No. 6 Florida Hosts Kentucky at McKethan Stadium in Key SEC Series
Thursday, April 23, 2015 | Baseball
Florida vs. Kentucky Series Notes
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – With both teams riding four-game winning streaks, No. 6 Florida (32-10/12-6 SEC) hosts Kentucky (23-16/8-9 SEC) in a three-game series that begins Friday night at McKethan Stadium. The Gators swept Mississippi State on the road last weekend and edged Bethune-Cookman on Tuesday, while the Wildcats claimed all three matchups at home versus Tennessee and downed Xavier on Tuesday night.
In a matchup of sophomore right-handers, Logan Shore (6-2, 2.29)will face Wildcat hurler Zack Brown (3-4, 3.13) in Friday's series opener at 7 p.m., sophomore right-hander Dane Dunning (4-1, 3.02) will oppose UK junior right-hander Dustin Beggs (5-2, 2.78)in game two of the series on Saturday at 7 p.m. and neither club has announced a starter for Sunday's finale at 12:30 p.m.
All three games of the weekend series can be heard through GatorZone.com and on the Gator IMG Sports Network with the combination of Jeff Cardozo, Mick Hubert and Steve Russell. The entire series will be carried on SEC Network+ with the combination of Nick Belmonte, Jeff Cardozo and Mick Hubert 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 forged a three-way tie on top of the SEC East standings with Missouri and Vanderbilt by notching its first sweep of Mississippi State in Starkville since 2002. The Gators, Tigers and Commodores are all 12-6 (.667) with four league series remaining, a half-game behind West co-leaders LSU and Texas A&M (12-5).
- The Gators are 24-3 (.889) at McKethan Stadium this year and have emerged victorious in all seven weekend series on their home turf.
- In 27 games at home in '15, Florida has a .330 average, compared to .224 for its opponents. Junior Harrison Bader is a team-best .409 with 35 RBI and 11 homers, senior Josh Tobias is at .386 with 24 runs and 13 RBI, while freshman JJ Schwarz has a .372 clip with 33 RBI and 11 homers.
- The Orange and Blue is hitting .304 as team, has compiled a team earned run average of 3.26 and leads the nation with a .985 fielding percentage.
- Florida has played error-free baseball in 22 of its 42 games and is 19-3 (.864) in those games.
- The Gators are 29-1 (.967) when out-hitting their opponent, 25-2 (.926) when scoring first, 21-5 (.808) when hitting a homer and 17-1 (.944) when scoring in the first inning.
- Tobias leads UF in both overall (.367) and SEC (.370) batting average, is tied for second in the league in triples (5) and has not committed any errors at third base.
- Bader (.326) has 43 RBI, 34 runs, 12 doubles and 11 homers, while junior shortstop Richie Martin (.329) has 40 runs, 26 RBI, 23 walks and is a team-best 16-for-19 (.842) on the basepaths.
- Freshman second baseman Dalton Guthrie (.315) has scored 39 runs, while Schwarz(.301) paces the squad with an SEC-best 47 RBI and is second in the conference with 13 homers.
- Sophomore center fielder Buddy Reed is batting .310 overall with 31 RBI and 14 stolen bases and is at .343 in league action.
- After missing the first 30 games of the season with a foot injury, sophomore first baseman Peter Alonso is 15-for-49 (.306) in 12 games and was 9-for-17 (.529) in Florida's four games last week. He powered the Gator offense in Starkville by going 7-for-12 (.583) with six RBI and a slugging percentage of 1.167.
- On the mound, senior left-hander Bobby Poyner is 3-1 with a team-low 1.93 ERA in 15 appearances and has collected three saves, while sophomore righty Logan Shore (6-2, 2.29) fired his second complete game of the season in the opener with MSU.
- According to the most recent SEC statistics, Florida ranks No. 1 in fielding percentage (.985), No. 3 in team batting average (.304) and No. 5 in team ERA (3.26).
- Schwarz is first in the league in RBI (47), second in home runs (13) and fifth in slugging percentage (.647), Bader is fourth in slugging (.660), tied for second in RBI (43) and third in home runs (11), while Tobias is eighth in batting average (.367) and ninth in slugging percentage (.602).
SERIES NUGGETS
Florida holds a 134-62-1 (.683) advantage in the all-time series with Kentucky, including a 72-25 (.742) edge in Gainesville.
Head coach Kevin O'Sullivan is 12-11 (.522) against the Wildcats, 5-4 (.556) in Gainesville, 6-6 (.500) in Lexington and 1-1 (.500) at the SEC Tournament.
The Gators have captured 10 of their last 14 series against the Wildcats, including three-game sweeps in 2001, 2002, 2004 and 2005, but Kentucky has taken the last two regular-season series by 2-1 margins UK's last three-game sweep of Florida occurred on April 24-25, 1993, in Gainesville (5-3, 7-6, 7-4).
Florida has notched 2-1 series triumphs in four of the last six seasons (W, L, W in 2009; W, W, L in 2010; W, L, W in 2011; W, W, L in 2012), with Kentucky emerging victorious in Gainesville in 2013 (UF 4-1, UK 11-5, UK 6-2) and in Lexington last April (UK 17-1, UF 11-10, UK 9-8).
TICKETS
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. For all of the latest information on Florida baseball, log on to GatorZone or follow the team's Twitter account @GatorZoneBB.
