No. 1 UF Baseball Welcomes Georgia For Weekend Series
Thursday, April 19, 2012 | Baseball
Having claimed four of its past five outings, No. 1 Florida (29-8/9-6 SEC) hosts Eastern Division rival Georgia (23-15/7-8 SEC) in its sixth of 10 league series at McKethan Stadium. The teams met five times last season, with the Gators taking two of the three meetings in Athens before splitting a pair of meetings at the SEC Tournament in Hoover, Ala. The Bulldogs stayed alive at the double-elimination event with a 4-3 triumph and UF responded with a 3-2 win to reach the championship round, where it blanked Vanderbilt, 5-0.
Game times this weekend are at 7 p.m. both Friday and Saturday (each carried on CSS) and at 3 p.m. on Sunday (ESPN2). Although CSS is not available locally, these two games will air live in the Gainesville/Ocala market on Cox Channel 199. To view this channel, customers will need to have a Cox-provided digital receiver but does not need the Sports Tier of programming. It will be made available through the Cox TV Starter (lowest level of TV programming). Brad Wilkerson, who will be the Gators' first-ever inductee into the National College Baseball Hall of Fame this summer, will also be in Gainesville this weekend.
Sophomore right-hander Jonathon Crawford (Okeechobee, Fla.) (4-1, 4.05) will start Friday's series opener against Georgia redshirt sophomore left-hander Alex Wood (5-1, 2.61), junior left-hander Brian Johnson (Cocoa Beach, Fla.) (5-1, 3.88) will oppose Bulldog senior righty Michael Palazzone (1-5, 5.81) on Saturday and junior right-hander Hudson Randall (Atlanta, Ga.) (3-1, 3.56) will start Sunday's finale against a UGA pitcher to be announced.
At the midway point of the SEC schedule, Florida is 9-6 and is two games behind co-leaders Kentucky and LSU, who are each 11-4. So far in league play, the Gators have swept Vanderbilt and took two of three outings at No. 6 South Carolina before dropping consecutive series to No. 16 Ole Miss and No. 7 LSU. UF got back on the winning track by claiming last Sunday's decisive game three at Tennessee. Georgia is 7-8 following series against Tennessee (W, W, L), Vanderbilt (W, L, L), No. 10 Kentucky (W, L, L), No. 13 Arkansas (W, L, L) and No. 18 Ole Miss (W, W, L).
Below is a list of how the Gators have fared in the first half of the SEC schedule during Kevin O'Sullivan's first five seasons at the helm and how they finished:
Year Record Series Results Final SEC Record
2008 9-6 W, W, W, L, L 17-13 (2nd East)
2009 9-6 L, W, W, L, W 19-11 (1st East)
2010 10-5 W, L, W, W, W 22-8 (1st East, SEC Champions)
2011 11-4 W, L, W, W, W 22-8 (T-1st East, SEC Tri-Champions)
2012 9-6 W, W, L, L, W ???
In the teams' last meeting, Nolan Fontana (Winter Garden, Fla.) drove in Vickash Ramjit (Miami, Fla.) with the winning run in the ninth inning as the Gators downed Georgia, 3-2, in the teams' second encounter on May 28, 2011, at Regions Park for the SEC Tournament. Tied at 2-2 entering the ninth, Ramjit led off with his third double of the season into right center and was sacrificed to third by Daniel Pigott (Ormond Beach, Fla.). Craig Gullickson came in for Eric Swegman (1-1, 2.1 IP, 2 H, 1 R) and issued a walk to Cody Dent (Boynton Beach, Fla.) for runners on the corners and one down. Fontana sent a potential double-play ground ball to second base, forcing Dent, and hustled down the line to beat the relay throw, bringing Ramjit across for a 3-2 Gator lead.
With Georgia down to its final three outs, Austin Maddox (Jacksonville, Fla.) replaced Tommy Toledo, who had taken over with a runner on first base in the eighth and retired the next three batters. After Maddox struck out Brett DeLoach, Kevin Ruiz (3-for-4) rifled a double down the left-field line. A fly ball to left field by Joey Delmonico advanced Ruiz to third base with two down and Maddox countered with a game-ending strikeout of Colby May to nail down the win and collect his team-leading fifth save.
