No. 1 Florida Baseball Hosts No. 16 Cal State Fullerton To Kick Off Season
Thursday, February 16, 2012 | Baseball
Head coach Kevin O'Sullivan will begin his fifth season at the helm this weekend as top-ranked Florida opens its 2012 campaign by hosting No. 16 Cal State Fullerton of the Big West Conference in a weekend series. Game times are at 7 p.m. on Friday, 4 p.m. on Saturday and 1 p.m. on Sunday. Friday's opener will be aired live on FOX Sports Florida and all three contests will be carried on GatorVision Online at www.gatorvision.tv. Games one and three of the series can be heard on Country 103.7 The Gator and the second meeting between the clubs will be on WRUF SportsRadio 850.
The Gators will be starting their 56-game regular season at McKethan Stadium for the 12th-consecutive season and the 24th time in 26 years. This will be the 98th season of baseball at the University of Florida. The Titans' Rick Vanderhook will be making his debut as head coach after spending three seasons as an assistant coach at UCLA but had previously served as an assistant from 1991-2007 at Fullerton.
Junior right-hander Hudson Randall (Atlanta, Ga.) will oppose Cal State Fullerton junior right-hander Dylan Floro (4-2, 4.23 in 2011) to start the weekend. Chosen as an Honorable Mention All-American by College Baseball Insider and as a quarterfinalist for the Pitcher of the Year Award last year, Randall earned second-team All-South Region and second-team All-SEC recognition in '11. The righty turned in an 11-3 record and ranked fifth in the SEC with a 2.17 earned run average. Randall tied for the team lead with 19 starts, the most by a Gator pitcher since 2005. He had 73 strikeouts and 13 walks in a team-high 124.1 innings, held opponents to a .227 batting average and started four of Florida's school-record 11 shutouts.
Saturday's matchup will have sophomore right-hander Karsten Whitson (Chipley, Fla.) pitching for the hosts against Titans' redshirt freshman righty Grahamm Wiest. Whitson was chosen as the 2011 National Freshman Pitcher of the Year by Perfect Game and was named as a Freshman All-American by Baseball America, Louisville Slugger and the NCBWA. Chosen to the SEC's All-Freshman Team, Whitson held a permanent spot in the Gators' weekend rotation and finished 8-1 with a 2.40 ERA. He tied Randall for the top spot with 19 starts, led the club with 92 strikeouts in 97.1 innings and limited opponents to a .235 batting average.
The series finale will pit UF junior left-hander Brian Johnson (Cocoa Beach, Fla.) against a Cal State Fullerton pitcher to be announced. A semifinalist for the 2011 John Olerud Two-Way Player of the Year Award and a first-team All-SEC selection, Johnson compiled an 8-3 record with a 3.62 ERA in 15 starts on the mound spanning 79.2 innings. The left-hander was third on the Orange and Blue with 72 strikeouts and limited opponents to a .253 batting average. Johnson hit .307 with 29 RBI, 26 runs and 18 extra-base hits (11 doubles, five homers and two triples).
This weekend's series will mark the first time that Cal State Fullerton and Florida have met on the diamond. The Titans have brought home four NCAA titles (1979, 1984, 1995, 2004), made 16 trips to the College World Series, totaled 33 NCAA Regional appearances, earned 10 Super Regional berths and captured 25 conference championships since beginning their program in 1975.
Florida sits atop all four of the major collegiate baseball polls: Baseball America, Collegiate Baseball, NCBWA and USA Today/ESPN. Baseball America's ranking marked the second-straight year and the second time in school history that the Gators were in the top spot in the preseason by that publication, while the No. 1 ranking in the other three polls represented a first for UF in the preseason.
UF went a program-best 53-19 overall last season, shared the SEC title with Eastern Division rivals South Carolina and Vanderbilt and claimed its first SEC Tourney Championship since 1991 on its way to the program's seventh trip to Omaha, Neb., for the NCAA College World Series. In reaching the 40-win plateau for the 20th time and the 50-win mark for just the third time in school history, the Gators swept through the NCAA Regional and captured the Super Regional on their own turf in Gainesville to reach the first CWS held at TD Ameritrade Park Omaha. It was also the first time in school history that UF advanced to Omaha in back-to-back campaigns and the Gators were second in all of the polls after finishing as the national runner-up to South Carolina.
