No. 1 Florida Hosts Rhode Island In Weekend Series
Thursday, March 10, 2011 | Baseball
No. 1 Florida (11-2) will welcome Rhode Island (7-3) of the Atlantic 10 Conference to McKethan Stadium for three games this weekend, Friday at 7 p.m., Saturday at 4 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m. This will be the final weekend of non-conference action for the Gators, who will begin a stretch of 10-consecutive SEC series starting next Friday night at No. 7 LSU.
Rebounding from Tuesday's shutout loss to Georgia Southern, Florida dealt USF an 8-1 setback on Wednesday night in Tampa. The Rams are making their second visit to Gainesville after playing a rain-shortened series during the 2005 season in which the Gators took both games and the third was cancelled.
In a matchup of left-handers, sophomore Brian Johnson (Cocoa Beach, Fla.) (3-0, 0.00) will start the opener against URI redshirt junior Chris Pickering (2-0, 2.25). Johnson has yet to allow a run in 17 innings this year and limited USF, Boston College and Miami (Fla.) to six hits while notching 20 strikeouts and issuing two walks. Opponents are hitting .107 against the lefty. The school record for consecutive scoreless innings of 30 is held by Kelly Prior (April 23-May 13, 1966) and a 21-inning stretch during the 1993 season by Marc Valdes rates second.
Sophomore righty Hudson Randall (Atlanta, Ga.) (1-0, 1.00) opposes senior RHP Ken Graveline (2-1, 4.96) in Saturday's second game. Randall combined with junior Anthony DeSclafani (Freehold, N.J.) on a one-hit shutout of Miami (Fla.) in his last outing and has registered 15 strikeouts and allowed zero walks in 18.0 innings this season.
Freshman righty Karsten Whitson (Chipley, Fla.) (2-0, 1.76) and redshirt senior left-hander Stephen Peterson (0-2, 8.59) will complete the series on Sunday. Whitson has 18 K and three walks in 15.1 and did not receive a decision against UM last weekend after allowing seven hits and two runs over five innings in UF's 5-3 victory.
UF's trio of starting pitchers, Johnson, Randall and Whitson, are a combined 6-0 with a 0.89 earned run average over nine starts. The group has surrendered five runs in 50.1 innings, with 53 strikeouts and five walks.
The Gators are 9-0 with three sweeps of weekend series and are an even 2-2 in mid-week games. The three wins over Miami (Fla.) pushed the Gators to 28-4 (.875) in three-game series under Kevin O'Sullivan's tutelage at McKethan Stadium. The fourth-year head coach boasts a 99-20 (.832) mark at home.
As a team, Florida is batting .309, has out-scored opponents by a 74-29 margin and has recorded a 1.92 ERA. Junior Daniel Pigott (Ormond Beach, Fla.) enters the series on a career-high 12-game hitting streak and is a scorching .524 (22-for-42) this spring with 13 RBI and seven doubles. Junior Preston Tucker (Tampa, Fla.) (.364) has 12 RBI and five two-baggers, senior Josh Adams (Jacksonville, Fla.) is at .342 with eight runs and six RBI and Johnson is batting .302 with eight runs and seven RBI.
Florida used a season-high three home runs, seven extra-base hits and a solid outing from junior left-hander Alex Panteliodis (Tampa, Fla.) to defeat USF, 8-1, on Wednesday night in front of a sellout crowd of 3,211 fans at USF Baseball Stadium. The Gators' 12th-straight triumph over the Bulls enabled them to sweep all four meetings this season.
UF scored seven of its eight runs with two down, highlighted by back-to-back dingers in the second inning by sophomore Mike Zunino (Cape Coral, Fla.) (1-for-2, two runs) and Adams (1-for-4). Pigott had a 3-for-4 outing that featured a two-run homer in the sixth.
In his first start of the season, Panteliodis limited the Bulls to one run on five hits and totaled four K over five innings. Junior Tommy Toledo (Tampa, Fla.) gave up three hits over two scoreless frames, senior Matt Campbell (Tampa, Fla.) put up a zero in the eighth and sophomore Austin Maddox (Jacksonville, Fla.) totaled two strikeouts in a 1-2-3 ninth to close the game. Maddox also went 3-for-5 and had his first double of the season.
Gator Bytes
*Florida has not dropped consecutive games at McKethan Stadium since falling twice in the NCAA Gainesville Super Regional to Southern Miss on June 6-7, 2009 (9-7, 7-6).
*Kevin O'Sullivan will be coaching his 200th game in the series opener.
*After slugging six homers in the first 12 games, UF had three round-trippers in its last contest.
*Freshman Tyler Palmer made his collegiate debut by starting at third base versus USF and went 0-for-3.
*Sophomore Austin Maddox has finished the Gators' last two games on the hill and has registered four strikeouts: two in 0.2 IP against Georgia Southern and two in an inning against the Bulls.
*Junior Tyler Thompson made his first start of the season in center field on Tuesday, while junior Jeff Moyer had his first start at second base and second start of 2011.
*The Gator pitching staff has eight or more strikeouts in 11 of 13 outings, the lone exceptions were seven against Miami (Fla.) on March 5 and six at USF on Wednesday.
*The Gators hold a 74-29 scoring advantage, led by a 14-1 disparity in the second inning. UF has the edge in every inning except the ninth, when they have been out-scored, 6-1.
*Florida is an unblemished 10-0 when scoring first and 9-0 when out-hitting its foe.
*Although the Gators have played error-free baseball in seven games (7-0), they have six miscues in their last two outings (1-1).
*Junior Nick Maronde retired the first seven Georgia Southern hitters of the game on Tuesday and struck out a season-high five over 2.2 innings, with one hit.
*Florida has totaled 34 two-out RBI, including 10 by junior Daniel Pigott and four by senior Josh Adams and sophomore Brian Johnson. The Gators have a .329 (46-for-140) clip with two down.
*The last time the Gators were slated to face a member of the Atlantic 10, a snowstorm on the East Coast prevented La Salle from traveling down for a weekend set.
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