Florida-Miami Series Heats Up Early Portion of Schedule
Friday, February 20, 2015 | Baseball, Scott Carter
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- If college baseball owned a larger share of the national sports market, a weekend series between Florida and Miami would always draw headlines beyond the Sunshine State.
No different than North Carolina-Duke in basketball, or Michigan-Ohio State in football.
Two proud programs, a storied rivalry with a long history, and most seasons, two teams ranked among the nation's best.
While this weekend's three-game series at McKethan Stadium won't register in Chicago or Boston or Dallas, in Gainesville and Coral Gables -- and spots in between along the Florida peninsula -- people will notice.
“The weekend is important to a lot of people,'' Gators head coach Kevin O'Sullivan said. “It's important to our fans, their fans, their program, our program.”
The Gators (4-0) enter ranked sixth in the latest Baseball America poll, Miami (4-1) is ranked No. 8. When the first pitch is thrown in the 239th game in the series on Friday night, the intensity meter is certain to heat up on what is expected to be a very chilly evening at the ballpark.
Hurricanes coach Jim Morris, like Florida's O'Sullivan, is interested to see what he learns about his team in the series. Miami opened the season with a four-game sweep of Rutgers but is coming off a midweek loss to Florida Atlantic.
The Gators cruised to a three-game sweep of Rhode Island to start the season and then blew past USF, 13-3, on Wednesday night in Tampa behind six perfect innings from starter Brett Morales.
In his 22nd season, Morris is well aware of the difficulty of facing the Gators on the road.
“It's a challenge to go up there and win a series, but that's what our goal is,'' Morris told reporters Thursday. “I enjoy playing good competition. I can't tell you I'm looking forward going to Gainesville. I don't like going up there very much.”
Gators junior outfielder Harrison Bader, No. 8, has 14 RBIs in four games. (Photo: Tim Casey)
The Gators have owned the rivalry in recent years, O'Sullivan is 18-9 in his eight seasons against Miami, including an 11-4 mark at home. The Gators won 11 in a row from 2010-13 but lost two of three at Miami a season ago.
While some of the names in the lineup have changed, both teams still feature ample talent to defend their regular-season conference titles from 2014.
The Gators have hit .340 in their first four games and posted a collective 1.25 team ERA.
The mission in Game 1 is to find a way to chase Miami starter Andrew Suarez, one of the top returning pitchers in the country.
“So far everything has been working pretty well,'' said Florida outfielder Harrison Bader, who already has three home runs and 14 RBIs. “Everyone is doing their job at the plate. Right now we're trying to ride the wave as long as we can.”
The Gators send sophomore right-hander Logan Shore to the mound Friday. Shore pitched five scoreless innings in the season opener.
Miami scored 48 runs with 22 extra-base hits in the sweep of Rutgers, including a 25-4 win in the series finale, the Hurricanes' most runs in a game in 12 years.
“They've got a lot of pop in their lineup. It will be a difficult lineup to face. With how many runs we've put up this spring, it's a little different mindset,'' Shore said. “Our hitters hopefully should put up some good numbers. As far as pitching goes, my mindset pretty much always stays the same. I'm trying to go out there and limit them to as few runs as possible.”
O'Sullivan said he will extend the pitch counts for his starters this weekend to around 80-85 pitches. The first week of the season he limited them to around 70-75. Left-hander A.J. Puk will start on Saturday, followed by right-hander Dane Dunning on Sunday.
On what is forecast as a cool February weekend in Florida, the college baseball season warms up at McKethan Stadium.
“I think it will be a good barometer of where we're at, but it's certainly not going to be an indication of where we're going to be come the end of the season,'' O'Sullivan said.