Florida made its 27th NCAA Tournament appearance and earned the second national seed, hosting two rounds of postseason action at McKethan Stadium, where the club registered a 34-7 (.829) mark. The Gators went 3-0 to sweep the Gainesville Regional for the third year in a row, downing Manhattan (17-3) and Miami (Fla.) twice (5-4 and 11-4) to advance to the NCAA Super Regional for the fifth time in school history, all in the past eight years. The following weekend, UF and Mississippi State split the first two games (11-1, 3-4) before the Gators punched their ticket to Omaha with a dramatic 8-6 victory.
Florida was predicted to finish first in the SEC, as voted by the league's 12 baseball coaches in the 21st annual preseason SEC poll released on Monday. In addition to picking a preseason SEC Champion, the league's head coaches voted a predicted order of finish in the SEC Eastern and Western Divisions. After capturing three-consecutive divisional flags, Florida was the favorite in the East with a total of 66 points. Two-time defending national champion South Carolina was second with 56 points, while Georgia finished third with 42 points. In the West, Arkansas was the favorite with 64 of a possible 66 points. LSU came in second with 58 points and Alabama third with 38 points. The SEC schedule is set to begin the weekend of March 16-18, while the 2012 SEC Tournament will be held from May 22-27 at Regions Park in Hoover, Ala.
Florida returned 18 letterwinners off of last season's club, including nine pitchers and seven players who saw the majority of time at their position. UF boasts a solid nucleus that includes 2011 SEC Player of the Year catcher Mike Zunino (Cape Coral, Fla.) and Whitson, as well as All-SEC selections shortstop Nolan Fontana (Winter Garden, Fla.), Johnson, Randall and infielder/outfielder Preston Tucker (Tampa, Fla.), 2011 SEC Tournament Most Valuable Player outfielder Daniel Pigott (Ormond Beach, Fla.), 2011 College World Series All-Tournament Team selection third baseman Cody Dent (Boynton Beach, Fla.), catcher/infielder/right-hander Austin Maddox (Jacksonville, Fla.), left-hander Steven Rodriguez (Miami, Fla.) and 2011 SEC All-Freshman Team third baseman Zack Powers (Seffner, Fla.). The Gators have 14 newcomers on their roster, including a dozen that hail from the Sunshine State. In fact, 29 of the 33 players on this year's club call Florida home.
The Gators have four signees from last June's Major League Baseball Draft who are now enrolled in school, as infielder Casey Turgeon (Palm Harbor, Fla.) (22nd round, New York Mets), infielder Josh Tobias (Greensboro, N.C.) (31st round, Washington Nationals), right-hander Johnny Magliozzi (East Milton, Mass.) (35th round, Tampa Bay Rays) and right-hander/outfielder Ryan Harris (Jupiter, Fla.) (37th round, New York Yankees). A total of four newcomers who participated in the prestigious AFLAC All-American Game will be donning the Orange and Blue this season: Magliozzi, catcher Brandon Sedell (Davie, Fla.), Tobias and infielder/outfielder Sean Trent (Maitland, Fla.). In addition, Tucker (16th round, Colorado Rockies), right-hander Greg Larson (Longwood, Fla.) (29th round, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim) and outfielder Tyler Thompson (Tequesta, Fla.) (46th round, Washington Nationals) elected to remain in school.
