No. 3 Florida Hosts Two-Game Midweek Series with Fairfield Starting Tuesday
Monday, March 9, 2015 | Baseball
Florida vs. Fairfield Game Notes
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Before Southeastern Conference play begins this weekend, No. 3 Florida (14-2) hosts Fairfield (0-3) in a two-game midweek series at McKethan Stadium on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. Both games will start at 7 p.m.
The game can be heard through GatorZone.com and on the Gator IMG Sports Network with Jeff Cardozo and Steve Russell. 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.
PROMOTIONS (Tuesday and Wednesday)
- UF Alumni Association Day - All UFAA members with valid I.D. receive 2-for-1 reserved bleacher seating.
- UF & Santa Fe Faculty & Staff Night - All Faculty and Staff from UF and Santa Fe College receive 2-for-1 reserved bleacher seating.
QUICK HITS ABOUT THE GATORS
- UF continues its 10-game homestand this week and is 12-1 (.923) on its home turf. The Gators have won all four weekend series this season.
- Florida went 4-1 last week, splitting a home-and-home series against No. 9 UCF (falling 4-3 in Orlando on Tuesday and posting a 10-2 victory in Gainesville on Wednesday) before sweeping Maine at McKethan Stadium by scores of 5-0, 6-1 and 5-3.
- The Gators are hitting .300 as a team on the year, with a staff earned run average of 2.14 and a fielding percentage of .986 after playing error-free baseball in seven of their last eight games.
- The Orange and Blue has pounded out 54 extra-base hits, with 34 doubles, 15 homers and five triples, with a .465 slugging percentage.
- Florida has 15 homers in 16 games. It didn't reach this total last season until the 38th game on April 19 against Georgia and had 26 the entire year.
- UF's trio of sophomore weekend starters, RHP Logan Shore (3-0, 0.00), LHP A.J. Puk (3-1, 3.72) and RHP Dane Dunning (4-0, 1.29), is 10-1 with a 1.66 ERA in 59.2 innings, with 47 strikeouts and an opponent batting average of .176.
- Junior righty Taylor Lewis (1-0, 1.74) worked a perfect ninth on Sunday against Maine for his fourth save of the season.
- Junior left fielder Harrison Bader continues to lead the squad in batting average (.429). RBI (21), runs (17), walks (14), homers (6) and slugging percentage (.898), while senior third baseman Josh Tobias is at .415 with eight RBI and a perfect fielding clip on the hot corner.
- Tobias led the Gators' offense with a .421 (8-for-19) average last week, including a .455 (5-for-11) effort versus the Black Bears. He is riding a career-best eight-game hitting streak in which he is 16-for-33 (.485), with eight runs, seven RBI, three doubles, two triples and a homer.
- Freshman 2B Dalton Guthrie has batted .333 (24-for-72) out of the leadoff spot with 14 runs and has hit safely in 13 of the Gators' 16 outings. He leads the team with eight multi-hit games.
- The Gators have outscored their opponents, 118-42, including a 15-4 advantage in the first inning. Florida is 10-0 when scoring first.
- Fifty-five of UF's 103 RBI this year have come with two out, led by 13 from freshman JJ Schwarz, 10 from Bader and 10 from sophomore Buddy Reed.
- Freshman C/DH Mike Rivera went 5-for-12 (.417) during the weekend series, highlighted by a 4-for-4 performance on Saturday, while Schwarz hit .375 (3-for-8) with three walks and two RBI and Guthrie batted .357 (5-for-14) against Maine.
- Junior SS Richie Martin (3-for-4) was a homer shy of the cycle on Sunday and sophomore RHP Dane Dunning improved to 4-0 in Sunday's 5-3 triumph. Martin (.283) is second on the club in both runs (16) and walks (12) and was trying to become the first UF player to hit for the cycle since Derek Nicholson accomplished the feat on April 3, 1998, against Kentucky.
- Sophomore RHP A.J. Puk carried a no-hitter into the fifth on Saturday and Reed (.269, 15 RBI, 12 runs, nine stolen bases) had a bases-clearing double to help the Gators clinch the series with a 6-1 victory on Saturday.
- Rivera was a career-best 4-for-4 Saturday with an RBI single and junior Danny Young (0-0, 0.00) worked 3.1 scoreless innings to earn his first save of the year.
- Sophomore RHP Logan Shore and junior RHP Eric Hanhold combined on a six-hitter as UF notched a 5-0 win in the series opener against Maine. Shore threw eight scoreless frames before Hanhold made his season debut by closing out the Gators' second shutout of the season.
- Shore yielded five hits and totaled a season-high five strikeouts in stretching his scoreless streak to 23.1 innings dating back to the opener of the NCAA Gainesville Regional last May against the College of Charleston.
- Freshman 1B Christian Hicks belted a leadoff homer, the first of his career, in the Gators' sixth inning on Friday night.
DRAWING THE START
Right-hander Eric Hanhold (0-0, 0.00) will make his first start of the season for the Gators. Hanhold made his season debut last Friday night, pitching a scoreless ninth inning to preserve the Gators' shutout in the series opener against Maine. In 2014, Hanhold was 4-3 with a 4.20 ERA in 25 appearances and had three saves.
SERIES NUGGETS
Tuesday will mark the first-ever meeting between Florida and Fairfield on the baseball diamond.
Single-Game Tickets, Season Tickets and the Complete Game Mini-Plans can be purchased online through GatorZone or by calling the Gator Ticket Office at 1-800-34-GATOR from 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m., Monday through Friday.
