No. 2 UF Baseball & Vanderbilt Battle For Spot In SEC Tournament Championship Game
Saturday, May 26, 2012 | Baseball
Third-seeded Florida (42-17) will face fifth-seeded Vanderbilt (32-25) in Saturday's second semifinal of the 2012 SEC Tournament. The winner of the contest between the Gators and Commodores will meet the Kentucky-Mississippi State victor in Sunday's final at 3:30 p.m. ET, live on ESPN2.
Sophomore righty Karsten Whitson (Chipley, Fla.) (3-0, 3.07) will oppose Commodore sophomore lefty Kevin Ziomek (5-6, 4.79) in the teams' second encounter in Hoover. The action will be shown on CSS, Channel 259 on the Cox Communications cable system in the Gainesville/Ocala area, and can be heard on Country 103.7 The Gator with Jeff Cardozo and Mick Hubert.
Whitson will be making his 10th start of the season and will be facing Vanderbilt for the first time in 2012. The right-hander has a 3-0 record in 11 appearances this year covering 29.1 innings, with 16 strikeouts and 14 walks. The Gators are 5-4 (.556) in Whitson's starts this season and average 5.2 runs.
Junior left-hander Brian Johnson (Cocoa Beach, Fla.) notched the first complete game of his career and was supported by an 11-hit offensive attack as the Gators ousted No. 4 South Carolina, 7-2, on Friday night in front of 9,067 fans at Regions Park. Johnson (7-4) limited the Gamecocks to two runs on five hits and threw 89 pitches in going the distance. He also registered five strikeouts and permitted zero walks in the first complete game by a Gator at the SEC Tourney since Bryan Augenstein accomplished the feat in a 3-2 victory over Alabama on May 24, 2007.
Junior Mike Zunino (Cape Coral, Fla.) (1-for-3) drove in three runs, highlighted by a two-run homer in the third inning, while junior Nolan Fontana (Winter Garden, Fla.) (2-for-3) scored three runs out of the leadoff spot and freshman Casey Turgeon (Palm Harbor, Fla.) (2-for-4) had a two-run single during a three-run fifth stanza.
On Thursday night, Vanderbilt junior left-hander Sam Selman tossed six shutout frames and senior Riley Reynolds delivered a two-out triple in the fourth inning as the Commodores extended their winning streak to eight games with a 2-1 victory over UF. The triumph ended a seven-game slide in the series by Vanderbilt.
Selman (9-3) held UF to two hits over six innings and registered seven strikeouts before being relieved by freshman Tyler Beede (0.2 IP, 1 H, 1 R), who surrendered a sacrifice fly to senior Preston Tucker (Tampa, Fla.) that brought Florida within 2-1 in the seventh inning. Freshman Jared Miller pitched the final 2.1 innings, permitting just a two-out single into right center field by senior Daniel Pigott (Ormond Beach, Fla.) in the ninth, to collect his first career save and nail down the win. Junior Hudson Randall (Atlanta, Ga.) (7-2) saw his four-game winning streak snapped with the setback. The teams combined for nine hits (5-4 VU) and stranded a total of 18 runners on base (11-7 UF).
Florida opened league action by sweeping Vanderbilt for the first time since 2008 by scores of 10-2, 5-1 and 8-2 to increase its winning streak to a school-record 17 games. The Gators have started league action 3-0 for the fourth time in five seasons under Kevin O'Sullivan. Florida batted .284 (25-for-88) in the series, registered a 1.67 earned run average, held a 23-5 scoring advantage and did not commit any errors. Tucker started SEC action by going 4-for-11 (.364) with six RBI, four runs, two homers and a couple of walks, while Pigott was 4-for-13 (.308), had four RBI and scored four runs. UF's trio of starting pitchers, Randall, Johnson and sophomore RHP Jonathon Crawford (Okeechobee, Fla.), each picked up victories and combined for 21 strikeouts and three walks in 17.2 innings, while limiting the Commodores to two runs for a 1.02 ERA.
