No. 1 Florida Hosts No. 19 UCF In Mid-Week Matchup
Wednesday, February 22, 2012 | Baseball
After an 8-6 win on Tuesday night over Bethune-Cookman, No. 1 Florida (3-1) faces another Sunshine State foe when No. 19 UCF (3-0) visits McKethan Stadium on Wednesday for a 7 p.m. contest that will carried live on Fox Sports Florida. The Knights swept Long Island over the weekend at Jay Bergman Field by scores of 13-7, 9-1 and 9-1.
Sophomore Jonathon Crawford (0-1) will make his starting debut against UCF and will oppose senior righty Matt Collins (0-0, 0.00). The right-hander was on the hook for the loss on Sunday against Cal State Fullerton after yielding five hits and four runs in the fifth inning. Crawford made five appearances as a freshman, totaling 3.2 innings, in which he gave up six hits and three runs, with four strikeouts and a walk.
In the teams' last meeting, UCF plated seven of its eight runs with two down in an 8-6 victory over No. 5 Florida in front of a record crowd of 3,601 fans on April 20, 2011, at Jay Bergman Field. Chris Taladay (2-for-5) and Derek Luciano (2-for-4) each drove in three runs and the Knights withstood a six-run rally in the eighth by the Gators that featured a grand slam by Preston Tucker (Tampa, Fla.) to take both meetings between the squads last season. The Knights opened the scoring on an RBI single by Travis Shreve off Tommy Toledo in the second, added a two-run single by Taladay in the third and used run-scoring singles by Taladay and Luciano in the fifth to expand the lead to 5-0. UCF used a solo shot by D.J. Hicks and a two-run dinger by Luciano in the seventh to build an 8-0 cushion. Held to just two hits through seven frames, Florida exploded for six runs on six hits to narrow the gap to 8-6 in the eighth. Tyler Thompson (Tequesta, Fla.) connected on his first round-tripper of the year to put the Gators on the board and Tucker bashed his second grand slam in as many games to bring the visitors within two runs. However, UCF reliever Joe Rogers stranded a runner on second with a pair of strikeouts to end the eighth and pitched a scoreless ninth to preserve the victory.
In the clubs' most recent meeting in Gainesville, Darnell Sweeney delivered a two-out, two-run double in the ninth to lift UCF to a 4-3 victory over No. 4 Florida on April 5, 2011, at McKethan Stadium. With the Knights down to their final out, Sweeney (2-for-5) launched a two-bagger to straightaway center field off Anthony DeSclafani that brought home Beau Taylor (2-for-3) with the tying run and Ryan Breen (2-for-4) with what proved to be the winning run. With the score knotted at 2-2 in the eighth, Jeff Moyer (Winter Springs, Fla.) had given the Gators the lead with a pinch-hit single up the middle that drove in pinch runner Paul Wilson. Florida stranded 10 runners and the Knights overcame deficits of 2-0 and 3-2 to end a three-game losing streak in the series. Mike Zunino's (Cape Coral, Fla.) career-high hitting streak of 17 games was halted with an 0-for-3 performance and he struck out to complete the contest.
Tucker delivered a bases-loaded RBI single to snap a 6-6 tie in the eighth and junior Brian Johnson (Cocoa Beach, Fla.) added a sacrifice fly later in the inning to lift No. 1 Florida (3-1) to an 8-6 win over Bethune-Cookman (2-2) on Tuesday. Junior Austin Maddox (1-0) (Jacksonville, Fla.) threw two scoreless innings to earn the victory, Zunino (2-for-3) belted solo homers in the second and seventh frames and junior Cody Dent (Boynton Beach, Fla.) went 3-for-3 to help the Gators improve to 26-0 against the Wildcats. Freshman Johnny Magliozzi (East Milton, Mass.) made his collegiate starting debut and scattered five hits over 3.2 innings, giving up three runs, with three strikeouts and a pair of walks. Junior Nolan Fontana (Winter Garden, Fla.) chipped in with a career-high three sacrifice hits, freshman Taylor Gushue (Boca Raton, Fla.) made his first start behind the plate and was 2-for-5 with an RBI single and senior Daniel Pigott (Ormond Beach, Fla.) was 2-for-4, scored twice and had an RBI double.
