No. 3 Florida Baseball Wraps Up SEC Schedule At Auburn
Wednesday, May 16, 2012 | Baseball
No. 3 Florida (38-15/16-11 SEC) heads to the Plains for a three-game series at Western Division rival Auburn (29-24/12-15 SEC) starting on Thursday that will complete the regular season. Game times will be at 7 p.m. (ET) both Thursday and Friday and at 2 p.m. on Saturday. The games will be carried on Country 103.7 The Gator with Jeff Cardozo and Steve Russell.
Although the 10 teams for the 2012 SEC Tournament in Hoover, Ala., from May 22-27 have punched their tickets to the double-elimination event, seeding will not be determined until the conclusion of this weekend's action.
Junior right-hander Hudson Randall (Atlanta, Ga.) (6-1, 3.29) will oppose AU senior righty Jon Luke Jacobs (5-2, 3.10) on Thursday, junior southpaw Brian Johnson (Cocoa Beach, Fla.) (5-4, 4.29) will face Tiger freshman lefty Daniel Koger (3-4, 2.76) on Friday and sophomore righty Karsten Whitson (Chipley, Fla.) (3-0, 3.33) will face a pitcher to be announced in the series finale on Saturday.
Senior Daniel Pigott (Ormond Beach, Fla.) boasts an overall average of .330 to pace UF's offensive attack and has 38 runs, 32 RBI, 11 doubles and seven homers. Junior Mike Zunino (Cape Coral, Fla.) is hitting .320 and leads the squad in RBI (49), doubles (22) and homers (14), Johnson has a .315 clip with 33 RBI and senior Preston Tucker (Tampa, Fla.) (.304) has driven in 38 runs, collected 13 doubles and belted 12 homers. Junior Nolan Fontana (Winter Garden, Fla.) is at .274 with team-highs in runs (43), walks (38) and stolen bases (10-for-10).
Florida begins the weekend two games behind SEC leader Kentucky (41-12/18-9 SEC) in the race for the league title and also trails LSU (40-13/17-10 SEC) and South Carolina (38-13/17-9 SEC). The Wildcats are at Mississippi State, while the Tigers and Gamecocks clash in Columbia.
The Gators still hold hopes of winning at least a share of the SEC Championship for the third-straight year, something that has not happened since LSU captured four in a row from 1990-93. UF is attempting to collect its fourth-consecutive Eastern Division title, which would be its most since reeling off nine-straight from 1977-85.
Of Florida's nine SEC series, seven have come down to a deciding third game, including seven of the last eight since the Gators started league play with a sweep of Vanderbilt. The Orange and Blue is 6-3 (.667) in the opener of series and has taken its last five outings after a three-game slide. UF is 5-4 (.556) in both game two and game three in SEC play.
Florida and Auburn have not met on the diamond since the 2009 campaign, when the Gators ended a six-series slide in SEC road series by winning two of three games at Plainsman Park. After falling to the Tigers in 11 innings, 8-7, in game one, the Gators rolled to 24-2 and 5-1 victories. UF batted .322 (39-for-121) in the series and held a 36-11 advantage on the scoreboard. The Orange and Blue clubbed seven homers, smacked seven doubles and drew 19 walks.
In its final non-conference game of the season, Florida dropped a 12-7 decision at Samford on Tuesday night. Bulldog sophomore C.K. Irby limited UF to one run and one hit over five innings and the nation's home-run leader, senior Brandon Miller (2-for-4), bashed a pair of two-run dingers to increase his total to 20 on the campaign to power a 15-hit attack. For the Gators, Tucker was 2-for-3 to match Mark Ellis' school-record total of 319 hits that has stood since 1999 and Zunino delivered his team-high 14th homer with a three-run shot in the seventh inning.
Gator Bytes
*Kevin O'Sullivan is 5-1 (.833) against Auburn, 3-0 (1.000) in Gainesville and 2-1 (.667) at Plainsman Park.
*UF is 20-5 (.800) against non-ranked opponents and 18-10 (.643) versus top-25 foes this season.
*Entering the weekend, 28 of Florida's 53 games have been against ranked opposition - good for 53 percent.
*The Gators are 27-12 (.692) in games that are part of a weekend series and are 11-3 (.786) in mid-week contests. The Orange and Blue has a 10-3 (.769) weekend series ledger, with four sweeps.
*Florida starting pitchers are 20-7 with a 3.68 ERA and have 196 strikeouts and 54 walks in 237.1 innings.
*The Gator bullpen is 18-8 with 16 saves and a 2.33 ERA this season, with 228 strikeouts and 54 walks in 239.2 innings.
