No. 3 Florida Meets No. 7 Florida State In Jacksonville On Tuesday
Monday, March 28, 2011 | Baseball
Sunshine State rivals No. 3 Florida (21-4/4-2 SEC) and No. 7t Florida State (18-6/6-3 ACC) will break from the conference grind for the third of four regular-season meetings on Tuesday at 7 p.m. at The Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville. The game will be televised live on FOX Sports Florida. The squads have split the first two encounters and will later meet in Tallahassee on April 12.
Junior right-hander Anthony DeSclafani (Freehold, N.J.) (3-0, 1.12, three saves) is set for his second start of the season and will face FSU junior righty Hunter Scantling (1-0, 1.04). Over 16 innings this season, DeSclafani has totaled 17 strikeouts and permitted two walks, while holding opponents to a .172 average. He fired four shutout innings against Florida Atlantic on Feb. 22, with three hits and three K.
Florida saw an end to its season-high 10-game winning streak with a 9-2 loss to No. 4 South Carolina last Friday before rebounding on Saturday with a 2-1 triumph. The Gamecocks overcame a 3-0 deficit with four unanswered runs to take Sunday's finale, 4-3. Florida State dominated Wake Forest in its series opener, 12-4, before falling by an 8-0 score in game two. The Seminoles cruised to an 11-2 win in the rubber game with the Demon Deacons and is in first place in the Atlantic Division of the ACC standings with a 6-3 league mark.
This will be the fifth annual clash between the squads in Jacksonville during the regular season. Since UF claimed the initial contest with a 16-7 victory on April 3, 2007, FSU has taken the last three games: 10-2 on April 1, 2008, 3-2 in five innings due to weather conditions on March 31, 2009, and 7-2 on March 30 last season.
In the teams' last meeting, junior Daniel Pigott (Ormond Beach, Fla.) delivered a walk-off single in the 10th inning that scored sophomore Nolan Fontana (Winter Garden, Fla.) with the winning run as UF edged No. 4 FSU, 5-4, on March 15 in front of a record crowd of 5,930 fans at McKethan Stadium. The Seminoles used a four-run third to grab the lead but were held scoreless for the final seven innings of the contest.
After DeSclafani retired the Seminoles in order to begin each club's first extra-inning affair of the season, Fontana ripped a one-out triple into the right-field corner off FSU senior Mike McGee. Pigott (3-for-4) battled to a 3-2 count before slicing a single into center field that snapped a four-game slide for the Gators against their rivals. The game-winning hit represented Pigott's career-best fourth RBI of the night and the junior also set a personal best with two walks.
In the initial meeting of the season, Florida State used a five-run third inning to post a 5-3 win 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 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 junior Alex Panteliodis (Tampa, Fla.) (2.2 IP, 4 H, 2 R). Junior Preston Tucker (Tampa, Fla.) went 2-for-4 with an RBI single in the third, while Pigott 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 last matchup between UF-FSU in Jacksonville, Florida State notched a 7-2 victory in front of a sellout crowd of 9,276 fans at The Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville on March 30, 2010. The Seminoles took advantage of a season-high five UF errors that led to five unearned runs. Brian Busch twirled 4.1 scoreless innings and totaled six strikeouts to earn the win in relief of Geoff Parker (4.2 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 0 ER). Tyler Thompson (Tequesta, Fla.) provided the Gators with a 2-1 lead in the second inning with his first homer since May 16, 2009, against Kentucky and Austin Maddox (Jacksonville, Fla.) raised his hitting streak to eight games by going 2-for-4. Hudson Randall (Atlanta, Ga.) was on the hook for the loss after giving up an unearned run on one hit in 2.1 innings. It was the first time all season that a member of the Gator bullpen suffered a defeat after a 7-0 start. Jeff Barfield worked two innings, allowing three hits and an unearned run, in his first start since April 21, 2009, versus Florida Gulf Coast.
Defending national champion No. 4 South Carolina defeated the Gators twice in three games over the weekend at McKethan Stadium to take the series between Eastern Division rivals. As a result, the trio of Florida, South Carolina and Vanderbilt are tied atop the East standings with 4-2 marks, one game back of league leader Alabama (5-1). USC's series victory ended a stretch of 13-consecutive weekend series triumphs for Florida and marked the Gators' first loss in a league series since March 26-28, 2010, at Ole Miss and the squad's first conference series setback at home since April 17-19, 2009, to Ole Miss. USC held Florida to a .217 (20-for-92) batting average on the weekend and the visitors compiled a 2.08 ERA. The Gators were out-scored, 14-7, and committed four errors.
The Gamecocks capitalized on a bases-loaded walk with the game tied in the eighth inning to post a 4-3 win in Sunday's rubber game. USC overcame a 3-0 deficit with three runs in the sixth and took the lead when senior Adrian Morales earned a free pass from Toledo (2-2, 2.87) to bring across junior Adam Matthews with the decisive run. The Gators had seized a 3-0 lead in the second stanza on an RBI single by Washington (.381, 8 RBI), a squeeze bunt by senior Josh Adams (Jacksonville, Fla.) (.354, 21 RBI) and a two-out RBI single by freshman Zack Powers (Seffner, Fla.) (.243, 6 RBI). Freshman Karsten Whitson (Chipley, Fla.) (3-0, 2.40) did not receive a decision after giving up two hits and a run with five strikeouts in five-plus innings.
