No. 1 Baseball Wraps Up Eight-Game Road Trip At North Florida Tuesday Night
Monday, April 2, 2012 | Baseball
No. 1 Florida (24-4/6-3 SEC) will complete its season-high eight-game road trip at North Florida (17-13/2-7 A-Sun) on Tuesday at 6 p.m. at Harmon Stadium. The game will be carried on WRUF SportsRadio 850. Over the weekend, the Gators dropped two out of three games at No. 16 Ole Miss, while the Ospreys were swept at Kennesaw State by scores of 5-1, 6-2 and 4-3.
In the teams' last meeting, Preston Tucker (Tampa, Fla.) drove in two runs and Austin Maddox (Jacksonville, Fla.) (2-for-4) belted a two-run homer to lead No. 5 Florida to a 4-1 victory on May 11, 2011, at McKethan Stadium. Working on a pitch count, left-hander Alex Panteliodis gave up one hit over three scoreless innings to earn the win. Seven Gator pitchers combined to allow seven hits and one run, with seven strikeouts and zero walks. Tucker and Mike Zunino (Cape Coral, Fla.) each extended his hitting streak to 13 games, Nolan Fontana (Winter Garden, Fla.) was 2-for-4 and Matt Campbell collected his first save by recording the final out. The Gators' third-straight win over the Ospreys enabled them to take the series lead, 5-4.
The Gators and Ospreys split the first eight meetings since the series started in 2006 before UF pulled ahead with the victory last May. Although UNF captured the first three encounters, Florida has claimed five of the last six matchups. Five of the nine contests have been decided by two runs or less.
UNF second-year head coach Smoke Laval was an assistant at Florida under Jack Rhine during the 1982-83 seasons, while Ospreys' assistant Tim Parenton was a member of Pat McMahon's staff from 2005-07.
Entering Tuesday's game, the Gators are 12-0 against schools from Florida this season. UF took all three games from both No. 8 Miami (Fla.) and Florida Gulf Coast, has taken the first two meetings against top-10 foe Florida State and has posted single wins over Bethune-Cookman, Florida Atlantic, Florida A&M, and No. 19 UCF.
Over the weekend, Florida split its first two games at No. 16 Ole Miss, falling in the opener, 3-0, before evening the series with a 9-4 victory. The Rebels captured the rubber game, 7-6, on Sunday afternoon on a throwing error with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth inning. The series at Oxford-University Stadium/Swayze Field drew a total of 27,991 fans, the second-highest series total in the facility's history. It was the first series loss of the year for the Gators and was the club's first regular-season series setback since dropping two of three at No. 18 Arkansas last May. The Rebels have now taken home series over the top-ranked team three times in the last four years after defeating Georgia (2009), South Carolina (2011) and Florida (2012).
UF had trailed by a 5-0 margin and had taken a 6-5 lead in the seventh inning on a solo homer by Tucker (.327, 25 RBI, 9 HR) before the Rebels tied the game in the bottom of that frame. Deadlocked at 6-6 entering the home part of the ninth and with no inning allowed to begin after 3:45 p.m. CT, the Rebels loaded the bases with one down against Maddox (2-1, 2.08, 8 saves). With an extra infielder deployed, UM freshman Senquez Golson hit a grounder to first base but an errant throw enabled sophomore pinch runner Bobby Wahl to score the winning run. Florida belted three solo homers in the setback, by senior Daniel Pigott (Ormond Beach, Fla.) (4th), Fontana (6th) and Tucker (7th). Fontana (.288, 27 R, 16 RBI) was 3-for-4 and scored twice, while Pigott (.317, 19 RBI) (2-for-5), freshman Justin Shafer (Lake Wales, Fla.) (.302, 12 RBI) (2-for-4) and Tucker (2-for-4) also had multiple-hit efforts. Junior Steven Rodriguez (Miami, Fla.) (3-1, 2.25) had a season-high six strikeouts over four scoreless innings.
UF used a six-run eighth inning, highlighted by a tie-breaking, three-run homer by junior Vickash Ramjit (Miami, Fla.) (.344) to post a 9-4 win in front of a season-high crowd of 10,064 fans on Saturday afternoon. Head coach Kevin O'Sullivan picked up his 200th career victory to become the fastest Gator baseball coach to reach that plateau. The fifth-year skipper is now 200-86 (.699) and reached the mark in 20 fewer games than Joe Arnold, who was 434-244-2 (.640) in 11 seasons from 1984-94. After being limited to a season-low three hits on Friday night, the Gators banged out 17 hits, including a season-high seven doubles, to match their highest output in a game this year. Pigott (3-for-6, two runs), Ramjit (3-for-5, three RBI, two runs) and freshman Casey Turgeon (Palm Harbor, Fla.) (.276) (3-for-5) each had three hits as eight of nine UF starters chipped in with at least one. Freshman Johnny Magliozzi (East Milton, Mass.) improved to 4-0 by having the Rebels leave the bases loaded in the seventh when they led by a run. Trailing 3-2 entering the eighth, Florida erupted for six runs on six hits in the stanza by sending 10 batters to the plate. Maddox led off with a single into right field and Fontana poked a double into left center for two Gators in scoring position. Turgeon came through with a game-tying single into center field that brought across Maddox. Ramjit moved the visitors in front with a three-run jack to left field, his third big fly of the season, all coming in SEC play.
