No. 5 Florida Welcomes UNF To McKethan Stadium On Wednesday
Tuesday, May 10, 2011 | Baseball
No. 5 Florida (36-12/18-6 SEC) hosts UNF (25-21/13-14 A-Sun) on Wednesday night at 7 p.m. in its second-to-last non-conference game of the regular season. The Gators dropped two of three games at No. 18 Arkansas over the weekend, while the Ospreys were on the short end twice to Jacksonville (4-6, 2-5, 9-8).
Junior southpaw Alex Panteliodis (Tampa, Fla.) (3-1, 4.54) will be making his seventh start and 12th appearance of the season and will be facing UNF lefty Tommy Organ (4-0, 3.44). Over 33.2 innings, Panteliodis has registered 29 strikeouts and issued just five walks, while opponents are batting .274 against him. In his last outing on May 3 against Bethune-Cookman, the left-hander threw 4.1 scoreless innings with three hits and five K and earned the win since he was working on a pitch count.
In the Gators' last meeting with UNF, Austin Maddox (Jacksonville, Fla.) went 4-for-4 and drove in five runs to lead Florida to a 9-3 victory over UNF on May 18, 2010. In addition, he belted his team-leading 17th homer, a two-run shot in the fifth, to establish a Gator freshman single-season record. Making his first start since March 14 and working on a pitch count, RHP Tommy Toledo (Tampa, Fla.) gave up three hits with two K over two scoreless innings to pick up the win. Matt den Dekker went 3-for-4 with his fourth homer in the past six games and added a double, Preston Tucker (Tampa, Fla.) was 2-for-4 and matched a season high with three runs and Bryson Smith (Watkinsville, Ga.) added an RBI single.
The Gators and Ospreys have split eight meetings since the series started in 2006. Although UNF has captured the first three encounters, Florida has claimed four of the last five matchups. Five of the eight contests have been decided by two runs or less.
UNF first-year head coach Smoke Laval was an assistant at Florida under Jack Rhine during the 1982-83 seasons, while Ospreys' assistant Tim Parenton was a member of Pat McMahon's staff from 2005-07.
Entering Wednesday's game, the Gators are 10-5 (.667) against schools from Florida this season. UF went 4-0 versus USF, took all three games from Miami (Fla.), handled Bethune-Cookman and Florida Atlantic once apiece and defeated Florida State in Gainesville. On the flip side, the Orange and Blue dropped three of four meetings with the Seminoles and fell to UCF twice.
Over the weekend, Florida saw its five-series SEC winning streak come to end by losing two of three games at Western Division leader Arkansas (3-4, 3-5, 5-3). Junior Daniel Pigott (Ormond Beach, Fla.) (.331, 30 RBI, 25 runs, 9-for-12 on stolen bases) was a team-best 5-for-10 (.500) in Fayetteville, while Tucker (.332, 44 RBI, 36 runs, 10 homers) was 4-for-12 (.333) and sophomore Mike Zunino (Cape Coral, Fla.) .384, 51 runs, 46 RBI, 18 doubles, 10 homers) was 4-for-13 (.308). Arkansas limited UF to a .242 (23-for-95) average over the three games and the Gator pitching staff registered a 3.96 earned run average despite holding the Hogs to a .226 showing at the plate.
UF used a game-tying single by Tucker and a go-ahead two-run single by Pigott as part of a three-run seventh inning to salvage Saturday's finale, 5-3. The win enabled the Gators to halt an eight-game losing streak to the Hogs in Fayetteville. Maddox (2-0, 0.95) threw 3.1 scoreless and hitless innings to earn the victory. Maddox opened the scoring with an RBI single in the second, sophomore Nolan Fontana (Winter Garden, Fla.) (.302, 39 runs, 31 RBI) belted a solo shot in the fifth and was 2-for-4 and freshman Karsten Whitson (Chipley, Fla.) (6-0, 2.26) did not receive a decision after giving up six hits and three runs over 5.2 innings. The rookie right-hander leads Florida with 62 strikeouts in 63.2 innings.
The Hogs clinched the weekend series with a 5-3 victory on Friday night. UA overcame a 2-1 deficit with three runs in the third and tacked on an insurance run in the seventh. It was the first time this season that Florida had dropped back-to-back league games. Sophomore lefty Brian Johnson (Cocoa Beach, Fla.) (7-2, 2.53) suffered the loss after permitting five hits and four runs over four innings and Zunino was 2-for-4.
Jarrod McKinney snapped a 3-3 tie with a solo homer starting the bottom of the eighth to lift Arkansas past UF, 4-3, in the Thursday Night SEC Baseball Game of the Week that was carried on ESPNU. McKinney sent a 2-1 pitch from sophomore RHP Hudson Randall (Atlanta, Ga.) (8-2, 2.05) into the left-field bullpen to make a winner out of sophomore DJ Baxendale (7-1), who tossed a complete game. The Hogs overcame deficits of 1-0 and 3-1 to halt UF's seven-game winning streak. Randall scattered six hits, notched five K and allowed four runs over seven innings, his 10th time in 12 starts working at least six innings.
