A Florida-Arkansas primer for tonight's SEC Tournament matchup
Wednesday, May 20, 2015 | Baseball, Football, Scott Carter
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The Gators make their debut in the SEC Tournament tonight when they face Arkansas, a 2-1 winner over Tennessee on Tuesday.
As the fourth seed, Florida had a first-round bye Tuesday. The Gators last won the tournament in 2011, which marked the program's first title in 20 years.
This is an event dominated by the SEC West over the years. A team from the West Division has won 16 of the last 19 seasons. Only Florida (2011), Vanderbilt (2007) and South Carolina (2004) broke through during that span.
Still, this is a Florida team that has the talent to make a run. The Gators made it to the championship game last season before losing to LSU, which has won the past two tournaments.
“No. 1, you want to be playing your best baseball at the end of the year,” Gators head coach Kevin O'Sullivan said. “This tournament forces you to minimize your mistakes. You have to play clean. If you don't play clean you are going to end up back on the bus going home.”
Let's take a look at the Florida-Arkansas matchup scheduled to start after the LSU-Auburn game, which starts at 5:30 p.m. ET. The games at Hoover (Ala.) Metropolitan Stadium are live on the SEC Network:
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PLAYER TO WATCH: Arkansas OF Andrew Benintendi, the first Razorback to be named SEC Player of the Year. Benintendi led the SEC in batting average (.415) and home runs (17).
“To hit .400 in any league is quite an accomplishment,” O'Sullivan said. “I'm just glad he is sophomore-eligible for the draft. He is well-deserving of player of the year.”
You can bet Florida's pitching staff watched closely how four Tennessee pitchers approached facing Benintendi. He went 0-for-5 on Tuesday night and struck out in his first three at-bats.
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PITCHING MATCHUP: Florida sophomore right-hander Dane Dunning (5-2, 3.54 ERA) faces Arkansas freshman right-hander Keaton McKinney (6-1, 2.83 ERA).
Both were drafted out of high school and are making their first career starts in the SEC Tournament.
Dunning, 6-foot-3 and 190 pounds, struck out eight in four innings while on a pitch count May 5 against USF. The 6-5, 220-pound McKinney made 14 starts during the regular season, striking out 41 in 76 1/3 innings. He really heated up late, going 5-0 with a 1.56 ERA in his last six starts.
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COACH CHATTER
Florida's Kevin O'Sullivan: “Arkansas is typical Arkansas. They've got really good starting pitching, they've got a deep bullpen and I think they have a veteran lineup. I see a lot of ourselves in them to be honest.”
Arkansas' Dave Van Horn: “I think about that team a lot. I remember being 12-12, pretty much dead and buried by probably everybody in the country that follows us and college baseball and probably in our own state. When we started [pitching] we started winning. Started winning close games instead of giving games away.''
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NOTABLES: First meeting of season between the schools … Florida is 2-1 against Arkansas in the SEC Tournament, last facing the Razorbacks in 2010 … Arkansas went 16-7 over its final eight SEC series, the only team to not lose a conference series over that span … The Gators showed their comeback ability in a pair of wins last weekend against Auburn, overcoming early deficits in both victories. Still, Florida is much better when scoring first, going 29-4 … Arkansas advanced on shortstop Michael Bernal's walk-off double with two outs in bottom of ninth inning Tuesday … Arkansas has won 19 of its last 24 games.
