Gators Open NCAA Gainesville Regional Against Florida A&M On Friday Night
Friday, May 29, 2015 | Baseball
Florida's NCAA Tournament Notes
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – No. 4 national seed Florida (44-16) will begin its 31st NCAA Tournament appearance beginning on Friday night at McKethan Stadium against MEAC Tourney Champion Florida A&M (23-23). The Gators are the top seed at the double-elimination event and will meet the fourth-seeded Rattlers at 7 p.m. on the first day of action. Second-seeded Florida Atlantic (40-17) from Conference USA will oppose third-seeded USF (33-24-1) from the AAC in the opener at 1 p.m.
Sophomore right-hander Logan Shore (7-6, 2.79) will face Rattler junior left-hander Ricky Page (2-0, 1.32) in Friday's nightcap.
The game can be heard through GatorZone.com and on the Gator IMG Sports Network with Jeff Cardozo and Mick Hubert, it will be carried on the SEC Network with Mike Morgan (play-by-play) and Dave Perno (color) and viewed through the WatchESPN app. 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 has made the NCAA Tournament in all eight years of Kevin O'Sullivan's tenure, the longest NCAA run in school history.
- The Gators have been a national seed in six of the past seven seasons (No. 8 in 2009, No. 3 in 2010, No. 2 in 2011, No. 1 in 2012, No. 2 in 2014, No. 4 in 2015). They are the only team in the country who can make this claim.
- In its 31 Regional appearances, UF had been placed at sites within Florida 24 times (Gainesville-13, Coral Gables-7, Tallahassee-4).
- All 64 teams preparing for NCAA Regionals have the same destination in mind: TD Ameritrade Park Omaha in Omaha, Neb., for the College World Series. The Gators have reached the “Promised Land” eight times - 1988, 1991, 1996, 1998, 2005, 2010, 2011 and 2012.
- Florida brought home its seventh SEC Tournament Championship on Sunday with a 7-3 victory over No. 9 Vanderbilt. It was the squad's first crown since 2011 and they have defeated the defending national champions three times in four meetings this season.
- After dropping a 7-6 decision to No. 24 Arkansas, the Gators reeled off four consecutive wins over Auburn (11-2), No. 24 Arkansas (10-0 in 7 innings), No. 1 LSU (2-1) and No. 9 Vanderbilt (7-3). The Tigers and Commodores were the top two seeds at the event.
- Freshman catcher/designated hitter JJ Schwarz (.307, 60 RBI) was chosen as the Most Valuable Player of the SEC Tournament after hitting .526 (10-for-19), with six RBI, five runs and three doubles.
- Sophomore left-hander A.J. Puk (8-3, 4.23) fired a three-hit shutout in the second meeting with Arkansas last Friday. Over his last four starts, he has notched 40 strikeouts in 23.1 innings and is 2-0 with a 1.54 ERA.
- Junior righty Taylor Lewis (6-1, 1.32) earned SEC All-Tourney honors after eight shutout innings in Hoover, highlighted by a 4.1-inning stint versus top-ranked LSU in which he picked up the victory. Lewis has not allowed any runs in his last nine appearances dating back to mid-April.
- Florida's bullpen is 21-3 with a 2.83 ERA and 13 saves, and has registered 216 strikeouts in 258 innings, with a .232 batting average against.
- UF is hitting .296 as team, has compiled a team earned run average of 3.30 and leads the nation with a .985 fielding percentage.
- Florida has played error-free baseball in 34 of its 60 games and is 27-7 (.794) in those games. The single-season school record for fielding percentage is .978, set in 2010.
- The Gators are 39-2 (.951) when out-hitting their opponent, 32-4 (.889) when scoring first, 27-5 (.844) when hitting a homer and 21-1 (.955) when scoring in the first inning.
- After 26 home runs in 63 outings last year, Florida has gone yard 52 times in 2015, led by Schwarz (14) and junior Harrison Bader (13).
SERIES NUGGETS
Head coach Kevin O'Sullivan is 2-1 (.667) against Florida A&M, while the Gators have claimed 18 of the 19 meetings between the Sunshine State programs.
The series began with a 14-1 Florida win on March 29, 1980, and the clubs met in nine-straight seasons between 1999 and 2007 before a five-year hiatus that ended on March 7, 2012 (15-2 Gator win).
NCAA Gainesville Regional Ticket Information
All fans can order tickets using the following methods:
- Order online at www.GatorZone.com/tickets, starting Wednesday, May 27, at 8:30 a.m.
- Order by calling one of the Ticket Office Specialists at (352) 375-4683, option 2, or toll free (800) 344-2867, option 2, Wednesday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
- Order by visiting the Gator Ticket Office, located at Gate 1 of Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, Wednesday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Single-game tickets for the NCAA Gainesville Regional will be sold beginning on Thursday, May 28, at 8:30 a.m., and the first 250 University of Florida students will be admitted free to each game.
Ticket prices are the following:
| Regional Books |
|
| Tournament Reserved Box | $55 |
| Tournament Reserved Chairback | $50 |
| Tournament Reserved Bleacher | $30 |
| Single-Game Tickets: |
|
| Single-Game Reserved Box | $10 |
| Single-Game Reserved Chairback | $9 |
| Single-Game Reserved Bleacher | $8 |
| Single-Game General Admission | $6 |
