No. 4 Florida Finishes Non-Conference Slate Against Jacksonville Tuesday Night
Monday, May 16, 2011 | Baseball
Returning to McKethan Stadium for the final four games of the regular season, No. 4 Florida (39-13/20-7 SEC) welcomes Jacksonville (32-18/18-9 Atlantic Sun) for a Tuesday matchup at 7 p.m. Last weekend, the Gators took two of three games at No. 2 Vanderbilt, while the Dolphins defeated Florida A&M twice (14-11, 8-1).
In a battle of left-handers, junior Alex Panteliodis (Tampa, Fla.) (4-1, 4.03) will oppose JU's Matthew Tomshaw (6-3, 4.14). Panteliodis will be making his eighth start and 14th appearance of the season. Over 38 innings, the lefty has 32 strikeouts and issued six walks, while limiting opponents to a .253 batting average. The southpaw provided a strong 1.1-inning relief stint on Saturday when the Gators resumed the suspended game at Vanderbilt and did not allow any hits or runs. He picked up his fourth win of the year on May 11 with three scoreless frames against UNF.
Entering Tuesday's game, the Gators are 11-5 (.688) against schools from Florida this season. UF went 4-0 versus USF, took all three games from Miami (Fla.), handled Bethune-Cookman, Florida Atlantic and UNF 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.
On April 6 of last season, the Gators used a four-run second and a five-run sixth to collect a 12-2 victory over the Dolphins at McKethan Stadium. Jonathan Pigott and Nolan Fontana (Winter Garden, Fla.) each chipped in with two-run triples as the Gators tallied 14 hits, scored 10 runs with two out and their bullpen ended the game with six scoreless innings. Making just his second career start and first appearance since March 24, Greg Larson (Longwood, Fla.) gave up three hits and a couple of unearned runs over three innings and matched his season high of two strikeouts. Justin Poovey (Granite Falls, N.C.) (2.0 IP, 1 H, 4 K), Anthony DeSclafani (Freehold, N.J.) (2.0 IP, 1 H, 2 K), Ben Brown (1.0 IP, 1 K) and Kevin Chapman (1.0 IP, 1 H, 2 K) followed on the mound and combined to keep JU off the scoreboard. Mike Zunino (Cape Coral, Fla.) was 2-for-2 and scored three runs, Brian Johnson (Cocoa Beach, Fla.) (2-for-5) collected the first two RBI of his career, highlighted by his first homer in the seventh, while Josh Adams (Jacksonville, Fla.) was 2-for-3.
Florida hosts Eastern Division rival Kentucky (24-28/7-20 SEC) beginning Thursday night in the final SEC series of the campaign. At 20-7 in league activity, the Gators are locked into a three-way tie for the top spot in the overall and East standings with South Carolina and Vanderbilt. The Gamecocks finish at Alabama, while the Commodores wrap up at Georgia. There are four teams tied for first in the Western Division with identical 13-14 records: Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn and Mississippi State. The top eight teams will advance to Hoover, Ala., for the 2011 SEC Tournament that will be held from May 25-29.
Over the weekend, Florida split the first two games with No. 2 Vanderbilt, taking the opener, 6-5, before suffering a 14-1 setback in game two. The Gators and Commodores battled into the 12th inning of the finale before UF prevailed, 6-3, to capture the series and forge a three-way tie on top of the SEC standings with the Commodores and South Carolina. With a 20-7 league mark, the Gators reached 20 wins in SEC play in consecutive seasons for the first time. UF went 22-8 last season en route to its 11th conference title.
Later chosen as the SEC Player of the Week for the second time this season, Fontana (.315, 42 runs, 33 RBI) led the team with a .455 (5-for-11) average in Nashville but the squad was held to a .200 clip. Six of Florida's 21 hits in the series were homers, including a pair by Zunino (.367, 55 runs, 51 RBI, 12 HR) in Sunday's finale. Zunino delivered a three-run homer in the 12th to lift the Gators over Vanderbilt, 6-3, to take the rubber game of the series. Deadlocked at 3-3, Fontana (3-for-5, two runs) walked to open the 12th and was sacrificed to second on a two-strike bunt by senior Bryson Smith (Watkinsville, Ga.) (.269, 24 runs, 13 RBI). The Commodores walked junior Preston Tucker (Tampa, Fla.) (.320, 47 RBI, 38 runs, 10 HR) intentionally and Zunino (2-for-5, five RBI, two HR) greeted junior Navery Moore with his second homer of the day, a three-run shot into the right-field bleachers that gave the Gators their first lead of the afternoon at 6-3. Zunino had blasted a solo homer in the seventh to pull UF within 3-2. Junior Tommy Toledo (Tampa, Fla.) (3-3, 3.21) struck out three batters over two scoreless innings to earn the win and wiggled out of a jam in the 11th when the Commodores had the potential winning run on third base with one down. UF's five relievers tossed 7.2 innings of scoreless ball and gave up just three hits. Junior Nick Maronde (Lexington, Ky.) (0-0, 1.80) followed freshman starter Karsten Whitson (Chipley, Fla.) (6-0, 2.51) and permitted one hit over 3.1 innings with three K.
Vanderbilt had evened the series on Saturday by reeling off 14 unanswered runs after Smith had started the third inning with his second homer. The Commodores banged out 18 hits, scored multiple runs in four different frames and relied on the pitching of junior Grayson Garvin (11-1) to set the stage for the decisive game.