Florida improved to 11-4 in the SEC last year by taking two of three outings at Georgia. The Gators captured the opener, 5-4, before the Bulldogs countered with a 7-2 victory on Saturday. In an offensive slugfest, UF closed the weekend with a 14-7 triumph for their fifth-straight series triumph over Georgia and improved to 7-2 in SEC road games last season. Preston Tucker (Tampa, Fla.) belted a go-ahead two-run homer in the seventh and blasted a grand slam in the eighth to propel the Gators to a 14-7 win in Sunday's rubber match. After the Bulldogs rallied from a 6-1 deficit with two runs in the fifth and four in the sixth to take a 7-6 lead, the Gators responded with eight unanswered runs in their final three at bats. Tucker (2-for-5) had his first multiple-homer outing of the campaign and set season highs with six RBI and three runs to pace a 17-hit offensive attack against eight Bulldog pitchers. Johnson (3-for-4, three RBI, two-run homer), Maddox (3-for-4, two runs) and Mike Zunino (Cape Coral, Fla.) 3-for-4, three runs) combined with Tucker for an 11-for-17 (.647), 10-RBI, nine-run performance by Florida's third through sixth hitters in the lineup. Greg Larson (Longwood, Fla.) scattered five hits over 3.2 scoreless innings, matching his longest relief stint of the season, to notch his first win since May 14, 2010, against UGA. On Saturday, the Bulldogs snapped a 1-1 tie with a six-run eighth inning to square the weekend series, 7-2. Palazzone allowed one run on six hits and had six strikeouts over eight innings to register the victory, Kyle Farmer (2-for-4) had the go-ahead RBI double and DeLoach (3-for-4, four RBI) had a three-run triple as Georgia ended a nine-game losing skid to the Gators dating back to a 7-4 decision on April 25, 2008. With UGA holding a 1-0 lead, Bryson Smith (2-for-4) tied the game in the eighth with a one-out homer into the trees overlooking left field. It was his first round-tripper of the season and first since April 24, 2010, versus Arkansas. Johnson was locked in a pitcher's duel with Palazzone and yielded one run on six hits with four K over six innings. Johnson's run of 9.1 consecutive scoreless innings ended on an RBI grounder by DeLoach in the fourth. Anthony DeSclafani was tagged with the loss after giving up three hits and four runs over 1.1 innings. Josh Adams was a perfect 3-for-3 and had a double that narrowly missed being the game-tying homer in the seventh. Steven Rodriguez (Miami, Fla.) struck out junior Levi Hyams with the tying run aboard to end the game as the Gators claimed the opener, 5-4. The victory was the 150th of O'Sullivan's career. The hosts had pulled within a run in their final at bat on a two-out RBI single by Peter Verdin before Rodriguez was called upon in relief of Maddox (1.2 IP, 2 H, 1 R). The southpaw's punch-out resulted in his second save and preserved the win for Randall. The Gators banged out 13 hits and were led offensively by Maddox (3-for-4, two RBI), Fontana (2-for-5), Tucker (2-for-4) and Pigott (2-for-3). UF batted .368 (39-for-106) with four homers over the weekend in Athens.
