No. 3 Florida Hosts Eastern Division Rival Tennessee In Weekend Series
Thursday, March 31, 2011 | Baseball
No. 3 Florida (21-5/4-2 SEC) hosts Tennessee (19-6/2-4 SEC) in a three-game series this weekend at McKethan Stadium. Friday's series opener will begin at 7 p.m. and be shown on CSS, which will air on Channel 199 on the Cox Communications' cable system in Gainesville. Saturday's game will be at 1 p.m. and also be carried on CSS, while Sunday's finale at 1 p.m. will be on GatorVision Online.
Last weekend, both the Gators and Vols came out on the short end of league series at home: UF fell twice to No. 4 South Carolina (2-9, 2-1, 3-4) and UT lost two of three to Ole Miss (1-6, 6-4, 0-8).
Sophomore right-hander Hudson Randall (Atlanta, Ga.) (4-0, 0.66) will take the ball in game one against Vol junior left-hander Steven Gruver (3-2, 2.79). Randall fired his first career complete game under the lights last Saturday night versus USC, retiring the final 19 hitters of the contest. The righty gave up five singles, permitted an unearned run and registered four strikeouts without issuing any walks. Randall has not allowed any earned runs in 15.2 innings of league action versus No. 5 LSU and defending national champion South Carolina.
Game two will pit sophomore Brian Johnson (Cocoa Beach, Fla.) (4-1, 2.86) versus Tennessee senior lefty Rob Catapano (2-0, 3.38). Johnson is tied for the team lead with 31 strikeouts in 34.2 innings and suffered his first loss of the season last Friday against South Carolina, when he gave up eight hits and seven runs over 5.1 innings.
Freshman right-hander Karsten Whitson (Chipley, Fla.) (3-0, 2.40) will start the final game of the weekend against a Vol pitcher to be announced. Whitson held South Carolina scoreless until the sixth inning last Sunday and permitted two hits and a run over five-plus innings. The rookie has 31 strikeouts in 30 innings this season.
Sophomore Mike Zunino (Cape Coral, Fla.) enters the weekend on a career best 14-game hitting streak, a stretch in which UF is 11-3 (.786). He is 23-for-51 (.451) with 16 RBI, 14 runs, four stolen bases, three homers, three doubles and three walks in that span. Zunino's 25 runs and eight multiple-RBI games lead UF, he is tied with senior Josh Adams and junior Preston Tucker for the top spot with 21 RBI and he is second on the squad with a .364 clip. The catcher paces Florida in SEC action with a .458 (11-for-24) batting average.
In UF's last outing, No. 7 Florida State broke a 2-2 tie by scoring the game-winning run on a misplayed infield fly in the sixth inning and added a two-run homer in the eighth by senior Stuart Tapley to post a 5-2 win in front of 10,078 fans at The Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville on Tuesday night.
The Seminoles plated five unanswered runs after falling behind, 2-0, and five relievers combined for six shutout innings of one-hit ball to secure the win. Sophomore Scott Sitz (3-1) notched his third career decision over the Gators, while senior Mike McGee collected his fourth save. With FSU now holding a 2-1 edge in the series, the teams will wrap up their four-game set on April 12 in Tallahassee.
Florida opened the scoring with a two-out RBI double by Zunino in the first inning that scored junior Daniel Pigott (Ormond Beach, Fla.) all the way from first base. FSU junior Hunter Scantling had retired the first two hitters of the game before Pigott singled into left field. Zunino then raised his hitting streak to 14 games with his fifth double of the year into the left-field corner. UF later used a bases-loaded sacrifice fly by Zunino in the third to take a 2-0 lead. Sophomore Steven Rodriguez (Miami, Fla.) (1-1) was on the hook for the loss after giving up two hits and an unearned run with three strikeouts in 2.1 innings. Florida's three hits matched a season low.