Tucker is one RBI shy of matching Brad Wilkerson's school-record total of 214 RBI set between 1996-98. Over 202 career games entering Wednesday, Tucker is hitting .335 in 789 at bats, with 264 hits, 213 RBI, 156 runs, 93 walks, 54 doubles and 43 homers. In his spectacular three-year career, Wilkerson played in 195 games and finished with a school-record career batting average of .381 in 699 at bats, with 266 hits, 239 runs (second at UF), 224 walks (school record), 214 RBI, 55 home runs (second at UF) and 50 doubles.
In five career games against UCF, Tucker is 7-for-21 (.333), with 16 RBI, six runs and four homers. He tied the SEC single-game and set a Gators' record by driving in 11 runs during a 16-3 victory on April 8, 2009. Tucker cranked grand slams in both the fifth (right field) and seventh (center field) innings, sandwiched around a three-run bomb in the sixth to left center.
Gator Bytes
*Kevin O'Sullivan is 3-2 (.600) against UCF, 2-1 (.667) in Gainesville and 1-1 (.500) in Orlando.
*Preston Tucker's 43 homers rank third behind Matt LaPorta (74, 2004-07) and Brad Wilkerson (55, 1996-98), while he is currently fourth in doubles with 54 and needs eight to pass Mark Ellis (61, 1996-99) for the number one spot.
*Tucker's 264 career hits are two behind Wilkerson for fifth at UF.
*Junior Mike Zunino had the fifth multiple-homer game of his career versus Bethune-Cookman and has gone deep four times in the last two encounters with the Wildcats.
*Now with 30 career round-trippers, Zunino sits in 14th place on the school's all-time list. His next big fly will put him in a tie with Josh Adams (2008-11), Greg Catalanotte (1998-99) and C.J. Smith (2002-04) for 11th.
*Dating back to last season, Zunino enters the meeting with UCF on an eight-game hitting streak in which he is 13-for-31 (.419) with seven runs and five RBI. His last game without a hit was an 0-for-3 showing in Florida's CWS opener against Texas on June 18, 2011.
*Senior Greg Larson has appeared in three of the Gators' four games this season, bringing him to 90 career appearances. He needs six more to match Josh Edmondson (2005-08) for fifth on the school's all-time chart.
*Florida batters did not strike out against Bethune-Cookman, marking the first time since March 1, 2004, against Northwestern that its offense had zero K in an outing.
*UF has one error through four games and has played error-free in its last three contests.
*All five of Florida's home runs have been of the solo variety.
*UF's opponent has scored first in all three of the Orange and Blue's victories, while Florida dropped the only game in which it broke the ice.
*All three of the squad's wins this season have been come-from-behind. Last season, O'Sullivan's team notched 20 wins after trailing.
*Freshman Casey Turgeon has started all four games at second base and has one hit in each game for a .308 (4-for-13) clip.
*The Gators used a total of 11 pitchers on the opening weekend, three of whom were freshmen - RHP Johnny Magliozzi, LHP Bobby Poyner and RHP Justin Shafer.
*Florida is hitting .343 (36-for-105) against right-handers and .167 (4-for-24) versus lefties.
*Led by junior Brian Johnson and senior Daniel Pigott, who are each 2-for-3 (.667), the Gators are 12-for-32 (.375) with runners in scoring position.
*Ten of the team's 24 RBI this year have come with two out, two apiece by junior Nolan Fontana, freshman Taylor Gushue, Johnson and Pigott.
*Only nine of 36 leadoff batters have reached base against the UF pitching staff, good for a .250 clip.
*The Gators' most productive inning has been the seventh (six runs) and the squad has scored five runs in both the second and fourth innings.
*Junior Austin Maddox worked four shutout innings last Saturday for the club's first save of the year. He recorded five saves last season and his first came on April 10 at Mississippi State (3-1). The righty picked up the win over Bethune-Cookman for his first triumph since June 24, 2011, versus Vanderbilt at the NCAA College World Series.
