX Sports Florida. The Gators opened their season by sweeping USF at McKethan Stadium, while the Owls took all three games from visiting Hofstra in Boca Raton by scores of 12-4, 10-5 and 8-4.
Junior Anthony DeSclafani (Freehold, N.J.) (0-0, 0.00) will make his first start since April 18 last season at Kentucky and be opposed by FAU junior left-hander Josh Gonzaga (1-0, 0.00). The right-hander retired all three USF batters he faced in the sixth inning of the season opener last Friday. Over 40.2 innings in 2010, DeSclafani made 19 appearances and six starts and was 2-3 with a 7.08 earned run average. He notched 29 strikeouts, allowed eight walks and opponents batted .347 against him.
Florida kicked off its 2011 campaign with a three-game sweep of USF, the fourth-straight year of head coach Kevin O'Sullivan's tenure that the Gators opened the year with a sweep (2008: Siena, 2009: Louisville, 2010 & 2011: USF). With the victory in the finale, UF tied the school-record home-winning streak of 18 games originally set from March 16-May 13, 1963, and matched from Feb. 10-March 31, 1998.
Named the SEC Player of the Week, sophomore Nolan Fontana (Winter Garden, Fla.) was 9-for-12 (.750) with three multiple-hit outings and junior Daniel Pigott (Ormond Beach, Fla.) started twice in the outfield and was 4-for-7 (.571) with three RBI. Nine of Florida's 33 hits in the series went for extra bases, with seven doubles and two homers.
Sophomore Brian Johnson (Cocoa Beach, Fla.) fired six scoreless innings and poked a pair of doubles as Florida raised the curtain on the season with a 7-2 victory last Friday night. He faced the minimum of 18 batters, yielded two singles, registered six strikeouts and retired the final 10 Bulls he encountered. Johnson was supported by a Gator offense that totaled 13 hits, tallied three runs in the third and four more in the fifth. Junior Preston Tucker (Tampa, Fla.) went 3-for-5 with three RBI, highlighted by a two-run homer in the fifth, while Fontana (4-for-5) collected a career-high four hits and scored twice. On the mound, Johnson, DeSclafani and freshman Jonathon Crawford (Okeechobee, Fla.) held the Bulls scoreless for eight innings before the visitors plated two runs in the ninth. Freshman Zack Powers (Seffner, Fla.) drew the start at third base and batted ninth, where he was 1-for-3 and scored a run.
Florida used strong pitching and solid defense to clinch its weekend series with a 4-1 victory on Saturday afternoon. Sophomore Hudson Randall (Atlanta, Ga.) gave up one run on seven hits in six innings for the win, while junior relievers Nick Maronde (Lexington, Ky.) and Tommy Toledo (Tampa, Fla.) threw three scoreless frames. With the Gators holding a 2-1 lead in the seventh, Toledo came out of the bullpen with two down and the bases full and benefitted from a tremendous diving play by Fontana on a ball hit by junior Sam Mende that saved potentially two runs and instead ended the inning with a force play at second base. UF tacked on an insurance run in the bottom of the frame on a two-out infield single by Pigott (2-for-3) that scored classmate Ben McMahan (Windermere, Fla.) and the hosts completed the scoring in the eighth on a fielder's choice by Johnson that brought across senior Josh Adams (Jacksonville, Fla.). Toledo allowed two hits over 2.1 innings to register his first career save.
Four Gator pitchers combined on a four-hit shutout as Florida blanked USF, 5-0, on Sunday. Making his collegiate debut, freshman Karsten Whitson (Chipley, Fla.) registered nine strikeouts, gave up one walk and allowed just a first-inning single over five scoreless frames to earn the win. After yielding the base-hit, the right-hander retired the next 11 Bulls he faced and notched five strikeouts in a row at one point. Whitson was followed to the hill by junior Greg Larson (Longwood, Fla.) (1.2 IP, 1 H, 2 K), sophomore Steven Rodriguez (Miami, Fla.) (1.1 IP, 1 H, 1 K) and freshman Daniel Gibson (Lutz, Fla.) (1.0 IP, 1 H, 1 K). It was Florida's first shutout of USF since Feb. 24, 1988, 7-0, in Gainesville, and the team's first shutout since defeating Florida Atlantic, 15-0, on June 6, 2010, in the NCAA Gainesville Regional final.
