No. 5 Gators & No. 8 Seminoles Meet In Share A Little Sunshine Showdown Tuesday In Jacksonville
Monday, March 30, 2015 | Baseball
Florida vs. Florida State Game Notes
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – No. 5 Florida (23-6) and No. 8 Florida State (22-7) tangle in the second of three encounters this season at The Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville on Tuesday at 6 p.m. The Gators notched a 14-8 victory at McKethan Stadium on St. Patrick's Day and the teams will face off in Tallahassee on April 14.
While there will be no television coverage provided, the game can be heard through GatorZone.com and on the Gator IMG Sports Network with Jeff Cardozo and Steve Russell. Live stats 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.
QUICK HITS ABOUT THE GATORS
- Florida is on a five-game winning streak against Florida State and has claimed eight of the last 10 meetings since 2012.
- The Gators are seeking to clinch the season series versus the Seminoles for the third time in four years (2012: 3-0 UF, 2013: 2-1 FSU, 2014: 3-0 UF).
- This will be the ninth annual clash between the squads at The Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville during the regular season, with FSU holding a 5-3 (.625) advantage.
- After dropping the opener of a day/night doubleheader to Alabama on Friday, 12-9 in 10 innings, Florida rebounded to take the series by scores of 8-1 and 7-4.
- The Gators posted a 3-1 record last week, downing Stetson on the road Tuesday night, 9-6, and winning two of the three matchups with the Crimson Tide.
- Freshman C/DH Mike Rivera (.317, 23 RBI) enters the week on a career-high eight-game hitting streak in which he is hitting .469 (11-for-32) with 11 RBI and five runs. Rivera has at least one RBI in the last eight games and is in the midst of a stretch of seven games in a row with two RBI.
- After missing the Gators' first 16 games of the campaign with a hand injury, freshman 1B/RF Jeremy Vasquez is 16-for-45 (.356) overall and homered in the final two games of the series with Alabama.
- Senior 3B Josh Tobias paces the Orange and Blue with a .378 batting average and has registered a perfect fielding percentage on the hot corner.
- Junior LF Harrison Bader (.367) paces the Gators in RBI (33), walks (21), homers (8) and slugging percentage (.733), while freshman 2B Dalton Guthrie (.331) leads the squad in hits (42), runs (28) and doubles (11).
- The Gator offense batted .358 (38-for-106) in the series with the Crimson Tide, led by sophomore RF Ryan Larson (.344, 16 runs, 15 RBI) going 6-for-12 (.500) with four RBI and a pair of doubles and Rivera batting .417 (5-for-12) with four RBI.
- The Gators have outscored their opponents, 210-107, are 18-1 (.947) this season when scoring first and are 13-1 (.929) when scoring in the first inning.
- Sophomore RHP Logan Shore (4-2, 1.89) completed last Friday's twinbill with his first career complete game, the first by a Gator pitcher since RHP Aaron Rhodes went the distance against Missouri on April 26, 2014.
- Making his first relief appearance of the season in Saturday's rubber game of the series, sophomore LHP A.J. Puk (5-2, 4.20) registered five strikeouts and permitted one hit over 3.1 scoreless innings to collect the Gators' seventh come-from-behind victory of the campaign.
- The Gators boast a .982 fielding percentage, tops in the SEC, and are 13-1 (.929) this season when playing error-free baseball.
- Led by Bader's SEC-leading eight round-trippers, Florida has 25 homers in 29 games after hitting 26 big flies in 63 contests in 2014.
- UF's bullpen is 8-1 with nine saves and a 3.07 team earned run average, while its starters are 15-5 with a 3.05 ERA and 123 strikeouts in 133 innings.
- With two outs, the Gators are hitting .341 (114-for-334) with 82 RBI, 15 from freshman C/DH JJ Schwarz and 14 from Bader. Tobias has a .536 (15-for-28) clip with two down, while Larson is 12-for-29 (.414) and Bader is 11-for-27 (.407).
DRAWING THE START
Freshman right-hander Alex Faedo (1-0, 1.59) will be making his third start of the season for the Gators and will oppose FSU senior left-hander Bryant Holtmann (3-1, 5.25). In 17 innings spanning eight appearances, Faedo has recorded 18 strikeouts and permitted three walks. The righty gave up two hits and one run over five innings last Tuesday night at Stetson but was not involved in the decision.
SERIES NUGGETS
Florida State holds a 125-105-1 (.543) advantage in the all-time series, and the Seminoles have a 10-9 (.526) edge at neutral sites. Head coach Kevin O'Sullivan is 13-13 (.500) against Florida State, 7-1 (.875) in Gainesville, 4-4 (.500) in Tallahassee and 2-8 (.200) at neutral sites. The Gators have claimed the last five meetings between the Sunshine State rivals and are looking for a sixth-straight win for the first time in school history.