For the first time in four years, the Gators will have a new starter at second base following the graduation of Josh Adams. Chosen by the Florida Marlins in the 13th round with the 403rd selection in June's Major League Baseball Draft, Adams was assigned to the Jamestown (N.Y.) Jammers of the New York-Penn League, the organization's Class A short-season affiliate. In his final campaign, Adams became just the fourth UF baseball player in school history to achieve All-SEC status in three different seasons, as he previously garnered first-team accolades in 2008 and 2009 before becoming a second-team recipient last year. He is now a member of an elite group that includes Mike Stanley (82-84-85), Marc Valdes (91-92-93) and Brad Wilkerson (96-97-98) after batting .351 with 21 RBI, 15 runs and eight extra-base hits (five doubles, three homers) in league action. Adams closed a stellar career in style by earning second-team All-South recognition for the second time in his career after making the squad as a freshman in 2008. During his senior season, he hit .323 with 43 RBI, 34 runs, 11 doubles and six homers and finished his tenure in Gainesville as the school's all-time leader in games played (253) and games started (252). Boasting a career average of .305, Adams departed with his name found throughout the school's career charts, as he is first in both double plays turned (152) and sacrifice bunts (27), tied for first in at bats with Mark Ellis (1996-99) (941), second in hits (287), third in assists (644), fifth in runs batted in (188) and total bases (437), tied for fifth in doubles (51) and is ninth in walks (122).
While Adams has moved on, his old number is now being worn by Turgeon, an infielder from Palm Harbor, Fla., who played at Dunedin High School. A four-year starter, he graduated as Dunedin's all-time leader in runs (157), walks (133), hits (132), times on base (293) and innings played (745), was an all-state pick in Class 4A as a senior and was named to the Florida All-Region First Team after hitting .400 and drawing 40 walks. Turgeon earned all-county and all-conference honors all four years of high school.
The Gators welcomed another addition to the roster in January, catcher Taylor Gushue (Boca Raton, Fla.), who attended Calvary Christian Academy. What's unique about Gushue is that he graduated high school early and missed his senior season to attend UF. He earned first-team all-state and first-team all-county all three years of his high school career, collected All-American accolades from Max Prep in 2009 and 2010 and was named as a Perfect Game Preseason All-American in 2011. Gushue finished with a career batting average of .472 (102-for-216) and a school-record 30 homers.
Opening Weekend Trends
*The Gators are 124-26 (.827) at McKethan Stadium in Kevin O'Sullivan's tenure and are 29-5 (.853) in three-game series at home on his watch.
*UF has claimed 17 of its last 18 weekend series on its own turf, the lone blemish to South Carolina over March 25-27 last year (2-9, 2-1, 3-4).
*Since O'Sullivan has been in charge, the Gators have lost just two weekend series in Gainesville to non-conference opponents: the 2009 Super Regional to Southern Miss (7-9, 6-7) and a regular-season series to Miami (Fla.) between Feb. 27-March 1, 2009 (5-8, 1-2, 2-16).
*Florida has started on the right foot with sweeps the past four seasons, downing Siena over the weekend of Feb. 22-24, 2008, by scores of 10-7, 4-0 and 13-6, No. 8 Louisville between Feb. 20-22, 2009 (6-3, 10-4, 3-2), USF over Feb. 19-21, 2010 (6-2, 9-1, 7-6 (10)) and the Bulls again between Feb. 18-20, 2011 (7-2, 4-1, 5-0).
*Dating back to 2002, the Gators hold a 9-1 record in opening weekend series at home. Included in the total are victories over Charleston Southern (2-0 in 2002, 2-1 in 2005), Mercer (2-0 in 2003), Gardner-Webb (2-0 in 2004), Cincinnati (3-0 in 2006), Siena (3-0 in 2008), Louisville (3-0 in 2009) and USF (3-0 in 2010 & 2011). UF dropped the first two games to VMI in 2007 before salvaging the finale, an ominous start to what turned out to be a 29-30 performance, the program's first losing season since 1990.
*With the number of Gator freshmen hoping for their first action versus Cal State Fullerton, current junior Maddox belted a two-run homer against USF on his first swing as a collegian on Feb. 19, 2010. It was a sign of things to come, as he established a freshman record with 17 round-trippers and led the team with 72 RBI and a .587 slugging percentage.
*Coach O'Sullivan holds a 32-13 (.711) mark against ranked teams at home and registered a 9-3 (.750) record last season against Top-25 foes at McKethan Stadium.
Florida has only faced two of the nine schools in the Big West and is 7-3 (.700) overall, with a 6-3 (.667) record against Long Beach State and a 1-0 mark versus Cal State Northridge. The other programs in the conference with Cal State Fullerton include Cal Poly, UC Davis, UC Irvine, UC Riverside, UC Santa Barbara and Pacific. Fullerton is the favorite to capture the 2012 league title after winning its 25th Big West Conference Championship and ninth in the last 13 years after posting a 19-5 mark last season. Earning the league's automatic bid, the Titans made their 20th-consecutive appearance in the NCAA Tournament, 33rd overall.
