No. 2 Baseball Meets Bethune-Cookman On Wednesday Night
Wednesday, April 25, 2012 | Baseball
After falling to USF by a 5-3 score on Tuesday night, No. 2 Florida (31-10/11-7 SEC) tangles with Bethune-Cookman (24-17/13-4 MEAC) on Wednesday before hosting No. 17 Arkansas (29-12/9-9 SEC) in a three-game set that starts on Friday night at McKethan Stadium. The Wildcats were edged by Stetson on Tuesday in DeLand, 9-8. Tonight's game can be heard on WRUF SportsRadio 850 with Jeff Cardozo and Mick Hubert.
Sophomore Karsten Whitson (Chipley, Fla.) (2-0, 5.11) will be making his sixth start of the season and his eighth appearance of the campaign when he takes the mound versus Bethune-Cookman sophomore righty Montana Durapau (2-4, 3.75). Whitson earned the win in Sunday's series-clinching triumph over Georgia.
In the last meeting between UF & B-CU, senior Preston Tucker (Tampa, Fla.) 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 Florida to an 8-6 win on March 21 at McKethan Stadium. Junior Austin Maddox (Jacksonville, Fla.) (1-0) threw two scoreless innings to earn the victory, junior Mike Zunino (Cape Coral, Fla.) (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.
On Tuesday night, senior Andrew Longley belted a pair of solo homers and drove in three runs and junior Jimmy Falla broke a 3-3 tie in the seventh inning with a two-out RBI single to lead USF over the Gators 5-3. It was the Bulls' first victory over the Gators since May 11, 2005, ending a 12-game losing streak in the series. Fontana and Zunino had each homered for UF during a three-run sixth to erase a 3-0 deficit.
With the Gators down to their final three outs, Gushue had a leadoff single up the middle and Fontana delivered a one-out single into right center off USF sophomore Nick Gonzalez. The Bulls summoned junior closer Steven Leasure from the bullpen and he had freshman Justin Shafer (Lake Wales, Fla.) foul out to right field before walking Tucker to load the bases. The righty had Zunino (2-for-5) ground out to nail down the win for senior Andrew Barbosa (5-3) and collect his sixth save. Pigott went 3-for-4 with two doubles in the setback, while Magliozzi's 4.2-inning start was the longest of his career.
Gator Bytes
*Florida has captured all 26 meetings against Bethune-Cookman, with 25 at home.
*Kevin O'Sullivan sports a 6-0 record versus the Wildcats, including an 8-7 walk-off win in the opening round of the 2009 NCAA Gainesville Regional.
*Wednesday's game will be the 300th for O'Sullivan as a head coach.
*The Gators are 13-2 (.867) against in-state opponents this season: 3-0 vs. Florida Gulf Coast, Florida State and Miami, 1-0 vs. Bethune-Cookman, UCF, Florida A&M and Florida Atlantic and 0-1 vs. North Florida and USF.
*After tonight, UF will just have one non-conference game remaining at McKethan Stadium, facing North Florida on May 8.
*As of Wednesday morning, Florida occupies the second spot in the Ratings Percentage Index and is No. 1 in the Strength of Schedule ratings compiled by Warren Nolan.
*The Orange and Blue is 21-5 (.808) at home this season and has not lost two in a row.
*Florida starting pitchers are 16-3 with a 3.58 ERA and have 152 strikeouts and 37 walks in 183.1 innings.
*The Gator bullpen is 15-7 with 12 saves and a 2.49 ERA this season, with 175 strikeouts and 39 walks in 184.2 innings.
*Thirty-four of the club's 54 homers have come at McKethan Stadium.
*In his last four games, senior Daniel Pigott is 10-for-16 (.625), with five RBI, three doubles and a pair of homers. He has three three-hit outings in that span.
*All 10 of sophomore Karsten Whitson's career wins have come at home. As a rookie, he was 8-0 with a 1.56 ERA, with 57 strikeouts in 57.2 innings. Whitson sports a 2-0 mark on his home turf ths season.
*Junior Mike Zunino's two-run blast in the sixth inning against USF was the 40th dinger of his career, putting him in a tie for fourth place on the school's career list with Ben Harrison (2001-04). Zunino has gone yard in his past two contests.
*Junior Austin Maddox (2-2, 1.69) is 11-for-11 in save opportunities and has 47 strikeouts and seven walks in 42.2 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 5-for-33 (.152) against Maddox, who is tied for sixth on the school's career list with 16 saves with Connor Falkenbach (2002-05) after passing former teammates Billy Bullock (2007-09, 11 saves) and Kevin Chapman (2007-10, 11 saves) against Samford on March 20.
*Florida holds a 262-141 scoring advantage and has out-scored foes, 74-30, over the final three innings and extra frames combined.
*The Gators scored three runs in the sixth inning on Tuesday after plating four in the sixth on Sunday versus Georgia.
*Eighteen of UF's 31 victories have been come-from-behind. Last season, 20 of the Gators' school-record 53 wins came after they were trailing.
*The Gators have clubbed a nation's best 54 homers in 41 games after totaling 69 HR in 72 games last season. Nine different players have left the yard, led by Zunino (12), senior Preston Tucker (10), junior Nolan Fontana (8), freshman Taylor Gushue (5) and junior Brian Johnson (5). The Orange and Blue has multiple homers in 18 games and has at least one jack in 29 of 41 contests this season.
*In five career games against Bethune-Cookman, Tucker is 11-for-21 (.524) with eight RBI, six runs and two homers and Pigott is 5-for-14 (.357) with seven runs, three RBI, two doubles and a pair of walks. Over three meetings with the Wildcats, Zunino is 6-for-10 (.600) with 10 RBI, six runs and a pair of two-homer outings in 2011 and 2012.
*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.
*Tucker had a couple of doubles versus Tennessee on April 14 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 307 career hits, Tucker needs 13 more to surpass Ellis' record (319).
*The Gators are 15-6 (.714) this year when opponents score first and are 24-3 (.889) when out-hitting their foe.
*After committing one error against USF, Florida has 32 errors through 41 games for an SEC-best .980 fielding percentage and has played error-free in 17 contests (15-2).
*The Gators' 29 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.