Washington snapped a 1-1 tie with a lead-off homer in the seventh to help the Gators square the weekend series on Saturday night, 2-1. His first homer since Feb. 20, 2010, against USF came on the first pitch of the home part of the seventh from All-American Matt Price and landed in the left-field bleachers. Randall (4-0, 0.66) went the distance for his first career complete game and retired the final 19 USC hitters of the contest. The righty gave up five singles, permitted an unearned run and registered four strikeouts without issuing any walks. In lowering his ERA to 0.66 on the campaign, Randall has not allowed any earned runs in 15.2 innings of league action versus No. 5 LSU and No. 4 South Carolina.
USC junior left-hander Michael Roth took a shutout into the ninth and South Carolina used a pair of four-run innings on its way to a 9-2 victory in the series opener. Roth (5-1) yielded 10 hits, registered six strikeouts and gave up two runs in his longest stint of the season. The Gamecocks plated four runs in both the third and sixth frames to increase their winning streak to five games and snap the Gators' skein at 10 games. Sophomore Brian Johnson (Cocoa Beach, Fla.) 4-1, 2.86) suffered his first loss after giving up eight hits and seven runs (six earned), with five K and two walks, over 5.1 innings.
Gator Bytes
*Head coach Kevin O'Sullivan is 5-9 (.357) against Florida State, 4-0 (1.000) in Gainesville, 1-3 (.250) in Tallahassee and 0-6 (.000) at neutral sites.
*The Gators are 8-3 (.727) against top-25 opponents this season, 4-3 (.571) versus members of the top-five.
*As of the report released on Monday, the Gators' average attendance of 4,047 ranks 10th in the country this week, while their total of 76,893 spectators ranked 10th. The top four schools by average hail from the SEC (LSU, 10,877; Ole Miss, 8,004; South Carolina, 7,306 and Arkansas, 7,253).
*Florida's starting pitchers are 15-2 with a 2.13 ERA this year with 108 strikeouts and 24 walks in 131.0 innings. The Gators' relievers are 6-2 with six saves and a 2.65 ERA in 95.0 innings, with 93 K and 21 walks.
*Junior Daniel Pigott ranks sixth in the SEC with a .394 average and leads Florida with 14 doubles and 12 multiple-hit games. However, he was 2-for-13 (.154) in the South Carolina series and began the set 0-for-10 before a pair of hits in the finale.
*UF is 14-for-38 (.368) pinch-hitting, led by junior Jeff Moyer (4-for-10, .400), sophomore Kamm Washington (4-for-7, .571) and freshman Tyler Palmer (2-for-2, 1.000).
*Washington started all three games in center field over the weekend and responded with a .444 (4-for-9) performance and a team-high four runs. His homer to begin the seventh on Saturday gave the hosts a 2-1 triumph. On the season, he is hitting .381 (16-for-42) with 13 runs and eight RBI in 20 games.
*The Gators hold a 162-74 scoring advantage, led by a 27-10 disparity in the sixth inning. UF has the edge in every inning except the ninth, when it is tied, 7-7.
*Florida is 16-1 (.941) when scoring first and also 16-1 (.941) when out-hitting its foe. The club suffered its first blemish in both categories on Sunday, when it had a 3-0 lead on USC and wound up out-hitting the Gamecocks by a 7-5 count.
*The Gators have played error-free baseball in 10 games (10-0) and their fielding percentage of .974 ranks fourth in the SEC.
*According to the league's statistics in overall games, UF's .316 batting average is second behind Tennessee (.319) and its staff ERA of 2.35 is second behind Vanderbilt (2.30).
*Sophomore Mike Zunino enters the week on a career best 13-game hitting streak, a stretch in which UF is 11-2 (.846) UF wins. He is 14-for-48 (.458) with 14 RBI, 14 runs, four stolen bases, three homers and three walks in that span. Zunino's 25 runs and seven multiple-RBI games lead UF and he is second on the squad with a .365 clip. The catcher paces Florida in SEC action with a .458 (11-for-24) batting average.
*Sophomore Nolan Fontana raised his hitting streak to a career-high nine games with a double in the series opener with USC but ended up 1-for-12 (.083) over the three games.
*Junior Preston Tucker is tied for the top spot in both RBI (21) and homers (5) and looks to get back on track after going 0-for-8 against the Gamecocks.
*Florida has totaled 56 two-out RBI, including 12 by junior Daniel Pigott and eight by senior Josh Adams. The Gators have a .295 (80-for-271) clip with two down.
*Leadoff batters are 2-for-15 (.133) against junior Anthony DeSclafani, who has held opponents to a .172 average. The righty's three wins have surpassed his season total of two from 2010 and he boasts a strikeout to walk ratio of 17:2.
*Florida is 23-for-34 (.676) on the basepaths, as 10 different players have at least one stolen base. Opponents are 15-for-21 (.714) against UF. The Gators did not attempt any thefts against South Carolina.
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