UF sports a 56-40-1 (.582) record in its previous 97 opening-day contests, including a 36-20-1 (.640) record at home. The Gators have claimed 23 of their last 30 lid-lifters and 16 of their last 20 season debuts in Gainesville. The last time Florida dropped a season opener was a 5-3 setback to VMI on Feb. 9, 2007 and the team's other three home losses to start the year in the past two decades occurred in 2000 (Jacksonville, 13-11), 2001 (Miami (Fla.), 14-5) and in 2005 (Charleston Southern, 5-4 in 11 innings). UF has started the year on its own turf in 14 of the past 15 seasons, with the lone exception a 12-6 victory at Hawaii on Jan. 20, 2000.
O'Sullivan is 4-0 as a head coach in season debuts. He enjoyed a successful start to his head coaching career on Feb. 22, 2008, with a 10-7 victory over Siena in front of 3,408 fans at McKethan Stadium. The Gators rallied from deficits of 5-0 and 6-5 and snapped a 6-6 tie in the sixth with a two-run triple by Brandon McArthur. Adams later added a two-out, two-run single in the frame as the hosts sent 10 batters to the plate. Making the first relief appearance of his career, righty Billy Bullock limited the Saints to one run and three hits over six innings and equaled his personal best of six strikeouts to pick up the win.
Behind a seven-inning stint and a career-high seven strikeouts by right-hander Patrick Keating, UF enjoyed a successful 2009 debut with a 6-3 victory over eighth-ranked Louisville on Feb. 20. Bullock closed the game with a pair of scoreless innings to notch his first career save. Holding a slim 4-3 lead in the seventh, the Gators tacked on two insurance runs to capture their opener for the sixth time in the past eight years. Adams went 2-for-4 with a run, while McArthur roped a two-run triple into right center field.
On Feb. 19, 2010, Adams powered Florida to a 6-2 victory over USF by going 3-for-3 with four RBI, a pair of home runs and a double. In his collegiate debut, Maddox went 2-for-4 and blasted a two-run homer on the first swing of his Gator career. Making his return to the lineup after missing the '09 campaign, right-hander Tommy Toledo scattered three hits, registered four strikeouts and allowed an unearned run in 3.1 innings.
Last February, Johnson fired six scoreless innings and poked a pair of doubles as the Gators raised the curtain on the 2011 campaign with a 7-2 victory over USF in front of 5,157 fans at McKethan Stadium on Feb. 18. Johnson faced the minimum of 18 batters, yielded two singles, registered six strikeouts and retired the final 10 Bulls he encountered. He was supported by a Gator offense that totaled 13 hits, tallied three runs in the third and four more in the fifth. Tucker went 3-for-5 with three RBI, highlighted by a two-run homer in the fifth, while Fontana (4-for-5) collected a career-high four hits and scored twice.
The Gators opened last spring with a sweep of USF between Feb. 18-20 at McKethan Stadium by scores of 7-2, 4-1 and 5-0. Fontana was 9-for-12 (.750) with three multiple-hit outings and Pigott started twice in the outfield and was 4-for-7 (.571) with three RBI. Nine of Florida's 33 hits in the series went for extra bases, with seven doubles and two homers. The Gators' trio of starting pitchers, Johnson, Randall and Whitson together surrendered one run over 17.0 innings, with 21 strikeouts and one walk and each picked up a win. Over 27.0 innings, the Gator pitching staff gave up 22 hits and three runs for a 1.00 earned run average, totaling 31 strikeouts and permitting two walks. UF used 11 different pitchers in the series, including then-freshmen Jonathon Crawford (Okeechobee, Fla.), Daniel Gibson (Lutz, Fla.) and Whitson.
Florida led all teams with seven players on Baseball America's College Preseason All-America teams. Zunino and Johnson represented the Gators on the first team, while Tucker, Maddox and Randall made the second team and Fontana and Whitson appeared on the third team. No team in recent years had produced more than four preseason All-Americans and the Gators' seven selections eclipsed the previous record of six held by Arizona State (1986), Georgia Tech (2001) and Stanford (2002). Baseball America annually polls Major League scouting directors to vote on the team and make their selections based on performance, talent and professional potential.