Over the weekend of May 14-16, 2000, Florida notched its first sweep of Georgia at McKethan Stadium since 2000. Fontana batted .300 and drew three walks against the Bulldogs. The series attendance of 14,619 eclipsed the previous best of 13,962 set during the Florida-LSU series from April 24-26, 1998, and was the highest until last season's 14,838 for the visit by South Carolina (since broken by 16,388 fans for the LSU series from April 5-7). UF was 5-for-5 basepaths in the finale and 10-for-11 in the series. Florida's bullpen earned wins in the first two games and did not permit any earned runs over 10.2 innings of work, with eight strikeouts and zero walks. The Gators broke open a 2-1 contest on Sunday by plating seven runs with two down in the sixth. The seven runs matched Florida's 2010 season high in an inning set at Tennessee on April 11, and equaled at USF on April 21. Matt den Dekker extended his hitting streak to 12 games with a leadoff single in the eighth. Johnson retired the first eight batters of the game, scattered six hits and gave up one run over 5.2 innings to earn the win. Tucker went 1-for-3 and drove in two runs, while improving to 7-for-7 on stolen-base attempts. Ben McMahan led off the bottom of the ninth with a solo homer as Florida took a 4-3 victory on Saturday afternoon. The Bulldogs had tied the game in the top of the inning on a two-out RBI single before the Gators answered with their second-straight walk-off victory to clinch their seventh-consecutive league series. Kevin Chapman picked up the win after surrendering an unearned run that tied the game. Randall worked 5.2 innings, giving up nine hits and two runs,and totaled five K. A bases-loaded sacrifice fly by Zunino in the bottom of the ninth enabled UF to pull out a 4-3 victory in the series opener. Down 3-2 entering the final frame, the Gators capitalized on a pair of Bulldog errors and scored twice without any hits to earn the win. Larson tossed a career-high four innings out of the bullpen to register the victory by keeping Georgia scoreless on two hits. den Dekker (1-for-4) had multiple stolen bases in a game for the 16th time in his career and the fourth time that season.
Home-field advantage in the Florida-Georgia series hasn't meant much in recent years, as the Gators have emerged victorious from their last five visits to Athens (2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011) and posted a 12-3 (.800) mark and the Bulldogs had back-to-back sweeps in the Sunshine State under their belts (2004, 2006) before falling in the final two games at McKethan Stadium in 2008 and getting swept in 2010.
Gator Bytes
*Kevin O'Sullivan is 11-3 (.786) against Georgia, 5-1 (.833) in Gainesville, 5-1 (.833) in Athens and 1-1 (.500) at the SEC Tournament.
*The Gators have claimed their last five regular-season series with UGA: 2007 (3-0), 2008 (2-1), 2009 (3-0), 2010 (3-0) and 2011 (2-1).
*UF is 143-29 (.831) at McKethan Stadium in O'Sullivan's tenure and is 54-15 (.783) on its own turf against league opponents.
*In SEC series this year, the Gators are 2-3 (.400) in game one, 4-1 (.800) in game two and 3-2 (.600) in game three. Georgia is 5-0 (1.000) in series openers, 2-3 (.400) in game two and 0-5 (.000) in game three.
*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 19-3 (.873) at home, where it will play its next eight games.
*Florida starting pitchers are 16-2 with a 3.67 ERA and have 140 strikeouts and 36 walks in 164.1 innings.
*The Gator bullpen is 13-6 with 11 saves and a 2.46 ERA this season, with 153 strikeouts and 35 walks in 160.2 innings.
*Twenty-eight of the club's 47 homers have come at McKethan Stadium.
*Junior Mike Zunino leads Florida at home with a .411 (30-for-72) batting average, 26 RBI, nine doubles and six homers, while senior Preston Tucker is hitting .361 (30-for-83) with 23 RBI, eight homers and five doubles. Four different pitchers have recorded three wins at McKethan Stadium this season: sophomore RHP Jonathon Crawford (3-1, 2.66), junior LHP Brian Johnson (3-1, 3.42), senior RHP Greg Larson (3-0, 2.45) and junior LHP Steven Rodriguez (3-0, 3.32).
*Junior Austin Maddox (2-2, 2.00) is 10-for-10 in save opportunities and has 41 strikeouts and seven walks in 36 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 4-for-27 (.148) 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 247-126 scoring advantage and has out-scored foes, 73-26, over the final three innings.
*Sophomore Daniel Gibson has surrendered two runs in 18.1 innings of work covering 15 appearances. The southpaw has 14 strikeouts and six walks, while holding opponents to a .191 clip.
