No. 3 Gators Ready for Ole Miss, First SEC Road Swing March 20-22
Friday, March 20, 2015 | Baseball
OXFORD, Miss. -- After a top-20 mid-week victory against Sunshine State foe FSU, the No. 3 Florida baseball squad (19-3, 2-1 SEC) will descend upon Oxford, Miss., for its first SEC road series of the 2015 conference season with the Ole Miss Rebels (11-9, 1-2 SEC) beginning Friday night at Swayze Stadium. Game times are slated for 7:30 p.m. ET Friday and 2:30 p.m. ET both Saturday and Sunday.
Florida is coming off a 10-game home stand through which the Gators went 9-1, capped by Tuesday's 14-8 St. Patrick's Day win in the first of three meetings with No. 11 FSU. After dropping their SEC opener to Tennessee last Friday (3-6), the Gators rebounded to win their first conference series of the season against the Volunteers with 8-3 and 9-4 victories Saturday and Sunday, respectively.
After falling to LSU 4-6 in their SEC opener, the Rebels knotted the series with a 5-3 extra-innings (14) victory last Saturday, but the Tigers went on to win the rubber game 18-6. Ole Miss got back in the win column Wednesday night, using a 7-6 mid-week victory against Arkansas-Pine Bluff.
The Gators will go with sophomore right-hander Logan Shore (3-1, 1.78 ERA) to open the series in Oxford, while Shore will square off with Ole Miss junior lefty Christian Trent (3-1, 3.45 ERA) on the mound. Sophomore lefty A.J. Puk (4-1, 3.70 ERA) is set to start the second game of the series Saturday for the Orange and Blue, while the Rebels will toss righty Brady Bramlett (2-1, 1.55 ERA).
FLORIDA | OLE MISS BROADCAST INFORMATION
All three games of the weekend series can be heard through GatorZone.com and on the Gator IMG Sports Network with Jeff Cardozo and Steve Russell. Friday and Saturday's games will stream live on SEC Network+ through participating TV providers on WatchESPN with Will Kollmeyer (play-by-play) and David Dellucci (analyst), while Sunday's series finale will air live on ESPNU with Tom Hart (play-by-play) and Ben McDonald (analyst). Live stats for each game will be available on GatorZone.com and fans can also follow updates of each game on @GatorZoneBB, the official Twitter account of the Gator baseball team.
FLORIDA | OLE MISS SERIES NOTES
· Florida leads the all-time series with Ole Miss, 48-45, but enters a tough environment in Oxford where the Rebels boast a 28-18 advantage on home turf.
· Gator head coach Kevin O'Sullivan is 11-8 (.579) against the Rebels since taking over the helm of the Florida program for the 2008 season and O'Sullivan is 4-5 (.444) against Ole Miss at Swayze Field in Oxford.
· Florida enters this weekend's series in Oxford riding a two-game win streak against the Rebs, including two straight shutouts to win the 2013 series over the Rebels in Gainesville.
· Last time out in Oxford in 2012, the Rebels took two of three in form of a 3-0 Friday victory before sealing the deal Sunday with a 7-6 win. Florida evened the series with a 9-4 game-two win.
UF | UM SERIES HISTORY
| Series Record: | Florida leads, 48-45 |
| At Gainesville: | Florida leads, 28-14 |
| At Oxford: | Ole Miss leads, 28-18 |
| Neutral Sites: | Ole Miss leads, 3-2 |
| 1-Run Games: | Ole Miss leads, 15-11 |
| 2-Run Games: | Ole Miss leads, 8-2 |
| Shutouts: | Florida leads, 5-4 |
| Most Runs, Florida: | 24 (24 5 win on 3/15/02) |
| Margin, Florida: | 19 (24 5 on 3/15/02) |
| Most Runs, Ole Miss: | 15 (15-12 win on 3/11/00) |
| Margin, Ole Miss: | 13 (14 1 on 5/28/05) |
| Longest Win Streak, Florida: | 8 (4/3/93-3/30/97) |
| Longest Win Streak, Ole Miss: | 6 (2x, last, 5/9/03-3/18/05) |
| Current Streak: | Florida won 2 |
FLORIDA TEAM AND PLAYER NOTABLES
· Florida got off to one of its best starts in school history with a 16-2 (.889) record heading into conference play. UF's 16 wins tied for the second-most in school history entering conference play against Tennessee last week. The Gators were 18-4 (.818) before SEC play in 2004 and Florida was 16-1 (.941) before league play in 2012. The 2004 team (43-22 overall) lost in the Super Regionals and the 2012 team (47-20 overall) advanced to the College World Series in Omaha.
· UF concludes a 10-game home stand in which they've gone 9-1 against UCF (1-0), Stony Brook (3-0), Fairfield (2-0), Tennessee (2-1) and No. 11 FSU (1-0)
· The Gators are hitting .310 as a team (16th in NCAA), have a staff earned run average of 2.60 (22nd in NCAA) and boast a fielding percentage of .985 (4th in NCAA). The pitching staff also ranks seventh nationally in WHIP (1.03) and eighth nationally allowing just 6.62 hits per nine innings.
· The Orange and Blue rank second nationally in doubles (53) and are 10th in runs scored (166).
· Florida's 19 homers rank 14th in the country while its .485 slugging percentage ranks fifth.
· The Gators have outscored their opponents, 166-7 and are 14-0 this season when scoring first.
· Junior LF Harrison Bader ranks among the nation's leaders in several major hitting categories: second in home runs (7), third in slugging percentage (.903), sixth in RBI (27) and 14th in on base percentage (.548).
· The Gators rank 18th in the country with 35 stolen bases, led by sophomore CF Buddy Reed, who ranks 26th with 10 steals
· A crowd of 5,827 piled into The Mac Tuesday to watch the Share A Little Sunshine Showdown on St. Paddy's Day, the fifth-highest attendance all-time. Two of UF's top-10 attendances all-time have come this season (Miami 2/21/15: 6,081)
· Florida's seven pitchers Tuesday combined for a season-tying 12 strikeouts, with three each from Eric Hanhold and Alex Faedo to lead the way for the Orange and Blue and the Gators have recorded double-digit strikeouts in the last three games. Florida last struck out 12 batters in 13-3 win over USF
· The Gators' 16 hits against the Noles were one shy of a season-high 17. Nine of UF's 16 hits were manufactured by the freshman class. Mike Rivera paced the pack with a 3-for-5 showing at the dish with two runs scored and one RBI, while Schwarz extended his hit streak to 10 games with three RBI (2-for-5)
· All nine Gator starters had at least one hit in Tuesday's 14-8 victory over Florida State; six players had at least two hits
· Current hitting streaks: Dalton Guthrie (7), Harrison Bader (11), J.J. Schwarz (10), Buddy Reed (9), Jeremy Vasquez (3)
· With a hit Friday against Ole Miss, Bader would tie his career-high 12-game hitting streak
· Logan Browning struck out a career-high two batters in UF's mid-week tilt against FSU
· Bader notched his first triple of the season against the Noles
· Richie Martin had career-high tying three runs vs. FSU
· Vasquez scored his first career run and had first multi-RBI game as a Gator in UF's win over the Seminoles
· John Sternagel recorded his first career double in FSU game
