No. 1 Baseball Begins Nine-Game Homestand Against Georgia Southern On Tuesday
Tuesday, April 17, 2012 | Baseball
After playing 12 of its last 15 contests on the road, No. 1 Florida (28-8/9-6 SEC) kicks off a nine-game stretch at McKethan Stadium by hosting Georgia Southern (22-16/10-8 SoCon) on Tuesday at 7 p.m. The contest will be carried on WRUF SportsRadio 850 with Jeff Cardozo and Mick Hubert.
Florida captured its weekend series at Tennessee and is two games behind SEC co-leaders Kentucky and LSU, who are each 11-4 in league action. UF notched a 3-1 win in Friday's opener with the Vols before its ninth-inning rally fell short on Saturday, 5-4, and then captured Sunday's rubber game by an 8-1 margin. Georgia Southern dropped its first matchup with No. 27 Appalachian State, 5-1, but then rallied to take the series from the Mountaineers with a pair of victories: 13-3 and 7-6.
Senior Greg Larson (Longwood, Fla.) (3-0, 1.67) will be making his second start of the season and will face GSU righty Lucas Hart (1-0, 8.10). In Larson's previous start, he went 3.2 innings (3 H, 1 R, 4 K, 1 BB) versus Florida State in Jacksonville on March 27. The right-hander will be making his 105th career appearance, passing John Pricher (1989-92) for third on the school's all-time list. Larson leads the Gators with a 1.67 ERA and has appeared in 27 games this season, with 23 strikeouts, 17 hits, seven walks and six runs (five earned) allowed in 27 innings. Opponents are batting .185 against him.
In the teams' last meeting, a trio of Georgia Southern pitchers registered 11 strikeouts and limited the Gators to three singles and the Eagles collected 11 hits and took advantage of four errors on their way to a 7-0 victory at McKethan Stadium on March 8, 2011. Starter Chris Beck notched four strikeouts and allowed one hit over two innings, Josh Adams yielded two hits and had two strikeouts over three innings and Matt Murray retired 12 of the 13 Florida batters he faced over four shutout innings with five K to pick up his second save.
The loss snapped the Gators' school-record 24-game winning streak at home dating back to an 8-3 setback to No. 4 Arkansas on April 23, 2010. UF had not been blanked at home since a 7-0 defeat to No. 17 Vanderbilt on April 4, 2010.
Over the weekend, Florida took two of three games at Eastern Division rival Tennessee (3-1, 4-5, 8-1). Junior Nolan Fontana (Winter Garden, Fla.) (.328, 35 R, 23 RBI, 8-for-8 SB) was 6-for-9 (.667) in the series against the Vols, with five walks, two doubles and two runs, while junior Brian Johnson (Cocoa Beach, Fla.) (.315, 23 RBI) batted .500 (6-for-12) with six RBI, two doubles and two runs and threw six shutout innings in the finale to secure the series triumph. Junior Mike Zunino (Cape Coral, Fla.) leads the team in batting average (.338), RBI (39), doubles (14) and homers (10), senior Preston Tucker (Tampa, Fla.) is batting .326 with 29 runs, 28 RBI and nine homers and senior Daniel Pigott (Ormond Beach, Fla.) is hitting .321 with 30 runs and 23 RBI. As a team, UF has a .292 clip, with 65 doubles, 47 homers and 28 sacrifice flies. The Gator pitching staff has compiled a 3.10 earned run average and junior reliever Austin Maddox (Jacksonville, Fla.) (2-2, 1.80) is a 10-for-10 on save opportunities.
In Sunday's rubber game, the Gators used a four-run first inning and scored in the first four frames to post an 8-1 victory. Johnson (5-1, 3.88) tossed six scoreless innings and helped his own cause with a three-run double in the first inning that set the tone for the afternoon. After claiming the series on its last trip to Rocky Top in 2010, it marked the first time since 1998-2000-2002 that the Gators had emerged victorious in consecutive visits to Knoxville. Fontana went 2-for-4 out of the leadoff spot, junior Vickash Ramjit (.283, 14 RBI) went 2-for-4 with a solo homer and Tucker chipped in with two hits. Johnson departed after six strong innings in which he scattered six hits, with four strikeouts and a walk, and Larson kept Tennessee off the board in the seventh. Larson's 104th career appearance moved him past Josh Fogg (1996-98) for fourth on the school's all-time list. Holding a 5-4 lead in the top of the ninth with the bases full and one out, Tennessee turned a game-ending double play to even the series on Saturday afternoon. Johnson was 3-for-5 and drove in a pair of runs, Tucker became Florida's all-time leader in doubles with a pair of two-baggers and freshman Johnny
Magliozzi (East Milton, Mass.) (4-1, 3.32) allowed one runs over a career-high five innings out of the bullpen but was on the hook for the loss. Fontana was 4-for-4 with a pair of doubles and the Gator bullpen tossed four scoreless innings around several jams to lead Florida to a 3-1 series-opening victory over Tennessee on Friday night. Zunino and Fontana each had an RBI double in the fifth inning as the Gators plated two runs to snap a 1-1 tie. Making the first Friday night start of his career, sophomore right-hander Jonathon Crawford (Okeechobee, Fla.) (4-1, 4.05) held the Vols to one run on six hits over five innings to improve to 3-0 in SEC play. Junior Steven Rodriguez (Miami, Fla.) (3-1, 2.53) registered four strikeouts and gave up one hit over two scoreless innings before Maddox notched his 10th save by pitching the final two frames, with three strikeouts and a couple of hits.
