No. 8 Florida Heads To Georgia For SEC Weekend Series
Thursday, April 30, 2015 | Baseball
Florida vs. Georgia Series Notes
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – With the regular season winding down, No. 8 Florida (33-12/13-8 SEC) starts the front end of consecutive road series by visiting Georgia (21-23/6-14 SEC) at Foley Field. Both the Gators and Bulldogs did not have any mid-week games due to semester exams and this is the eighth of the 10 conference sets.
In a matchup of right-handers, sophomore right-hander Logan Shore (6-3, 2.44) will face Bulldog junior David Sosebee (2-2, 2.67) in Friday's series opener at 7 p.m., sophomore left-hander A.J. Puk (6-3, 5.87) will oppose UGA junior left-hander Ryan Lawlor (4-6, 3.41) in game two of the series on Saturday at 12 p.m. and freshman righty Alex Faedo (4-1, 2.52) will meet a pitcher to be announced in Sunday's finale at 1 p.m.
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's series opener with Jason Jacobs and Matt Stewart will be carried on SEC Network+ through participating TV providers only through WatchESPN, Saturday's game will be carried on ESPNU with Jason Benetti and Mike Rooney and Sunday's game will be shown on SEC Network+ with Jacobs and Stewart 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 enters the weekend two games behind No. 6 Vanderbilt (33-13/15-6 SEC) in the race for the SEC Championship. The teams will meet in Nashville next Thursday-Saturday.
- The Orange and Blue has a 4-3 (.571) mark in SEC series - 3-1 (.750) at home and 1-2 (.333) on the road.
- The Gators are 25-5 (.833) at McKethan Stadium this year and are 8-7 (.533) away from Gainesville, including a sweep of Mississippi State on their last trip.
- UF is hitting .304 as team, has compiled a team earned run average of 3.29 and leads the nation with a .985 fielding percentage.
- Florida has played error-free baseball in 24 of its 45 games and is 20-4 (.833) in those games. UF has not had multiple errors in an outing since March 28 (two against Alabama) and the single-season school record for fielding percentage is .978, set in 2010.
- The Gators are 30-2 (.938) 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. In taking two of three games last weekend, Kentucky drew first blood in each contest.
- Senior Josh Tobias leads UF in overall batting average (.355), is tied for third in the league in triples (5) and has not committed any errors at third base.
- Junior left fielder Harrison Bader went 6-for-13 (.462) versus the Wildcats and is at .338 with 45 RBI, 37 runs, 12 doubles and 11 homers, while junior shortstop Richie Martin (.322) has a team-high 41 runs, 26 RBI, 23 walks and is a team-best 16-for-19 (.842) on the basepaths.
- Freshman second baseman Dalton Guthrie (.316) has scored 40 runs and has a team-high 18 multiple-hit games, while freshman JJ Schwarz (.290) paces the squad with an SEC-best 49 RBI and is second in the conference with 13 homers.
- Sophomore center fielder Buddy Reed is batting .302 overall with 32 RBI and 14 stolen bases and is at .321 in league action.
- Sophomore right fielder Ryan Larson (.321, 18 RBI) leads the Gators with a .355 average in SEC play and was 4-for-9 (.444) last weekend.
- After missing the first 30 games of the season with a foot injury, sophomore first baseman Peter Alonso is 19-for-59 (.322) in 15 games and was 4-for-10 (.400) in the series with UK. He powered the Gator offense at Mississippi State 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 1.87 ERA in 16 appearances and has collected three saves, while sophomore righty Logan Shore (6-3, 2.44) has both of the Gators' complete games and leads the club in innings pitched (66.1) and strikeouts (47).
- Freshman RHP Alex Faedo (4-1, 2.52) improved to 2-0 in league action by limiting Kentucky to one run over 5.1 innings in last Sunday's finale. He has 37 strikeouts and seven walks in 39.1 innings and has started the last three weekends.
- According to the most recent SEC statistics, Florida ranks No. 1 in fielding percentage (.985), No. 3 in team batting average (.304) and No. 4 in team ERA (3.29).
- Schwarz is first in the league in RBI (47), second in home runs (13) and fifth in slugging percentage (.617), Bader is tied for second in RBI (45), third in slugging (.643), fourth in home runs (11) and seventh in on-base percentage (.450), Martin is tied for fifth in runs scored (41), Guthrie is tied for seventh in runs scored (40), while Tobias is 11th in batting average (.355) and 12th in slugging percentage (.572).
SERIES NUGGETS
Head coach Kevin O'Sullivan is 17-6 (.739) against Georgia, 10-2 (.833) in Gainesville, 6-3 (.667) in Athens and 1-1 (.500) at the SEC Tournament.
The Gators have claimed seven of their last eight regular-season series with UGA - 2007 (3-0), 2008 (2-1), 2009 (3-0), 2010 (3-0), 2011 (2-1), 2012 (2-1) and 2014 (3-0) - and dropped two of three to complete the 2013 regular season in Athens.
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.