Last year, Florida split its first two games against Tennessee before notching a decisive win in Sunday's finale that secured its first series success at Lindsey Nelson Stadium in eight years over the weekend of April 9-11, 2010. Alex Panteliodis (Tampa, Fla.) worked a then-career-high eight innings to lead the Gators to a 4-2 victory in Friday's opener. The left-hander gave up six hits and two runs to pick up the win, while Kevin Chapman collected the save by registering the final three outs. Pigott drove in a pair of runs and had his first career triple as the Gators kicked off their eight-game road trip with their first series-opening win in Knoxville since April 12, 2002.
Behind the strong pitching of Stephen McCray and an opportunistic offense that scored seven runs with two outs, UT evened the series with a 12-4 victory on Saturday. Austin Maddox (Jacksonville, Fla.) went 3-for-5 and had his first multiple-homer game with a pair of solo shots in the setback.
Randall held Tennessee without a hit until the sixth inning and Florida erupted for a season-high seven runs in the sixth to cruise to a 9-1 victory on Sunday. Over a then-career-high eight innings, Randall limited the Vols to four singles and a run and matched his then-personal-best of six strikeouts. He was supported by an offense that banged out 13 hits, including a season-high seven doubles. Jerico Weitzel (3-for-4, two runs) had a career-high three doubles and Josh Adams (Jacksonville, Fla.) jacked a three-run homer in the sixth when the contest was scoreless. Weitzel's effort marked the first time that a Gator had three two-baggers in a game since Jeff Corsaletti accomplished the feat against Nebraska on June 19, 2005, at the NCAA College World Series. Jonathan Pigott hit .417 (5-for-12) at Tennessee, while Weitzel was 3-for-7 (.429) and Maddox was 5-for-14 (.357).
In Tennessee's last trip to Gainesville, Florida posted two come-from-behind victories, batted .351 (34-for-97) and out-scored Tennessee, 20-9, over three games held at McKethan Stadium from March 20-22, 2009. The series triumph was Florida's first over the Vols since the 2003 season. The Gator bullpen was 3-0 with two saves and registered a 1.80 ERA on the weekend. Over 15.0 innings, the group scattered 11 hits and permitted three runs, with eight strikeouts and just one walk. Florida's top four hitters in the lineup (Matt den Dekker, Adams, Avery Barnes and Buddy Munroe) were a combined 16-for-43 (.372) with 15 runs, 14 RBI and three home runs versus UT.
Trailing 2-1 in the bottom of the eighth inning on Friday, den Dekker clubbed a two-run shot off Nick Hernandez for a dramatic 3-2 win. Jeff Barfield had an impressive SEC starting debut, totaling a career-high nine strikeouts over a season-best 6.2 innings. All nine starters had at least one hit as UF clinched the series with a 10-2 victory on Saturday afternoon. Munroe (3-for-4) had a career-high four RBI and Barnes drove in three runs as part of a 16-hit outburst for the Orange and Blue. Clint Franklin captured the first SEC win of his career with 3.2 scoreless and hitless innings. Barnes broke a 4-4 tie with a seventh-inning triple on Sunday to complete the sweep with a 7-5 triumph. The Gators overcame a pair of three-run deficits. Barnes (2-for-4) collected two RBI and Adams went 3-for-5 to complete a series in which he batted .500 (6-for-12) and scored four runs. Greg Larson (Longwood, Fla.) earned his first collegiate victory with 1.1 scoreless innings in the finale, while Billy Bullock nailed down the final two outs for his fourth save, second of the series.
Series Tidbits
*Florida has faced UT 109 times in Gainesville and has registered 74 wins.
*In the past 15 contests at McKethan Stadium, the Gators hold an 8-7 overall edge but the Vols have captured three of the five series (2001, 2005, 2007).
*The Gators have claimed the last two regular-season series after the Vols had reeled off five-straight series wins.
*Dating back to 1986, the winner of the opener between the Gators and Vols has gone on to take the regular-season series 22 of 25 times (exceptions: 2000, UF wins last two; 1995, UT wins last two; 1990, UF wins last two).
*The last extra-inning encounter occurred on April 13, 2002, when Florida used a two-run double in the 10th frame by David Klebonis to seize an 8-5 road win.