The Gators' trio of starting pitchers over the weekend, Johnson, Randall and Whitson together surrendered one run over 17.0 innings, with 21 strikeouts and one walk and each picked up a win. Over 27.0 innings, the Gator pitching staff gave up 22 hits and three runs for a 1.00 earned run average, totaling 31 strikeouts and permitting two walks. UF used 11 different pitchers in the series, including freshmen Crawford, Gibson and Whitson.
The three-game series between Florida and USF drew 14,003 spectators, a record for an opening weekend at Florida and the second-highest total for a series in Gainesville behind the 14,619 for the Florida-Georgia series from May 14-16, 2010. The crowd of 5,157 last Friday was just shy of the single-game opening mark of 5,169 set against Miami (Fla.) on Feb. 6, 1999. With an average of 4,668 fans, the Gators currrently rank 10th in NCAA attendance.
In the last meeting between the clubs, Florida blanked Florida Atlantic, 15-0, on June 6, 2010, to capture the NCAA Gainesville Regional behind a three-homer, six-RBI performance from Tyler Thompson (Tequesta, Fla.) and seven scoreless innings by Johnson. The Gators unleashed a 19-hit barrage that featured a school postseason record six home runs and the duo of Toledo and Kevin Chapman each worked an inning without yielding a run to complete the shutout, UF's first in NCAA action since an 11-0 victory over UCLA on June 6, 2004, in the NCAA Oklahoma City Regional.
With yard-work to start the third, Johnson and Mike Zunino (Cape Coral, Fla.) became the first pair of Gators to hit back-to-back home runs in the NCAA Tourney since Brian Jeroloman and Brandon McArthur had consecutive dingers in the fifth inning of an 8-1 win over Florida State on June 10, 2005, in the NCAA Super Regionals. The homers marked the first time since April 21 at USF that the Gators had consecutive round-trippers. Tucker went 4-for-6 and blasted a three-run shot in the eighth.
Powered by three home runs and outstanding relief pitching, Florida dealt Florida Atlantic a 7-3 setback on May 12, 2010, during the regular season at McKethan Stadium. Austin Maddox (Jacksonville, Fla.) tied the Gators' single-season record homers by a freshman with his 16th to even the game in the third, Matt den Dekker put the hosts in front with a two-run shot in the fifth and Fontana provided insurance with a two-run blast in the seventh. Jeff Barfield tossed four scoreless frames to collect the win and the trio of Toledo, Larson and Chapman each threw one scoreless inning.
Gator Bytes
*Florida is looking to start 4-0 for the fourth-straight season. Head coach Kevin O'Sullivan's 2008, 2009 and 2010 Gator teams each began 5-0.
*O'Sullivan is 2-1 (.667) in his career versus Florida Atlantic and has a 4-13 (.235) record in games played at neutral sites.
*For people making a big deal about the pitch clock being implemented this season, UF's three games have lasted 2:10, 2:16 and 2:31, respectively.
*The game at Roger Dean Stadium will mark the first of four professional parks that the Gators will play in this season, along with George Steinbrenner Field in Tampa (vs. Florida State on March 1), the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville (vs. Florida State on March 29) and the SEC Tournament in Hoover, Ala., from May 25-29.
*The Gators hold a 2-1 scoring advantage in the first inning and have yet to allow any runs from the second to eighth innings in building a 14-0 margin in that span.
*Florida is hitting .365 (19-for-52) against right-handers and .304 (14-for-46) against left-handers.
*Lead-off batters are 11-for-24 (.458) for the Gators, but just 3-for-27 (.111) for opponents.
*The Orange and Blue committed only one error last weekend, a miscue by Fontana, who did not have any errors in his squad's first 30 games last season.
*Gator pinch-hitters are 0-for-4 this year, as junior Jeff Moyer (Winter Springs, Fla.) is 0-for-2 and both sophomore Cody Dent (Boynton Beach, Fla.) and McMahan are 0-for-1.
*Opposing hitters are 1-for-13 (.077) with runners in scoring position, while Florida is 11-for-39 (.282).
*Although the Gators have five stolen bases from five different players, foes have not tested the arm of Zunino as of yet.
*Florida has totaled four sacrifices, two sac flies by Maddox and two sac hits by Adams.