Johnson was chosen as the Southeastern Conference Player of the Week on Monday for the first time in his career after helping the
Gators to three victories in four outings last week, a 6-3 triumph over No. 1 Florida State and a series win at Eastern Division rival Tennessee. Johnson batted .471 (8-for-17) with a team-high seven RBI last week. He went 2-for-5 with a single in the second inning and a solo homer in the ninth inning to lift the Gators to the victory over the Seminoles at sold-out Dick Howser Stadium. UF swept the three-game regular-season series against FSU for the first time since 1958 and defeated the nation's top-ranked team for the first time since April 18, 2007.
Over the weekend at Lindsey Nelson Stadium, he hit .500 (6-for-12) in the series victory over the Vols and collected six of Florida's 13 RBI in the three outings. Johnson was 2-for-4 in the opener and tied the game in the fourth with an RBI single, with UF going on to notch a 3-1 victory. He went 3-for-5 in game two, with a leadoff homer in the second inning, an RBI double in the third and a one-out single in the ninth. In the finale, Johnson delivered a three-run double in the first inning and pitched six scoreless innings (6 H, 4 K, 1 BB) to help the Gators secure the win in the rubber game, 8-1.
On the season, Johnson is 5-1 with a 3.88 ERA and has 39 strikeouts in a team-high 48.2 innings. He has a .315 batting average with 23 RBI, 11 runs, six doubles and four round-trippers, to go along with a .517 slugging percentage and an on-base percentage of .347.
Gator Bytes
*The Gators returned to the No. 1 ranking in two of the four college baseball polls released on Monday, taking the top spot in the USA Today/ESPN and NCBWA polls. UF is fourth according to Collegiate Baseball and fifth in Baseball America.
*Florida occupies the top spot in the Ratings Percentage Index released by the NCAA and the Strength of Schedule ratings compiled by Warren Nolan.
*The Orange and Blue is 18-3 (.857) at home, where it will play its next nine contests.
*Florida starting pitchers are 15-2 with a 3.68 ERA and have 137 strikeouts and 36 walks in 161.1 innings.
*The Gator bullpen is 13-6 with 11 saves and a 2.50 ERA this season, with 147 strikeouts and 35 walks in 154.2 innings.
*Twenty-seven of the club's 47 homers have come at McKethan Stadium.
*Junior Austin Maddox (2-2, 1.80) is 10-for-10 in save opportunities and has 41 strikeouts and seven walks in 35 innings. He had five saves last season and UF's mark for saves in a campaign is 13 by Danny Wheeler in 1994 and Josh Fogg in 1998. Leadoff hitters are 3-for-26 (.115) against Maddox, who is seventh on the school's career list with 15 saves after passing former teammates Billy Bullock (2007-09, 11 saves) and Kevin Chapman (2007-10, 11 saves) against Samford. Connor Falkenbach (2002-05) occupies the sixth spot with 16 saves.
*Florida holds a 239-124 scoring advantage and has out-scored foes, 70-25, over the final three innings.
*Sophomore Daniel Gibson has surrendered two runs in 16.2 innings of work covering 14 appearances. The southpaw has 12 strikeouts and six walks, while holding opponents to a .177 clip.
*Sixteen of UF's 25 victories have been come-from-behind. Last season, 20 of the Gators' school-record 53 wins came after they were trailing.
*Senior Preston Tucker, who is second on the team with nine homers, joined Matt LaPorta (74, 2004-07) and Brad Wilkerson (55, 1996-98) as the only players at Florida in the 50-HR club with a solo shot in the seventh inning on April 1 at Ole Miss.
*The Gators have clubbed 47 homers in 36 games after totaling 69 HR in 72 games last season. Nine different players have left the yard, led by Zunino (10), Tucker (9), junior Nolan Fontana (7) and freshman Taylor Gushue (5). The Orange and Blue has multiple homers in 15 games and has at least one jack in 25 of 36 contests this season.
*Fontana has already set his career high for homers after having three as a freshman and five as a sophomore. He leads UF in stolen bases by going 8-for-8.
*Florida is batting .313 (116-for-371) with runners in scoring position, as junior Brian Johnson is 14-for-33 (.424). Opponents are just 61-for-313 (.195).
*Tucker had a couple of doubles versus Tennessee last Saturday to eclipse Mark Ellis' school-record total of 61 set between 1996-99.
*Freshman RHP Ryan Harris, who notched his first collegiate victory by retiring all nine Florida State batters he faced over a career-high three innings, has not allowed lefties a hit this year (0-for-9) and has not surrendered a hit with two outs (0-for-12).
*Leading off, junior Mike Zunino is hitting .600 (15-for-25), freshman Casey Turgeon is 13-for-26 (.500), Tucker is at .484 (15-for-31), senior Daniel Pigott is batting .410 (16-for-39) and Fontana is 24-for-59 (.407).
*The Gators are 14-4 (.778) this year when opponents score first and are 23-2 (.920) when out-hitting their foe.
*After committing two errors at Tennessee, Florida has 29 errors through 36 games for a .979 fielding percentage and has played error-free in 15 contests (13-2).
*The Gators' 28 sacrifice flies are over halfway to the school's single-season mark of 48 done in 2000. UF had 27 sac flies last year, led by nine from Fontana.
