No. 1 Florida (11-2) will welcome Rhode Island (7-3) of the Atlantic 10 Conference to McKethan Stadium for three games this weekend, today at 7 p.m., Saturday at 4 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m. This will be the final weekend of non-conference action for the Gators, who will begin a stretch of 10-consecutive SEC series starting next Friday night at No. 7 LSU.
Rebounding from Tuesday’s shutout loss to Georgia Southern, Florida dealt USF an 8-1 setback on Wednesday night in Tampa. The Rams are making their second visit to Gainesville after playing a rain-shortened series during the 2005 season in which the Gators took both games and the third was canceled.
In a matchup of left-handers, sophomore Brian Johnson (3-0, 0.00) will start the opener against URI redshirt junior Chris Pickering (2-0, 2.25). Johnson has yet to allow a run in 17 innings this year and limited USF, Boston College and Miami (Fla.) to six hits while notching 20 strikeouts and issuing two walks. Opponents are hitting .107 against the lefty. The school record for consecutive scoreless innings of 30 is held by Kelly Prior (April 23-May 13, 1966) and a 21-inning stretch during the 1993 season by Marc Valdes rates second.