Wahl fired eight scoreless innings as Ole Miss claimed the opener of the three-game series, 3-0. Wahl (5-0) limited the Gators to a pair of singles and junior Brett Huber overcame a leadoff triple in the ninth by Pigott to preserve the shutout and pick up his sixth save. It marked the first time that UF had been shut out since March 8, 2011, by Georgia Southern (7-0).
Gator Bytes
*Head coach Kevin O'Sullivan is 5-2 (.714) against North Florida: 5-1 (.833) in Gainesville and 0-1 (.000) in Jacksonville.
*The Gators' last seven games have been against ranked opponents and UF has gone 4-3 (.571) in that stretch: (2-1 series win at No. 6 South Carolina, 4-1 win over No. 4 Florida State and 1-2 series loss at No. 16 Ole Miss).
*Florida occupies the top spot in the Ratings Percentage Index, with Florida State (24-4), North Carolina (22-6), Kentucky (27-2) and NC State (19-7) rounding out the top five, respectively.
*The Gator bullpen is 12-3 with nine saves and a 2.14 ERA this season, with 109 strikeouts and 26 walks in 113.2 innings.
*With junior Hudson Randall's setback in the opener at Ole Miss, Florida's starting pitchers are now 12-1 with a 3.60 ERA, with 114 K and 28 BB in 132.1 innings.
*Junior Austin Maddox (2-1, 2.08) is 8-for-8 in save opportunities and has 31 strikeouts and seven walks in 26 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 1-for-20 (.050) against Maddox, who is seventh on the school's career list with 13 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 193-89 scoring advantage and has out-scored foes, 58-18, over the final three innings.
*Sophomore Daniel Gibson has surrendered one run in 15.2 innings of work covering 12 appearances. The southpaw has 12 strikeouts and three walks, while holding opponents to a .172 clip.
*Junior outfielder Vickash Ramjit batted a team-best .438 (7-for-16) over the Gators' four games last week, with a team-leading six RBI, and was 5-for-12 (.417) in the series at Ole Miss and drove in a team-high four runs. Ramjit went 2-for-4 last Tuesday with a pair of RBI singles as Florida clinched its regular-season series with No. 4 Florida State with a 4-1 win in Jacksonville.
*Senior outfielder Daniel Pigott (.317) enters the week on a team-high eight-game hitting streak in which he is 13-for-34 (.382) with nine runs. Pigott was 6-for-15 (.400) against the Rebels, with three runs, a homer, a triple and a double.
*Freshman Justin Shafer went 2-for-4 on Sunday in his first start at designated hitter and delivered an RBI single as part of the Gators' four-run fourth inning.
*Fourteen of UF's 24 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 tied with junior Mike Zunino for the team lead 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 Sunday in Oxford.
*The Gators have clubbed 41 homers in 28 games after totaling 69 HR in 72 games last season and ranked first nationally in the NCAA statistics released earlier this afternoon. Nine different players have left the yard, led by Tucker (9), Zunino (9), junior Nolan Fontana (5) and freshman Taylor Gushue (5). The Orange and Blue has multiple homers in 14 games and has at least one jack in 21 of 28 contests this season.
*Florida is batting .330 (90-for-273) with runners in scoring position, as junior Brian Johnson is 10-for-21 (.476) and Tucker is 12-for-33 (.364). Opponents are just 41-for-226 (.181).
*Tucker's double in the eighth inning versus Ole Miss on Saturday was the 59th of his career, two shy of Mark Ellis' school-record total of 61 set between 1996-99.
*The Gators are 12-2 (.857) this year when opponents score first and are 20-0 when out-hitting their foe.
*UF has 20 errors through 28 games for an SEC-leading .981 fielding percentage and has played error-free in 13 contests (11-2).
*The Gators' 24 sacrifice flies are halfway to the school's single-season mark of 48 done in 2000. UF had 27 sac flies last year, led by a school-record-tying nine by Fontana.
All attendees to Tuesday night's game in Jacksonville are encouraged to bring non-perishable items, such as cans of soup, boxes of pasta, breakfast snacks or hygiene products. All donations will be used to stock the Lend a Wing Pantry, which is an anonymous on-campus pantry open to all students located on the first floor of UNF Hall and scheduled to open this spring. Free Pantry T-shirts will be thrown out and everyone who donates will be entered into a drawing to win gift cards from local businesses such as the UNF Bookstore. The Volunteer Center will have a table at the gate entrance where donations can be dropped off and students can learn how to become a Lend a Wing Pantry volunteer.