*There has not been a shutout in the series since the Gators blanked the Vols, 7-0, in Knoxville on March 21, 1987.
*The last one-run contest was a 3-2 UF victory in the series opener on March 20, 2009, in Gainesville.
*Kevin O'Sullivan is 6-3 (.667) against UT, 3-0 (1.000) at McKethan Stadium and 3-3 (.500) at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
Gator Bytes
*In O'Sullivan's tenure through two SEC series, UF began 5-1 in 2008 (3-0 vs. Auburn, 2-1 at Ole Miss), 3-3 in 2009 (0-3 at Arkansas, 3-0 vs. Tennessee) and 4-2 last season (3-0 vs. Mississippi State, 1-2 at Ole Miss).
*Florida is on a two-game slide, the first time it has dropped consecutive regular-season contests since March 26 & 27 at Ole Miss (3-2, 15-3).
*The Gators have not lost three in a row since between May 6-9, 2009, when they fell to Florida Gulf Coast at home, 17-5, and at LSU, 10-1 and 4-0.
*UF was 33-3 (.917) at McKethan Stadium in 2010 and has started this season 16-3 (.842) on its own turf.
*After last Sunday's 4-3 setback to defending national champion South Carolina, the Gators hope to avoid losing back-to-back home games for the first time since being swept in the NCAA Gainesville Super Regional by Southern Miss (9-7, 7-6) on June 6 & 7, 2009.
*The series loss to the Gamecocks ended an eight-series winning streak over Eastern Division rivals dating back to the weekend of April 3-5, 2009, when Florida lost two of three games at Vanderbilt.
*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 2.22 ERA this year with 108 strikeouts and 24 walks in 134.0 innings. The Gators' relievers are 6-3 with six saves and a 2.70 ERA in 100.0 innings, with 98 K and 22 walks.
*Junior Daniel Pigott ranks fifth in the SEC with a .392 average and leads Florida with 14 doubles and 12 multiple-hit games.
*UF is 14-for-40 (.350) pinch-hitting, led by sophomore Kamm Washington (4-for-7, .571), junior Jeff Moyer (4-for-11, .364), and freshman Tyler Palmer (2-for-2, 1.000).
*Washington started all three games in center field last 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 .356 (16-for-45) with 13 runs and eight RBI in 21 games. It was in game two last year at Tennessee when he crashed into the right-field wall and suffered a season-ending injury.
*The Gators hold a 164-79 scoring advantage, led by a 26-7 disparity in the second inning. UF has the edge in every inning except the ninth, when it is tied, 7-7.
*Florida is 16-2 (.889) when scoring first and 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 .973 ranks fourth in the SEC.
*According to the league's statistics in overall games, UF's .309 batting average is second behind Tennessee (.324) and its staff ERA of 2.42 is second behind Vanderbilt (2.29).
*Florida has totaled 57 two-out RBI, including 12 by Pigott and eight by senior Josh Adams. The Gators have a .290 (82-for-283) clip with two down.
*Sophomore Hudson Randall has not allowed an earned run in 21.1 innings dating back to the second inning against Rhode Island on March 12. He is halfway to his rookie total of four SEC wins already.
*Freshman Karsten Whitson has a pair of no-decisions in his last two starts (March 20 at LSU, 4.2 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 4 K, 4 BB & March 27 vs. South Carolina, 5.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 5 K, 2 BB).
*Leadoff batters are 3-for-19 (.158) 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.
*Junior Nick Maronde has made a team-high 12 appearances and is 0-0 with a 2.45 ERA in 14.2 innings. The lefty has 23 strikeouts and three walks. Five of the 14 hits he has permitted have been for extra bases (three doubles, two homers).
*UF's six saves have come from four different relievers: DeSclafani (3), Maronde (1), sophomore Steven Rodriguez (1) and junior Tommy Toledo (1). Kevin Chapman collected 11 of the club's 18 saves last season.
*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 or Florida State.
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