No. 5 Florida (28-9) concludes its season-high eight-game road trip at UCF (22-14) at Jay Bergman Field at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday night. The contest will be carried on the Bright House Sports Network and be aired in Gainesville on WLUF-TV, Channel 6 on the Cox Communications’ cable system.
The Knights are in action on Tuesday night when they host FAU (23-13). The Gators are coming off an important series victory at Eastern Division rival Georgia, while UCF dropped two out of three games at East Carolina (6-12, 3-2, 3-5).
Sophomore Darnell Sweeney delivered a two-out, two-run double in the ninth to lift UCF to a 4-3 victory over Florida on April 5 at McKethan Stadium. With the Knights down to their final out, Sweeney (2-for-5) launched a two-bagger to straightaway center field off junior Anthony DeSclafani (Freehold, N.J.) that brought home junior Beau Taylor (2-for-3) with the tying run and sophomore Ryan Breen (2-for-4) with what proved to be the winning run.
With the score knotted at 2-2 in the eighth, junior Jeff Moyer (Winter Springs, Fla.) had given the Gators the lead with a pinch-hit single up the middle that drove in junior pinch runner Paul Wilson (Lakeland, Fla.). Florida stranded 10 runners and the Knights overcame deficits of 2-0 and 3-2 to end a three-game losing streak in the series. Sophomore Mike Zunino’s (Cape Coral, Fla.) career-high hitting streak of 17 games was halted with a 0-for-3 performance and he struck out to complete the contest.
In UF’s last visit to Orlando, DeSclafani notched his first collegiate victory with five innings of one-run ball as Florida defeated UCF, 7-3, in front of a record crowd of 2,758 fans on March 18, 2009. He gave up six hits, tallied four strikeouts and permitted an unearned run. Josh Adams (Jacksonville, Fla.) and Clayton Pisani drove in two runs apiece, while Matt den Dekker went 3-for-5 in his season debut out of the leadoff spot.
Over the weekend, Florida improved to 11-4 in the SEC by taking two of three outings at Georgia. The Gators captured the opener, 5-4, before the Bulldogs countered with a 7-2 victory on Saturday. In an offensive slugfest, UF closed the weekend with a 14-7 triumph for their fifth-straight series triumph over Georgia and improved to 7-2 in SEC road games this season. Junior Preston Tucker (Tampa, Fla.) (.336, 32 RBI, seven HR) belted a go-ahead two-run homer in the seventh and blasted a grand slam in the eighth to propel the Gators to a 14-7 win in Sunday’s rubber match. After the Bulldogs rallied from a 6-1 deficit with two runs in the fifth and four in the sixth to take a 7-6 lead, the Gators responded with eight unanswered runs in their final three at bats.
UF’s seventh-consecutive SEC road series success puts head coach Kevin O’Sullivan’s club one game behind No. 3 South Carolina (28-7/12-3 SEC) in the league standings and tied with No. 1 Vanderbilt (32-5/11-4 SEC) for second place both overall and in the Eastern Division. UF’s 11-4 (.733) record at the mid-point of the 30-game conference schedule is its best since the 1998 squad was 11-3 (.786) through five series.
Tucker (2-for-5) had his first multiple-homer outing of the campaign and set season highs with six RBI and three runs to pace a 17-hit offensive attack against eight Bulldog pitchers. Sophomores Brian Johnson (Cocoa Beach, Fla.) (.330, 19 runs, 17 RBI) (3-for-4, three RBI, two-run homer), Austin Maddox (Jacksonville, Fla.) (.308, 21 RBI, 19 runs) (3-for-4, two runs) and Zunino (.352, 40 runs, 27 RBI) (3-for-4, three runs) combined with Tucker for an 11-for-17 (.647), 10-RBI, nine-run performance by Florida’s third through sixth hitters in the lineup. Junior Greg Larson (Longwood, Fla.) (1-1, 2.31) scattered five hits over 3.2 scoreless innings, matching his longest relief stint of the season, to notch his first win since May 14, 2010, against UGA.
