No. 1 Florida & No. 4 Florida State Collide Tuesday Night At McKethan Stadium
Monday, March 14, 2011 | Baseball
No. 1 Florida (14-2) and No. 4 Florida State (15-1) will meet in the second of four regular-season meetings on Tuesday night at McKethan Stadium. The game will begin at 7 p.m. and be carried live on Sun Sports and GatorVision Online.
The Gators are riding a four-game winning streak after sweeping Rhode Island over the weekend (11-5, 12-4, 8-6), while the Seminoles have claimed their last six outings after beginning ACC play with a sweep of Boston College (3-1, 15-6, 4-3). On March 1, FSU defeated UF at the Florida Four held in Tampa, 5-3.
Florida State has taken the last four encounters between the Sunshine State rivals and has emerged victorious in nine of the 13 meetings since Kevin O'Sullivan took over the Gator program prior to the 2008 season. However, Florida is 3-0 under O'Sullivan against the Seminoles at McKethan Stadium.
Junior Alex Panteliodis (Tampa, Fla.) (1-0, 4.66) will be making his second-consecutive mid-week start after earning the win at USF last Wednesday in which he gave up one run on five hits with four strikeouts in five innings. He will be opposed by Florida State junior righty Hunter Scantling (1-0, 0.00). Panteliodis has nine K and one walk in 9.2 innings this season spanning five appearances. Over three career outings against FSU, the lefty is 0-1 with a 3.24 earned run average and has totaled 10 strikeouts in 8.1 innings. His lone start against the Seminoles occurred on March 17, 2009, when he threw 4.1 shutout innings (5 H, 5 K, 0 BB) but did not receive a decision in the 5-4 win by the Gators on a walk-off single by Buddy Munroe.
Florida State used a five-run third inning to down Florida, 5-3, in front of 7,869 fans at the Florida Four held at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa on March 1. After Florida pulled to within 5-3 in the sixth, FSU's relievers retired the final 10 Gator hitters to secure the victory. Sophomore right-hander Scott Sitz worked five innings for the win, while senior Mike McGee struck out the side in the ninth to pick up his first save.
Junior Tommy Toledo (Tampa, Fla.) gave up two hits and three runs, with three walks and one strikeout over 2.1 innings and was followed to the mound by Panteliodis (2.2 IP, 4 H, 2 R). Junior Preston Tucker (Tampa, Fla.) went 2-for-4 with an RBI single in the third, while junior Daniel Pigott (Ormond Beach, Fla.) and sophomore Kamm Washington (Boynton Beach, Fla.) had back-to-back two-out singles in the sixth. UF's pitchers yielded a season-high five walks and its defense committed a then-season-high two errors.
In the squads' last meeting in Gainesville, the Gators limited Florida State to one hit over the final seven innings and overcame a pair of three-run deficits en route to an 8-5 victory on March 16, 2010, at McKethan Stadium. Left-hander Nick Maronde (Lexington, Ky.) threw two scoreless and hitless innings to earn the win and southpaw Kevin Chapman kept the Seminoles off the scoreboard over the final three frames to pick up the save. Tucker (2-for-3) continued his torrid stretch by driving in four runs, giving him 13 RBI over a span of four games. Washington (3-for-4) matched his career high of three hits for the third time and scored a career-high three runs. Matt den Dekker (3-for-5) registered his 10th multiple-hit game and scored twice, while Josh Adams (Jacksonville, Fla.) (2-for-4) belted a two-run homer in the first inning and added an RBI single in the fourth inning.
This past weekend, Florida took all three games from Rhode Island by scores of 11-5, 12-4, 8-6. It was the Gators' fourth-consecutive win and also the club's fourth-straight weekend sweep to start the campaign after previously taking care of USF (Feb. 18-20), Boston College (Feb. 24-27) and Miami (Fla.) (March 4-6). With the victory, Florida equaled its most wins through 16 games in school history, last done in 1992. The other times that it happened were in 1952, 1963, 1977, 1985 and 1989.
Tucker batted .545 (6-for-11) against the Rams, with five RBI, three runs and three extra-base hits (two doubles and a homer). He is hitting .394 with 17 RBI, seven doubles and four homers. Sophomore Nolan Fontana (Winter Garden, Fla.) (.327, 17 runs, 12 walks) went 5-for-10 (.500) with five runs and four walks and Adams (.321, 13 RBI) drove in a team-high seven runs over the three games. Sophomore catcher Mike Zunino (Winter Garden, Fla.) (.300, 17 runs, 11 RBI) was 5-for-11 (.455) with four runs, four RBI and two stolen bases and sophomore Austin Maddox (Jacksonville, Fla.) (.292, 10 RBI) went 5-for-14 (.357).
