Florida Faces Virginia For Third Time On Saturday Night With CWS Championship Series Berth At Stake
Saturday, June 20, 2015 | Baseball
Florida's College World Series Notes vs. Virginia
OMAHA, Neb. – After notching a 10-5 victory when the teams met on Friday, No. 4 Florida (52-17) plays Virginia (41-23) for the third time at the NCAA College World Series on Saturday at 8 p.m. on ESPN. The winner of the contest will advance to the best-of-three CWS Championship Series to face defending national champion Vanderbilt (50-19) starting on Monday night.
Sophomore right-hander Dane Dunning (5-2, 3.88) will make his first start of the NCAA Tournament for the Gators and will face Virginia junior left-hander Brandon Waddell (4-5, 3.86).
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
- Florida improved to 8-1 (.889) in the NCAA Tournament and captured its sixth do-or-die game of the postseason yesterday (four at the SEC Tournament, two at the NCAA College World Series).
- The Gators handed Virginia its first loss of the NCAA Tourney after seven straight wins and five of their eight NCAA wins are against ACC programs.
- Florida reached double-digit runs for the third time at the CWS (15 against Miami, 10 against Miami, 10 against Virginia) and for the fifth time in the past six games.
- The Orange & Blue has a 12-2 (.857) record in the postseason, is hitting .321, sports a 2.34 ERA and has out-scored opponents, 124-36.
- After falling into the loser's bracket at the SEC Tournament, the Gators won four consecutive elimination games to take home the title.
- Sophomore Logan Shore became the first Florida pitcher to earn two victories during a College World Series. The right-hander improved to 5-0 in the postseason and his total of 11 wins is the most by a Gator since current student assistant coach Hudson Randall had 11 in 2011.
- The Gators' 52 wins this season are one shy of the program's single-season mark, as the 2011 club finished 53-19.
- Florida picked up its third win of the 2015 NCAA College World Series, matching the 2005 and 2011 Gator squads for the most in school history. Those teams finished as the runner-up to Texas and South Carolina, respectively.
- Junior shortstop Richie Martin (.296, 36 RBI) is 6-for-9 (.667) in the last two games, with three RBI and three runs.
- Senior Josh Tobias' single on Friday enabled him to reach base for the 31st game in a row, freshman Dalton Guthrie made it 20 straight games reaching with a single in the third inning and sophomore Peter Alonso's walk in the sixth gave him a 19-game streak.
- Junior righty Taylor Lewis (6-1, 1.20) 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 12 appearances dating back to mid-April.
- Freshman catcher/designated hitter JJ Schwarz (.332, 73 RBI) is hitting .500 (27-for-54) in the postseason and has a .486 (17-for-35) clip in nine NCAA outings, including .333 (5-for-15) in four CWS games.
- Florida's bullpen is 22-3 with a 2.74 ERA and 14 saves, and has registered 239 strikeouts in 288.2 innings, with a .233 batting average against.
- Florida has played error-free baseball in 38 of its 67 games and is 31-7 (.816) in those games. The single-season school record for fielding percentage is .978, set in 2010. UF has five errors in four games in Omaha and has committed a miscue in a season-high five games in a row.
- The Gators are 46-2 (.958) when out-hitting their opponent, 36-4 (.900) when scoring first, 32-5 (.865) when hitting a homer and 23-1 (.958) when scoring in the first inning.
SERIES NUGGETS
Florida has claimed five of its seven encounters with Virginia and the meeting on Monday night was the first for the teams since the Gators swept a two-game series during the 1989 season at McKethan Stadium.
POSTSEASON MEETINGS VS. VIRGINIA
Before Monday night's 1-0 triumph for Virginia, the Gators and Cavaliers had split a pair of games during the 1985 NCAA Atlantic Regional in Coral Gables, Fla. UVa posted a 14-1 triumph on May 24, 1985, but UF rebounded for a 15-2 triumph in an elimination game three days later. Florida evened the NCAA matchups and tied the count in Omaha with a 10-5 victory on Friday.
LAST MEETING: FLORIDA FOUGHT OFF ELIMINATION
Florida tallied four runs in the third inning and added five more in the sixth during a 10-5 victory over Virginia on Friday afternoon to stay alive at the 2015 NCAA College World Series. Sophomore Logan Shore (11-6) improved to 5-0 in the postseason by scattering eight hits and allowing four runs over 6.1 innings. The right-hander was supported by an offense that reached double-digits in runs for the fifth time in the past six games, with junior Harrison Bader (1-for-5), junior Richie Martin (3-for-4, two doubles) and freshman Mike Rivera (2-for-4) each driving in two runs.
CONNECTIONS BETWEEN THE GATORS & CAVALIERS
Florida head coach Kevin O'Sullivan played two seasons at Virginia in 1990-91 and had a career batting average of .351. He was a first-team All-ACC and All-ACC Tourney recipient both years and earned a berth on the ACC Academic Honor Roll in 1990. O'Sullivan and Brian O'Connor were ACC rivals, as O'Sullivan was at Clemson for nine seasons from 1999-2007. Virginia assistant coach Karl Kuhn was member of the Gators' 1990 club and earned his undergraduate degree from UF in 1992.