On Saturday, the Bulldogs snapped a 1-1 tie with a six-run eighth inning to square the weekend series, 7-2. Junior right-hander Michael Palazzone (6-1) allowed one run on six hits and had six strikeouts over eight innings to register the victory, as Georgia ended a nine-game losing skid to the Gators dating back to a 7-4 decision on April 25, 2008. With UGA holding a 1-0 lead, senior Bryson Smith (Watkinsville, Ga.) (.333, 6 RBI) (2-for-4) tied the game in the eighth with a one-out homer into the trees overlooking left field. It was his first round-tripper of the season and first since April 24, 2010, versus Arkansas. Johnson (5-1, 2.42) was locked in a pitcher’s duel with Palazzone and yielded one run on six hits with four K over six innings. Johnson’s run of 9.1 consecutive scoreless innings ended on an RBI grounder by DeLoach in the fourth. DeSclafani (4-2, 3.28) was tagged with the loss after giving up three hits and four runs over 1.1 innings. Senior Josh Adams (Jacksonville, Fla.) (.375, 26 RBI, 20 runs) was a perfect 3-for-3 and had a double that narrowly missed being the game-tying homer in the seventh.
Sophomore Steven Rodriguez (Miami, Fla.) (2-1, 1.86) struck out junior Levi Hyams with the tying run aboard to end the game as the Gators claimed the opener, 5-4. The victory was the 150th of O’Sullivan’s career. The hosts had pulled within a run in their final at bat on a two-out RBI single by junior Peter Verdin before Rodriguez was called upon in relief of Maddox (1.2 IP, 2 H, 1 R). The southpaw’s punch-out resulted in his second save and preserved the win for sophomore Hudson Randall (Atlanta, Ga.) (6-1, 1.70). The Gators banged out 13 hits and were led offensively by Maddox (3-for-4, two RBI), sophomore Nolan Fontana (Winter Garden, Fla.) (.308, 31 runs, 26 RBI) (2-for-5), Tucker (2-for-4) and junior Daniel Pigott (Ormond Beach, Fla.) (.343, 27 RBI) (2-for-3). UF batted .368 (39-for-106) with four homers over the weekend in Athens.
Tucker went 4-for-13 (.308) in the Gators’ series win over Georgia, with a team-high seven RBI. He cranked a two-run homer in the seventh to turn a 7-6 deficit into an 8-7 lead for Florida in Sunday’s deciding game. The next inning, Tucker delivered a grand slam in the eighth off of the nation’s save leader, Tyler Maloof, to put UF ahead by a 12-7 score in an eventual 14-7 win. It was his third career grand slam and his first multiple-homer outing of the year. The first baseman/right fielder set season highs for RBI (six) and runs (three) and finished the game 2-for-5. He opened the scoring in Friday’s 5-4 triumph with an RBI single in the first inning and was 2-for-4 with a run. Tucker is hitting .336 overall and holds the top spot on the squad in total bases (82), RBI (32) and homers (7). He has a .305 clip in 15 SEC games, with 12 runs, 11 RBI, two homers and two doubles. In nine career games versus Georgia, eight Gator wins, Tucker has a .350 (14-for-40) average, with 14 RBI, 10 runs and four homers.
The Gators are No. 2 in the most recent NCAA Baseball Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) released by Boyd’s World on Tuesday, trailing Virginia. A whopping nine SEC programs are found in the top 32: No. 3 South Carolina, No. 6 Vanderbilt, No. 11 Arkansas, No. 14 Auburn, No. 17 Georgia, No. 27 Mississippi State, No. 31 LSU and No. 32 Ole Miss. According to Warren Nolan, Florida’s strength of schedule currently rates third in the country behind fellow SEC programs Georgia (19-18) and Auburn (20-15).
Entering Wednesday’s game, the Gators are 9-4 (.692) against schools from Florida this season. UF went 4-0 versus USF, took all three games from Miami (Fla.), handled Florida Atlantic once and defeated Florida State in Gainesville. On the flip side, the Orange and Blue dropped three of four meetings with the Seminoles and fell to UCF.