UF batted .349 (38-for-109) and had 11 doubles, two triples and one homer. The Gators were 9-of-11 on the basepaths and their weekend rotation of sophomore LHP Brian Johnson (Cocoa Beach, Fla.) (4-0, 1.12), sophomore RHP Hudson Randall (Atlanta, Ga.) (2-0, 1.08) and freshman RHP Karsten Whitson (Chipley, Fla.) (3-0, 2.21) were a combined 3-0 with a 2.84 ERA, 13 strikeouts and four walks in 19.0 innings. Pigott's career-high hitting streak ended at 13 games on Saturday but he still leads Florida with a .463 clip.
Adams was 2-for-5 with a three-run double and the duo of Tucker and Zunino tallied two RBI apiece to help Florida defeat URI, 8-6, to finish the weekend. Whitson (5.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 4 K) earned the win, while junior Anthony DeSclafani (Freehold, N.J.) (2-0, 1.50) picked up his second save by closing the contest with 1.1 scoreless innings.
A seven-run second inning enabled the Gators to clinch the series with a 12-4 victory on Saturday. Fontana was 3-for-4 and scored twice out of the leadoff spot, while Tucker went 2-for-3 with a two-run homer to pace the Gators' 14-hit attack. Randall matched his season high of seven innings in which he gave up five hits and three runs (one earned) to pick up the decision.
Johnson (4-0) worked a season-high seven innings and UF used a four-run second, a three-run fifth and a three-run eighth to down the Rams, 11-5, in the opener of the series on Friday. The victory was the 100th for O'Sullivan at home, where he is now 102-20 (.836) in his fourth year. It was also the Gator skipper's 200th game at Florida.
Gator Bytes
*Head coach Kevin O'Sullivan is 4-9 (.308) against Florida State, 3-0 in Gainesville, 1-3 in Tallahassee and 0-6 at neutral sites.
*The Gators' last loss to the Seminoles at McKethan Stadium came on Feb. 20, 2007, 14-6.
*FSU's current four-game winning streak against UF is the longest by either team since the Seminoles ran off five in a row between Feb. 25, 2001 and March 9, 2003.
*Seven of the top-10 crowds at McKethan Stadium have been games between Florida and Florida State, including spots two through eight on the list. A crowd of 5,719 watched the Gators post a 6-1 win on March 18, 2008. This was the single-game school record until 5,783 fans attended the second game of the NCAA Gainesville Super Regional on June 12, 2010.
*The Gators' average attendance of 3,866 ranks 10th in the country this week, while their total of 50,270 spectators ranked eighth. The top four schools by average hail from the SEC (LSU, 10,745; Ole Miss, 7,833; South Carolina, 7,348; Arkansas, 7,216.
*While O'Sullivan has a 7-11 (.389) record against opponents ranked in the top five, he is 6-2 (.750) at home.
*Florida's starting pitchers are 11-1 with a 1.62 ERA this year with 79 strikeouts and 12 walks in 83.1 innings. The Gators' relievers are 3-1 with four saves and a 3.26 ERA in 60.2 innings.
*UF is 7-for-27 (.259) pinch-hitting, led by sophomore Kamm Washington, who is 2-for-5 (.400)
*Freshman Tyler Palmer made his collegiate debut by starting at third base versus USF and went 0-for-3. He has started three of the past four games on the hot corner and is 1-for-8 (.125) but has not committed any errors.
*The Gator pitching staff has eight or more strikeouts in 13 of 16 outings, the lone exceptions were seven against Miami (Fla.) on March 5, six at USF on March 9 and six versus Rhode Island on Saturday.
*The Gators hold a 105-44 scoring advantage, led by a 22-3 disparity in the second inning. UF has the edge in every inning except the ninth, when it has been out-scored, 6-1.
*Florida is an unblemished 13-0 when scoring first and 11-0 when out-hitting its foe.
*Although the Gators have played error-free baseball in eight games (8-0), they have nine miscues in their last five outings (4-1).
*Junior Preston Tucker has a team-high nine multiple-hit games and five multiple-RBI games this season and is hitting .317 (13-for-41) over his last 10 games. In eight career games against Florida State, he has a .290 (9-for-31) clip, with 11 RBI, three runs and two extra-base hits (double, homer).
*Sophomores Austin Maddox and Mike Zunino each enter the week on a four-game hitting streak, coinciding with four UF wins. Zunino is 6-for-13 (.462) with six runs, six RBI, three stolen bases and three walks in that span, while Maddox is 8-for-19 (.421) with three runs, two doubles and a couple of RBI.
*Eleven of Florida's 38 hits in the series with Rhode Island were doubles, increasing the Gators' total of two-baggers to 40 this season.
*Junior Nick Maronde retired the first seven Georgia Southern hitters of the game last Tuesday and struck out a season-high five over 2.2 innings, with one hit.
*Florida has totaled 43 two-out RBI, including 10 by junior Daniel Pigott and seven by senior Josh Adams. The Gators have a .318 (56-for-176) clip with two down.
*Adams entered last weekend's series with six RBI on the year and tallied seven against the Rams, none bigger than a three-run double on Sunday when UF held a 4-3 advantage in the sixth inning.
*Sophomore Brian Johnson had a stretch of 20.2 scoreless innings to begin the season, putting him third on the Gators' career list. 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.
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