Crawford tossed five shutout frames in his SEC debut and UF matched its season high with three home runs in an 8-2 win on Sunday afternoon. He was supported by a UF offense that produced solo homers from freshman Taylor Gushue (Boca Raton, Fla.) in the second inning, Tucker as part of a three-run third inning and Turgeon in the fifth frame. Johnson allowed two singles over six shutout innings and matched his career high of nine strikeouts to lead the Gators to a 5-1 win on Saturday. UF's victory secured their third-straight regular-season series triumph over the Commodores. Holding a 1-0 lead in the fifth, the Gators used a two-run single by Pigott and a two-run homer by Tucker to seize control of the contest. On Friday, Florida used a five-run fifth inning and added four more runs in the seventh en route to a 10-2 victory over Vanderbilt in the SEC opener. Randall allowed two runs and matched his then-season high of six strikeouts over 6.2 innings for the victory, Tucker (2-for-5) tallied three RBI and Pigott was 3-for-5 and scored twice as the hosts scored 10 unanswered runs. Three Gator relievers, junior Steven Rodriguez (Miami, Fla.), freshman Corey Stump (Lakeland, Fla.) and freshman Justin Shafer (Lake Wales, Fla.), combined to toss 2.1 scoreless innings.
Gator Bytes
*Head coach Kevin O'Sullivan is 15-6 (.714) against Vanderbilt, 8-1 (.889) in Gainesville, 3-3 (.500) in Nashville, 2-2 (.500) at the SEC Tourney and 2-0 at the NCAA Tourney (both at the CWS).
*O'Sullivan and Vandy skipper Tim Corbin served together on Jack Leggett's staff at Clemson. Corbin was with the Tigers between 1994-2002, while O'Sullivan was at the ACC school from 1999-2007 before coming to Gainesville.
*Saturday's starter, freshman RHP Karsten Whitson, has made a pair of starts versus the Commodores and is 0-0 in nine innings, with 10 strikeouts and two walks. The righty has allowed nine hits and four runs over that span for a 4.00 ERA.
*All 11 of Whitson's victories as a Gator have come at McKethan Stadium. He has started four games away from Gainesville this season and is 0-0 with a 3.29 ERA in 13.2 innings of work.
*Florida's pitching staff has yielded five runs in 26 innings during the SEC Tournament and has compiled a 1.38 ERA, with 17 strikeouts and 7 walks.
*The Gators have a team batting average of .255 (25-for-98) in Hoover, led by junior Nolan Fontana (.400, 4-for-10, five runs, three walks and a double) and freshman Casey Turgeon (.364, 4-for-11, four RBI, two runs and two doubles).
*Senior righty Greg Larson's next appearance will tie him for second on the school's all-time list with Darren O'Day at 117.
*Junior Mike Zunino's two-run jack against South Carolina ended a three-game drought without a homer for the Orange and Blue.
*The Gators have used eight different relievers during the tournament and have not allowed any runs over 5.2 innings.
*The 2-1 setback to Vanderbilt on Thursday dropped Florida to 6-7 (.462) in one-run games and the team is 1-6 (.143) when scoring between 0-2 runs this year.
*With 12 saves in 12 opportunities, junior Austin Maddox needs more save to tie the school's single-season mark held by Danny Wheeler (1994) and Josh Fogg (1998). Maddox's last save came on April 27 against Arkansas.
*The Gators are 4-3 (.571) on their journey through the state of Alabama: 12-7 loss at Samford on May 15, 2-1 series triumph at Auburn from May 17-19 and 2-1 at the SEC Tournament.
*Turgeon's diving stop of a grounder hit by Vanderbilt's Anthony Gomez was the No. 4 play on ESPN's SportsCenter Thursday night.
*Johnson and Maddox were among the 10 players on the newest Watch List for the 2012 John Olerud Two-Way Player of the Year Award announced by The College Baseball Hall of Fame late Wednesday night. The top 10 features six sophomores, a freshman, two juniors and a senior.
*2012 College Baseball Hall of Fame inductee Brad Wilkerson (1996-98) is on hand this weekend as part of the inaugural SEC Baseball Legends Program.
*Florida's pitching staff has not surrendered any round-trippers in the last six games since yielding a season-high three to Samford on May 15.
*The Gator pitching corps has permitted three runs or less in 13 of its last 15 outings.
*UF was perfect in the field during the triumph over South Carolina, ending a stretch of five games in a row when it committed at least one error. The squad is 20-3 (.870) when playing mistake-free baseball.
*By starting against Vanderbilt, senior Preston Tucker will match Josh Adams' school record of 252 career starts that was set last season.
*Florida is 33-2 (.943) when leading after six innings, 34-0 ahead after seven innings and 37-0 when leading after eight innings.
*The Gators are 2-12 (.143) when trailing after six innings, 2-15 (.118) behind after seven innings and are 1-15 (.063) when trailing after eight frames.
*The victory over South Carolina, its third over the Gamecocks in four meetings this season, boosted UF's record against ranked opponents to 19-10 (.655). Even more impressive is that O'Sullivan's club is 12-4 (.750) versus top-10 foes.