Maddox and Rodriguez were each named to initial Watch List for the eighth annual National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Stopper of the Year Award, given to the top relief pitcher in NCAA Division I baseball.
Gator Bytes
*The trio of Brian Johnson (8-3, 3.62), Hudson Randall (11-3, 2.17) and Karsten Whitson (8-1, 2.40) was a combined 27-7 (.794) last season with 237 strikeouts and 56 walks in 301.1 innings. Led by Whitson's 8-0 ledger, the group was 22-2 (.917) at McKethan Stadium in 2011.
*Randall's 19 career wins are ninth among active NCAA Division I pitchers and his 11 victories last year tied for seventh on Florida's single-season list.
*With 208 career RBI, Preston Tucker is within striking distance of the school-record total of 214 held by Brad Wilkerson (1996-98). Tucker's 41 homers rank third behind Matt LaPorta (74, 2004-07) and Wilkerson (55), while he is currently fourth in doubles with 53 and needs nine to pass Mark Ellis (61, 1996-99) for the number one spot.
*There has been at least one freshman in the Gators' opening-day starting lineup since 2007, when Cole Figueroa started at second base. During Kevin O'Sullivan's tenure, Josh Adams started in center field in 2008, Preston Tucker was the designated hitter in 2009, Nolan Fontana (shortstop), Austin Maddox (designated hitter) and Mike Zunino (catcher) made their debuts in 2010 and Zack Powers started at third base last season.
*Greg Larson begins his senior season sixth on UF's all-time list with 87 appearances. Connor Falkenbach (2002-05) heads the chart with 124.
*The series between Florida and Cal State Fullerton should challenge the record for the top three-game season-opening series at McKethan Stadium. Last season's sweep of USF attracted 14,003 fans over Feb. 18-20 to surpass the 11,505 spectators that saw the Gators take three games from Cincinnati from Feb. 10-12, 2006.
*David and Rick Eckstein will be on hand Friday night for the ceremonial first pitches to begin the season. While attending Florida, David Eckstein became the only two-time Academic All-American in Gator baseball history (1996, 1997) and earned first-team All-America recognition in 1996 and third-team honors in 1997 from the National Collegiate Baseball Writers' Association (NCBWA). A two-time All-Southeastern Conference selection (1995, 1996) and three-time SEC Academic Honor Roll (1995-97) recipient, he finished his career among the UF career top 10 in 11 categories. Eckstein was the Most Valuable Player of the 2006 World Series after helping the St. Louis Cardinals to a five-game triumph over the Detroit Tigers and recently announced his retirement after a 10-year MLB career with the Anaheim Angels (2001-04), St. Louis (2005-07), Toronto Blue Jays (2008), Arizona Diamondbacks (2008) and San Diego Padres (2009-10). The hitting coach for the Washington Nationals, Rick Eckstein was a member of the 1996 Gator squad that claimed the SEC crown and made the program's third trip to Omaha. He later served as bench coach for the USA Olympic Team at the 2008 Beijing Games in China that brought home a bronze medal.
*Members of the Gators' 1962 SEC Championship Team will be recognized in pregame ceremonies on Saturday. Led by head coach Dave Fuller, Florida captured the SEC title by defeating Mississippi State in a best-of-three championship playoff series and finished the season with an overall record of 25-10-1. The 1962 Gators completed the regular season ranked No. 1 in the nation by Collegiate Baseball, made the school's third NCAA Regional appearance and were the first team at UF in any sport to achieve a No. 1 national ranking.
Single-game tickets for the 2012 Gator Baseball season are now on sale. Both single-game and season tickets can be purchased online at www.GatorZone.com/tickets or by calling the Gator Ticket Office at 1-800-34-GATOR from 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m., Monday through Friday.
Single-Game Ticket Prices are as follows:
| $10 – Reserved Box |
| $8 – Reserved Chairback |
| $6 – Reserved Bleacher |
| $4 – General Admission |
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