*Twenty-three of Florida's 62 homers have come at the opponent's stadium, where the squad has a .288 batting average and an 11-7 (.611) record.
*In conference games only, Auburn leads the SEC with a .305 batting average and Florida paces the league with a 2.85 ERA. The Gators' clip of .250 ranks 10th and the Tigers' pitching staff's ERA of 4.14 rates seventh.
*In the last 21 games, UF's bullpen has surrendered more than two runs only twice (three against USF in 4.1 IP on April 24 and seven against Samford on Tuesday in 6.1 IP). During that stretch, the pitching corps has compiled a 1.83 ERA, with 98 strikeouts in 103 innings and a .196 average against.
*Thursday's starter, junior Hudson Randall, has claimed his last three starts against Arkansas (6.0 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 K, 1 BB), Kentucky (6.2 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 4 K, 1 BB) and Mississippi State (7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 2 K, 0 BB) for a 3-0 record and a 2.75 ERA in 19.2 innings. On the year, he sports an 8-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio (48:6).
*Junior lefty Brian Johnson, who leads the Gators with 13 starts, will return to the rotation for game two after missing his turn against Mississippi State due to a hamstring issue.
*Sophomore Karsten Whitson will start the finale versus the Tigers for his fifth start in league action. He had a season-high four strikeouts in 3.1 innings last Sunday against Mississippi State.
*Junior Austin Maddox (3-2, 1.50) is 12-for-12 in save opportunities and has 53 strikeouts and eight walks in 48 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-37 (.135) against Maddox, who is tied for fifth on the school's career list with 17 saves with Jamie McAndrew (1987-89). Current Baltimore Orioles' pitcher Darren O'Day is fourth with 20 saves.
*Junior Steven Rodriguez has registered a team-high 72 strikeouts in 53 innings and is 3-1 with a 1.70 ERA in a team-high 28 appearances. He threw 6.2 scoreless innings in three games last week, with 11 K, three walks and one hit. Rodriguez has not been scored upon in his last eight outings dating back to April 20 against Georgia.
*Senior Greg Larson is third on UF's all-time list with 114 appearances. The righty is a perfect 6-0 with a team-low 1.49 ERA in 27 games this season, and has 31 strikeouts and nine walks in 42.1 innings.
*Junior Mike Zunino's solo blast in the eight inning on Sunday was the 41st dinger of his career, moving him past Ben Harrison (2001-04) into third place on the school's all-time list. He added a three-run jack on Tuesday versus Samford.
*Senior Daniel Pigott occupies the top spot for the Gator offense with an overall average of .330 and a .321 clip in league games. He was 2-for-4 at Samford for his 19th multiple-hit outing of the year and six of his seven homers have come in league play.
*Johnson (.315, 33 RBI) begins the Auburn series on a seven-game hitting streak in which he is 8-for-27 (.292)
*Florida holds a 305-177 scoring advantage and has out-scored foes, 93-38, over the final three innings and extra frames combined.
*Twenty-one of UF's 38 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 62 homers in 53 games after totaling 69 HR in 72 games last season. Ten different players have left the yard, led by Zunino (14), senior Preston Tucker (12), junior Nolan Fontana (9), Pigott (7), freshman Taylor Gushue (5) and Johnson (5). The Orange and Blue has multiple homers in 19 games and has at least one jack in 36 of 53 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 10-for-10.
*Steady with the glove, Fontana has just three errors in 217 chances this season for a .986 clip and has yet to commit any miscues in SEC games. His last error came on March 27 against Florida State.
*Tucker had a couple of doubles versus Tennessee on April 14 to eclipse Mark Ellis' school-record total of 61 set between 1996-99. Against Arkansas, Tucker surpassed the school-record total of 941 at bats shared by Ellis and Josh Adams (2008-11) and now has 977.
*Freshman Justin Shafer (.279, 18 RBI) led the Gators with a .417 (5-for-12) average as the team claimed three of four outings last week. He batted a team-best .333 (3-for-9) in the series win over No. 25 Mississippi State. Shafer had two of Florida's three hits last Saturday, his seventh multiple-hit game of the campaign.
*With 245 career starts entering the series at Auburn, Tucker is second at UF behind Adams (252). The senior is up to second in games played (251), trailing only Adams (253).
*The Gators are 18-11 (.621) this year when opponents score first and are 29-4 (.879) when out-hitting their foe.
*After committing zero errors at Samford, Florida has 44 errors through 53 games for a 979 fielding percentage and has played error-free in 22 contests (19-3).
*The Gators' 34 sacrifice flies are well 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.