Gator Bytes
*Kevin O'Sullivan is 4-2 (.667) against UNF, 4-1 (.800) in Gainesville and 0-1 (.000) in Jacksonville.
*In his four years at Florida, O'Sullivan is 116-23 (.835) at McKethan Stadium, 38-37 (.507) at opponents' stadiums and 5-15 (.250) at neutral sites.
*UF is 27-5 (.844) against non-ranked opponents and 9-7 (.563) versus top-25 foes.
*The Gators are on a seven-game winning streak at home since a 4-3 loss to UCF on April 5 and are 26-4 (.867) in Gainesville this season.
*Junior Alex Panteliodis will be making his second career appearance versus UNF, as he worked one-third (1 H, 0 R) of an inning in UF's 5-3 victory on March 25, 2009.
*In three career games against the Ospreys, junior Preston Tucker is 4-for-8 (.500) with four runs, a double and an RBI.
*Sophomore Mike Zunino is batting a league-best .430 in conference action and enters the week on a 12-game hitting streak in which he is hitting .500 (24-for-48) with 19 RBI and 11 extra-base hits (seven doubles, four homers). He also leads the squad in multiple-hit (19) and multiple-RBI (14) games.
*Tucker has a .313 clip in SEC games and boasts a career-high 12-game hitting streak (.327, 16-for-49, 18 RBI).
*Redshirt sophomore Vickash Ramjit is 10-for-18 (.556) with five runs during his six-game hitting streak. He started the final two games of the Arkansas series at first base and was 2-for-6 (.333).
*After leading the Gators with a .500 clip at UA, junior Daniel Pigott has an eight-game hitting streak (.357, 10-for-28, five runs, three RBI).
*With 118 career walks, senior Josh Adams' next free pass will tie him for 10th on the school's all-time list with Albie Scoggins (1982-83). Adams is currently tied for fourth with Tucker in career RBI (178), behind No. 3 Ben Harrison (193, 2001-04).
*The Gators hold a 308-144 scoring advantage, led by a 44-12 disparity in the second inning and a 50-18 margin in the seventh. UF has the edge in every inning except the ninth, when it has been out-scored, 11-10.
*After belting a solo homer on Saturday night, three of sophomore Nolan Fontana's five career dingers have come with no one on base.
*Florida is 28-5 (.848) when scoring first and 30-2 (.938) when out-hitting its foe.
*UF has 39 homers this season and boasts a 23-3 (.885) record when going yard.
*The Gators have played error-free baseball in 17 games (14-3) and their fielding percentage of .975 ranks second in the SEC behind South Carolina (.976).
*According to the league's statistics in overall games entering the week, UF was second in batting average (.314) and lowest ERA (2.60). In the SEC-only stats, the Gators are second in batting average (.321) and lowest ERA (2.55).
*Florida has totaled 112 two-out RBI, including 18 by Zunino, 17 by junior Daniel Pigott, 13 by sophomore Nolan Fontana and Tucker and 12 by Adams. The Gators have a .289 clip with two down.
*Sophomore Austin Maddox has made 13 relief appearances totaling 19.0 innings and has compiled a 0.95 ERA with 16 K and three walks. The righty picked up his second win of the year in game three at Arkansas (3.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R).
*Junior Nick Maronde has made a team-high 24 appearances and is 0-0 with a 2.10 ERA and two saves in 25.2 innings. The lefty has 37 strikeouts and six walks. Five of the 18 hits he has permitted have been for extra bases (three doubles, two homers). Maronde has not given up a run in his last nine apperances.
*Junior Greg Larson sports a 1.84 ERA and has not yielded any runs in his last seven appearances. He worked 1.2 innings over games one and two in Fayetteville and gave up a hit and a walk.
*UF's nine saves have come from five different relievers: DeSclafani (3), Maddox (1), Maronde (2), sophomore Steven Rodriguez (2) and junior Tommy Toledo (1). Kevin Chapman collected 11 of the club's 18 saves last season.
*Florida is 42-for-64 (.656) on the basepaths, as 13 different players have at least one stolen base and Pigott (9-for-12) holds the team lead. Opponents are 19-for-30 (.633) against UF. The Gators were 2-for-4 (.500) last weekend at Arkansas and Zunino threw out all three runners who attempted to steal.
*UF enters Wednesday's game with 99 doubles on the season after totaling 110 in 64 games last year. Three different players - Zunino (18), Pigott (16) and Tucker (13) - have reached double-digits.
*Before game three at Arkansas, the Gators had a stretch of 10-consecutive games with a two-bagger, a total of 31.
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