No. 7 Florida & No. 13 Florida State Meet In Share A Little Sunshine Showdown Tuesday Night
Monday, April 13, 2015 | Baseball
Florida vs. Florida State Game Notes
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – No. 7 Florida (28-9) and No. 13 Florida State (26-12) will meet in the rubber game of their three-game Share A Little Sunshine Showdown series at Dick Howser Stadium on Tuesday at 6 p.m. The Gators notched a 14-8 victory in Gainesville on St. Patrick's Day, while the Seminoles emerged victorious at The Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville on March 31, 8-3.
The game can be heard through GatorZone.com and on the Gator IMG Sports Network with Jeff Cardozo and Steve Russell. It will also be carried on ESPN3 through participating TV providers only through WatchESPN. 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.
QUICK HITS ABOUT THE GATORS
- Florida is riding a four-game winning streak after defeating Stetson (22-2) and sweeping SEC East rival South Carolina (14-3, 12-5, 12-2) last week.
- The Gators will be away from the friendly confines of McKethan Stadium, where they are 23-3 (.885) this year, for their next four games.
- Over their four triumphs last week, the Gators batted .415 (66-for-159), had a slugging percentage of .748 and outscored opponents, 60-12.
- Florida had 25 extra-base hits (14 homers and 11 doubles), totaled 55 RBI (compared to 10 for opponents) and had 22 walks and 22 strikeouts.
- The Orange and Blue registered double-digit hits and double-digit runs in every game, notched a perfect fielding percentage and continues to lead the nation with a .985 clip.
- Florida rates second in the SEC and eighth in the country with 41 homers, one behind Texas A&M. The squad had 26 homers in 63 games last season.
- The Gators' team batting average of .310 is third in SEC and eighth nationally, trailing LSU (.318) and Texas A&M (.317) in the league statistics.
- The club also rates sixth in runs (282), seventh in hits (398) and ninth in scoring (7.6 runs per game) in the latest NCAA statistics.
- UF has not committed any errors since facing Florida State in Jacksonville and is has played error-free in 21 of 37 games with an 18-3 (.857) mark.
- Sophomore RF Ryan Larson (.345, 22 runs, 17 RBI) batted .545 (6-for-11) with five runs last week and went 6-for-9 (.667) in the sweep of the Gamecocks.
- Named the SEC Player of the Week and as one of Louisville Slugger's National Players of the Week, freshman C/DH JJ Schwarz (.309, 45 RBI, 12 HR) hit .529 (9-for-17) with 15 RBI, 12 runs, seven homers and a slugging percentage of 1.882. He belted a school-record four homers against Stetson, tying the SEC's single-game mark set in 1982 by Kentucky's Bill Sandry, and established a UF single-game mark with 18 total bases. Schwarz hit .364 (4-for-11) with a team-high seven runs, five RBI and three homers during the three wins over the Gamecocks, including a two-homer showing in the finale.
- Junior SS Richie Martin (.312, 37 runs, 25 RBI) went 7-for-14 (.500) last week, highlighted by a career-high six RBI in the Gators' series-clinching victory over South Carolina, junior LF Harrison Bader (.347, 42 RBI, 11 HR) had a .474 (9-for-19) average with nine RBI, three homers and three doubles and junior CF Buddy Reed (.324, 30 RBI, 30 runs, 13 stolen bases) was 8-for-17 (.471) with eight runs and five RBI.
- Senior 3B Josh Tobias continues to lead Florida's offense with a .400 batting average overall and a .390 performance in SEC play. He has matched his season-long nine-game hitting streak for the second time and is
- Reed (13-for-18) and Martin (12-for-15) are the Gators' top threats on the basepaths and the team is 52-of-70 (.743) in stolen base attempts.
- On the mound, freshman RHP Alex Faedo (3-1, 2.12) picked up a pair of wins last week and sophomore RHP Logan Shore is 5-2 with a 2.16 ERA in nine starts.
- According to the most recent SEC statistics, Florida ranks No. 1 in fielding percentage (.985), No. 3 in team batting average (.310) and No. 5 in team ERA (3.40).
- Schwarz is first in the league in RBI (45), second in home runs (12) and fourth in slugging percentage (.669), Tobias is second in batting average (.400) and sixth in slugging percentage (.657), while Bader is second in slugging (.719), second in RBI (42) and third in home runs (11).
SERIES NUGGETS
Florida State holds a 126 -105-1 (.545) advantage in the all-time series, and the Seminoles have a 68-41-1 (.623) edge in Tallahassee.
Head coach Kevin O'Sullivan is 13-14 (.500) against Florida State, 7-1 (.875) in Gainesville, 4-4 (.500) in Tallahassee and 2-9 (.182) at neutral sites.
The Gators had claimed five straight meetings between the Sunshine State rivals before suffering an 8-3 loss in Jacksonville on March 31.
GATORS' LAST VISIT TO TALLAHASSEE
No. 25 Florida swept the season series over in-state rival No. 1 Florida State for the second time in three years and shut out the Seminoles for the first time since 1994, winning in Tallahassee on April 8, 2014, in front of a capacity crowd by a score of 8-0.
Five pitchers combined for the shutout and allowed four hits, highlighted by starter Danny Young's season-best matching five innings of work.
Casey Turgeon (2-for-5, 4 RBI) broke open a 1-0 game in the fifth with a three-run shot to right field and the Gators never looked back, adding a run in the sixth and three more in the eighth.
Eight of nine starters contributed to the offense with a hit, while Young (5.0 IP, 2 H, 5 K) was followed to the mound by Justin Shafer (1.1 IP, 1 H), Bobby Poyner (0.1 IP), Aaron Rhodes (1.1 IP) and Karsten Whitson (1.0 IP) to complete UF's fifth shutout of the campaign and first in Tallahassee since April 11, 1989.
