Baseball takes on West-leading Ole Miss, while softball travels to South Carolina, the track and field teams heads to the prestigious Penn Relays and lacrosse travels to Cornell in the Weekend Look Ahead.
Baseball
Without a mid-week game for the only time this season due to semester exams, SEC tri-leader No. 4 Florida (31-10/14-4 SEC) welcomes Western Division tri-leader Ole Miss (24-17/9-9 SEC) to McKethan Stadium this weekend for another key conference series. Start times are at 7 p.m. on both Friday and Saturday and 1 p.m. on Sunday, with the entire series to be carried on GatorVision Online.
With graduation taking place this weekend as well, please note the updated parking and ticket information for this weekend.
Friday’s opener will pit sophomore right-hander Hudson Randall (Atlanta, Ga.) (7-1, 1.53) against UM junior southpaw Matt Crouse (6-2, 2.81). Randall scattered four hits over 6.1 innings in last week’s 7-0, series-opening triumph over Alabama. Five of his seven victories this season have come in SEC play and the righty has 33 strikeouts and four walks in 64.2 innings this spring.
Sophomore lefty Brian Johnson (Cocoa Beach, Fla.) (6-1, 2.53) will meet Rebel junior righty David Goforth (3-5, 4.60) in game two. The finale will feature freshman RHP Karsten Whitson (Chipley, Fla.) (5-0, 2.25) against Ole Miss junior left-hander Austin Wright (4-3, 4.36). Chosen as the SEC’s Co-Freshman of the Week following his career-high 6.2-inning stint (3 H, 1 R, 7 K, 0 BB) that completed the sweep of Alabama, Whitson leads the Gators with 52 strikeouts in 52 innings and is 2-0 with a 2.27 ERA in league activity.
Softball
After taking two of three in a crucial series with Alabama last weekend, Florida takes to the road for a three-game series at South Carolina starting Friday.
The Gators enter with a 40-8 record and a 15-7 mark in SEC play. They have won eight of their last nine games in conference play.
Track and Field
The Gators head to a pair of prestigious meets this weekend, as portions of the teams will head to both the 117th Pen Relays Carnival and some athletes will head to the Drake Relays.
The Gators got off to a solid start Thursday night at Penn when Genevieve LaCaze posted the second fastest steeplechase time in school history. This weekend the track athletes and jumpers will compete in an elite field with most of the relay finals taking place on Saturday afternoon.
The throwers will be on hand at Drake with most of UF’s athletes competing on Friday afternoon.
Lacrosse
After making history earlier this week ascending to the No. 2 ranking, the lacrosse team travels to Cornell on Sunday at noon.
The Gators enter with a 14-1 mark and have won 14 straight matches since dropping an overtime decision at North Carolina to start the year. The Gators have been off since defeating Vanderbilt 8-7 in Nashville on April 17 and will head to the ALC Tournament next week as the event’s top seed.
