Florida & Miami Meet For The First Time In Omaha On Opening Night of the NCAA College World Series
Saturday, June 13, 2015 | Baseball
Florida's College World Series Notes
OMAHA, Neb. – No. 4 national seed Florida (49-16) and No. 5 national seed Miami (49-15) will meet on college baseball's grandest stage on Saturday night at TD Ameritrade Park Omaha. The Gators are making their first CWS appearance since 2012, while the Hurricanes are back in Omaha for the first time since 2008. UF emerged victorious in the teams' regular-season series in Gainesville on the second weekend of the season.
Sophomore right-hander Logan Shore (9-6, 2.50) will be on the mound for the Gators and will face UM redshirt junior left-hander Andrew Suarez (9-1, 2.96).
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 ESPN with Kyle Peterson, Karl Ravech and Jessica Mendoza and can be 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
- The Gators have now reached the “Promised Land” nine times in school history - 1988, 1991, 1996, 1998, 2005, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2015.
- 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.
- Every NCAA foe for the Orange and Blue has been from the Sunshine State so far: Florida A&M, USF, Florida Atlantic, Florida State and now Miami.
- Over their five NCAA Tournament wins, the Gators are batting .328 (61-for-186), have yielded 12 runs for a 2.20 earned run average and are fielding .989 (two errors).
- UF claimed its fourth Super Regional title in five appearances under Coach O'Sullivan and its first since 2012 with the sweep of the Seminoles.
- Florida brought home its seventh SEC Tournament Championship on May 24 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 (.332, 71 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 and earned MVP of the NCAA Gainesville Regional with a .538 (7-for-13) clip. He was 5-for-7 (.714) against Florida State and is a sizzling 22-for-39 (.564) in 10 postseason games, with 17 RBI, 15 runs, five doubles and four homers.
- Junior righty Taylor Lewis (6-1, 1.24) 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 11 appearances dating back to mid-April.
- Florida's bullpen is 22-3 with a 2.88 ERA and 14 saves, and has registered 230 strikeouts in 275.1 innings, with a .236 batting average against.
- UF is hitting .299 as team, has compiled a team earned run average of 3.22 and leads the nation with a .985 fielding percentage.
- Florida has played error-free baseball in 38 of its 65 games and is 31-7 (.816) in those games. The single-season school record for fielding percentage is .978, set in 2010.
- The Gators are 43-2 (.956) when out-hitting their opponent, 35-4 (.897) when scoring first, 31-5 (.861) when hitting a homer and 22-1 (.957) when scoring in the first inning.
- After 26 home runs in 63 outings last year, Florida has gone yard 60 times in 2015, led by Schwarz (18) and junior Harrison Bader (15).
SERIES NUGGETS
Miami holds a 127-113-1 (.529) advantage in the all-time series and the Gators lead the Hurricanes by a 71-47-1 (.601) margin in Gainesville. Head coach Kevin O'Sullivan has a 20-10 (.667) record against Miami, 13-5 (.722) in Gainesville and 7-5 (.583) in Coral Gables. The Gators have taken 19 of the past 24 meetings and their 11-game winning streak in the series from March 7, 2010-March 1, 2013, is a school record.
POSTSEASON MEETINGS VS. MIAMI UNDER O'SULLIVAN
Although Miami has taken 12 of its 21 encounters with Florida in NCAA Tournament action, O'Sullivan is 6-0 against the Hurricanes. UM has ended the Gators' season on eight different occasions: 1981 South Regional, 1985 Atlantic Regional, 1989 East Regional, 1994 Atlantic I Regional, 1997 Atlantic Regional, 2002 Gainesville Regional, 2003 Coral Gables Regional and the 2004 Coral Gables Super Regional. Under O'Sullivan, Florida ousted the Hurricanes in the 2009 Gainesville Regional, the 2010 NCAA Gainesville Super Regional and the 2011 NCAA Gainesville Regional.