Adams (.341, 35 RBI, 26 runs) cranked a game-tying homer to begin the ninth and Smith snapped an 0-for-16 drought with an RBI double as Florida edged Vanderbilt, 6-5, in the completion of Friday night's suspended contest at Hawkins Field on Saturday afternoon. Adams tied the game at 5-5 with a leadoff homer in the ninth off Moore, who had not permitted an extra-base hit the entire season. The blast was the fifth for Adams and came against a hurler who possessed a microscopic 0.36 earned run average entering the ballgame. In the ninth, junior Daniel Pigott (Ormond Beach, Fla.) (.316, 30 RBI) extended his hitting streak to 10 games with a one-out single into left field and raced down to second base on a wild pitch. Fontana (1-for-3, two RBI) drew a walk for two Gators aboard and Smith came through with a double to right field that brought across Pigott for a 6-5 lead. Sophomore Austin Maddox (Jacksonville, Fla.) (2-0, 0.89) picked up his second save by putting down Vanderbilt in order in the ninth to preserve the triumph for DeSclafani (5-2, 3.73). The Gators had been 1-11 when trailing after eight innings until that afternoon's heroics.
Gator Bytes
*Kevin O'Sullivan is 3-1 (.750) against Jacksonville, 3-0 (1.000) in Gainesville and 0-1 (.000) in Jacksonville.
*In his four years at Florida, O'Sullivan is 117-23 (.836) at McKethan Stadium, 40-38 (.513) at opponents' stadiums and 5-15 (.250) at neutral sites.
*UF is 28-5 (.848) against non-ranked opponents and 11-8 (.579) versus top-25 foes.
*The Gators are 32-7 (.821) in games that are part of a weekend series and are 7-6 (.538) in mid-week contests. The Orange and Blue has an 11-2 (.846) weekend series ledger, with eight sweeps.
*Florida is 27-4 (.871) at home this season and is riding an eight-game winning streak on its own turf.
*With one more victory, UF will reach the 40-win plateau for the 20th time in school history and the third-straight year under O'Sullivan.
*The 12-inning marathon on Sunday was the longest of O'Sullivan's head coaching career and the Gators improved to 2-0 in extra frames this year, having nipped No. 4 Florida State, 5-4, in 10 innings on March 15.
*Senior Josh Adams continues to climb the school's career charts. Entering the week, he ranks second in starts (232 - Brian Duva, 234, 1991-94) and sixth in games played (233 - Matt den Dekker, 234, 2007-10 is fifth). He is also third in at bats (863 - Duva, 874 is second) and fifth in hits (265 - Brad Wilkerson, 266, 1996-98 is fourth).
*With 119 career walks, Adams' next free pass will tie him for ninth on the school's all-time list with Jeff Corsaletti (2002-05). Adams is currently fifth in career RBI (180), behind No. 3 Ben Harrison (193, 2001-04) and No. 4 Preston Tucker (181).
*The Gators hold a 325-167 scoring advantage, led by a 46-14 disparity in the second inning and a 53-22 margin in the seventh. UF has the edge in every inning and has 4-0 advantage in extra innings.
*Florida is 30-6 (.833) when scoring first and 31-2 (.939) when out-hitting its foe.
*UF has 46 homers this season and boasts a 26-4 (.867) record when going yard.
*The Gators have played error-free baseball in 18 games (14-4) and their fielding percentage of .975 ranks first in the SEC.
*Florida has totaled 113 two-out RBI, including 18 by Zunino, 17 by Pigott, 14 by Tucker, 13 by Fontana and 12 by Adams.
*Sophomore Austin Maddox has made 15 relief appearances totaling 20.1 innings and has compiled a 0.89 ERA with 17 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) and his second save in the opener against Vanderbilt.
*Junior Nick Maronde has made a team-high 26 appearances and is 0-0 with a 1.80 ERA and two saves in 30.0 innings. The lefty has 43 strikeouts and six walks. Five of the 19 hits he has permitted have been for extra bases (three doubles, two homers). Maronde has not given up a run in his last 11 apperances.
*Junior Greg Larson sports a 1.72 ERA and has not yielded any runs in his last 10 appearances. He worked one inning over games one and three in Nashville and gave a walk.
*UF's 11 saves have come from six different relievers: senior Matt Campbell (1), junior Anthony DeSclafani (3), Maddox (2), Maronde (2), sophomore Steven Rodriguez (2) and junior Tommy Toledo (1). Kevin Chapman collected 11 of the club's 18 saves last season.
*Toledo's relief win in the finale at Vanderbilt was the 10th victory of his career. He joins junior Alex Panteliodis (21-9), sophomore Hudson Randall (16-6), sophomore Brian Johnson (13-7) and DeSclafani (13-8) in double-digit triumphs.
*Florida is 44-for-66 (.667) on the basepaths, as 13 different players have at least one stolen base and Pigott (9-for-12) holds the team lead. Opponents are 21-for-33 (.636) against UF. The Gators were 1-for-1 last weekend at Vanderbilt.
*UF enters this week's action with 103 doubles on the season after totaling 110 in 64 games last year. Five different players - Zunino (18), Pigott (16), Tucker (13), Fontana (10) and Johnson (10) - have reached double-digits.
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