*Sixteen of UF's 29 victories have been come-from-behind. Last season, 20 of the Gators' school-record 53 wins came after they were trailing.
*Crawford has drawn a start in all five of the Gators' SEC series and is 3-0 with a 2.78 ERA in league action, with back-to-back wins over LSU (6.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 4 K, 2 BB) and Tennessee (5.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 5 K, 3 BB).
*Johnson's total of three SEC wins is one shy of his career best in both 2010 (4-2, 3.00) and 2011 (4-3, 4.67). Over three career starts versus Georgia, the lefty is 1-0 with a 2.19 ERA (12.1 IP, 14 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 9 K, 2 BB).
*Johnson begins the series with the Bulldogs on a six-game hitting streak in which he is 11-for-24 (.458) with 13 RBI, five runs, three homers and three doubles. His career-long stretch of 11 games with a hit went from May 20, 2010, until Feb. 19, 2011.
*Junior Hudson Randall, who is 1-0 with a 3.00 ERA in two career starts against Georgia, last saw action on March 30 at Ole Miss (6.0 IP, 8 H, 3 R, 4 K, 1 BB). The righty has 38 strikeouts and permitted just three walks in 43 innings this season.
*Sophomore Karsten Whitson made his first career relief appearance on Tuesday with a perfect eighth inning against Georgia Southern in which he retired on the side on eight pitches. The righty was 8-0 with a 1.56 ERA in 11 starts at McKethan Stadium in his rookie season and defeated No. 16 Cal State Fullerton in his season debut on Feb. 18 (5.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R).
*With a 22-8 (.733) career record, Randall's next victory would put him in a tie for seventh on UF's career chart for wins with Darren McClellan (1993-95), Darren O'Day (2003-06), Alex Panteliodis (2009-11) and Johnny Wiggs (1988-89).
*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 48 homers in 37 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), freshman Taylor Gushue (5) and Johnson (5). The Orange and Blue has multiple homers in 15 games and has at least one jack in 26 of 37 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.
*Junior third baseman Cody Dent enters the weekend on a three-game hitting streak, matching his career long. He has started the past 15 games on the hot corner since March 23 (game two at South Carolina).
*Florida is batting .313 (119-for-380) with runners in scoring position, as Johnson is 16-for-36 (.444) and senior Daniel Pigott is 13-for-35 (.371). Opponents are just 63-for-322 (.196).
*Tucker had a couple of doubles versus Tennessee last Saturday to eclipse Mark Ellis' school-record total of 61 set between 1996-99. He recently became just the second player in Gator baseball history to reach the 300-hit plateau. With 303 career hits, Tucker needs 17 more to surpass Ellis' record (319).
*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 on April 10, 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, Zunino is hitting .600 (15-for-25), freshman Casey Turgeon is 14-for-27 (.519), Tucker is at .469 (15-for-32), Fontana is 26-for-62 (.419) and Pigott is batting .415 (17-for-41).
*The Gators are 14-4 (.778) this year when opponents score first and are 24-2 (.923) when out-hitting their foe.
*After committing one error on Tuesday night, Florida has 30 errors through 37 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.
*In SEC games only, Georgia ranks second in hitting (.291) and Florida is sixth (.273). The Gators rank first in slugging percentage (.441), runs scored (89), RBI (81), doubles (29, tied with Auburn), homers (17) and sacrifice flies (10). UF is second in lowest earned run average (3.36) and the Bulldogs are 11th (4.78). The Orange and Blue is first in fielding percentage (.980) and UGA rates third (.978).
*Among individual leaders, junior Vickash Ramjit is first in slugging percentage (.725), tied for second in homers (4), tied for fourth in RBI (12) and is eighth with a .350 clip.
*Tucker is third in total bases (36), fourth in slugging (.632), tied for fourth in dingers (3) and walks (11), tied for fifth in on-base percentage (.456) and seventh in batting average (.351).
*Crawford and Johnson are tied for second with three wins apiece in SEC activity and the duo of Maddox and Rodriguez are tied for the top spot with nine appearances.
