After grabbing a share of its second-straight SEC Championship by taking two of three games from Kentucky on the final weekend of the regular season, third-seeded Florida (41-15) will meet sixth-seeded Mississippi State (34-21) in the second game of the double-elimination SEC Tournament on Wednesday afternoon in Hoover, Ala.
The Gators and Bulldogs will play 30 minutes following the completion of the 10:30 a.m. ET matchup between No. 2 seed Arkansas (36-18) and No. 7 seed Alabama (32-24). The game will be shown in Gainesville and Ocala on Cox Communications Channel 259 and will be carried on WRUF SportsRadio 850.
UF will be making its league-leading 31st appearance at the SEC Tourney and is 49-52 (.485) all-time at the event. In the most recent meeting between Florida and Mississippi State in SEC postseason play, the No. 3 seed Orange and Blue eliminated the seventh-seeded Bulldogs, 5-0, behind a six-hit shutout by Keith Ramsey on May 24, 2002.
Wednesday’s encounter will mark the 13th time that Florida has met Mississippi State during the SEC Tourney. It will be the first time in nine years that the squads have tangled in Hoover and the teams have split 12 previous tourney matchups. The only other schools that UF has faced more often are Alabama, with the Tide holding a 10-7 edge in 17 meetings, and LSU, with the Gators possessing a 9-6 advantage.
Florida has five SEC Tournament titles on its ledger: 1981, 1982, 1984, 1988 and 1991. Oddly enough, all of these championships came at other venues besides Hoover when the event was held on campuses. The Gators have been the runner-up on five occasions: 1977, 1979, 1992, 1996 and 2000.
Florida has now captured an SEC-best 21 division championships and their 12 league championships are third behind LSU (14) and Alabama (13). UF became the East winner for the third year in a row, matching its feat from 1996-98. Florida has also won SEC crowns in 1952, 1956, 1962, 1981, 1982, 1984, 1988, 1996, 1998, 2005 and 2010.
Florida claimed eight of its 10 SEC series and the team’s 22 victories in league play matched the school record set last season. During Kevin O’Sullivan’s first three seasons at the helm, UF finished 17-13 and was the runner-up in the East in ’08, claimed the division title in 2009 with a 19-11 mark that was one game behind league co-champs LSU and Ole Miss, and won the East and overall championships in 2010 at 22-8 for the first time since 2005.
Florida brought home eight SEC titles in 2010-11 (baseball, men’s basketball, women’s cross country, men’s golf, soccer, women’s tennis, men’s indoor track & field & volleyball) to match the SEC record for championships in a school year done by UF in 1991-92 and matched by Georgia in 2005-06. The Gator baseball team’s success on the diamond was the program’s 50th league title in the past 10 years. In addition, UF’s second-year lacrosse team claimed the American Lacrosse Conference (ALC).
Now in his fourth year, O’Sullivan became the fourth Gator head coach to win multiple SEC Championships, along with Dave Fuller (1952, 1956, 1962), Joe Arnold (1984, 1988) and Andy Lopez (1996, 1998).
With 41 victories, the Gators reached the 40-win plateau for the 20th time in school history and has posted three 40-win campaigns in a row for the first time since 1996 (50-18), 1997 (40-24) and 1998 (46-18). Saturday’s triumph over Kentucky enabled the club to match the standard of regular-season wins set in 1989 (41-18), 1991 (41-19), 1996 (41-14) and 1998 (41-13). The records listed in parentheses are entering postseason play.
Florida is seeking to snap a four-game losing streak in the first round of the SEC Tourney dating back to a 9-8 victory over Arkansas on May 25, 2005. After missing the event in 2006, the Gators have since fallen to South Carolina (4-3 in 12 innings on May 23, 2007), Vanderbilt (7-3 on May 21, 2008), Arkansas (8-5 on May 20, 2009) and LSU (10-6 on May 26, 2010). O’Sullivan has a 3-6 (.333) SEC Tournament record in three previous appearances.
After falling to eighth-seeded LSU in the opening round of the 2010 SEC Tourney, 10-6, the top-seeded Gators rebounded to eliminate fourth-seeded Arkansas (5-4) and fifth-seeded Vanderbilt (5-2) to reach the semifinals of the event for the first time in five years. Needing to defeat seventh-seeded Alabama twice in order to advance to the title game, UF was ousted by a 5-2 score. The Tigers claimed their third-straight crown with a 4-3 victory in 11 innings over the Crimson Tide.
In the teams’ regular-season series, Florida captured its sixth-consecutive SEC road series from April 8-10 at Mississippi State. The Bulldogs took the opener, 7-5, before the Gators responded with an 18-0 triumph on Saturday and a 3-1 win in Sunday’s rubber game. The Gators batted .333 (39-for-117) over the three games in Starkville, led by sophomore Mike Zunino (Cape Coral, Fla.) (6-for-12, six runs, six RBI, two doubles, grand slam) and freshman Zack Powers (Seffner, Fla.) (4-for-8, two runs, two walks). Sophomore Austin Maddox (Jacksonville, Fla.) went 5-for-14 (.357) and preserved the series triumph with his first career save after coming into Sunday’s game with one out and the bases loaded. UF’s pitching staff registered a 2.77 earned run average, with 23 strikeouts and five walks.
Junior Preston Tucker (Tampa, Fla.) delivered a two-out, two-run single to snap a 1-1 tie in the seventh to lift UF to a 3-1 victory in the decisive game three. The Bulldogs loaded the bases with one down in the ninth but Maddox took over on the mound and retired the final two batters to collect his first career save. With MSU down to its final three outs, junior Anthony DeSclafani (Freehold, N.J.) entered the ballgame and issued a leadoff single before getting a strikeout. Freshman Adam Frazier hit a comebacker to the mound that DeSclafani threw away while trying to get the lead runner at second base, resulting in a couple of runners aboard. Senior Jaron Shepherd poked a single into left field to fill the bags and prompt a pitching change. Maddox had senior Wes Thigpen line out and the runners held. Facing freshman C.T. Bradford, Maddox was ahead in the count 0-2 and induced a pop-up in foul territory that third baseman Powers snagged up against the netting to complete the game.
Zunino belted a grand slam during an eight-run second inning and drove in five runs as the Gators evened the series with an 18-0 shutout on Saturday afternoon. All nine Gator starters had at least one hit in UF’s most lopsided triumph over the Bulldogs in school history. Sophomore left-hander Brian Johnson (Cocoa Beach, Fla.) (5-1) tossed six scoreless innings to earn the win and was followed to the mound by freshman Daniel Gibson (Lutz, Fla.) (2.0 IP, 2 H) and senior Matt Campbell (Tampa, Fla.) (1.0 IP) in Florida’s seventh shutout of the season, matching the program’s most since 1993. The Gator offense recorded then-season-bests in SEC action for runs (18) and hits (18) and the 18 runs at the time were the most scored by UF in conference play since a 24-2 win at Auburn on April 11, 2009. Florida exploded for a season-high eight runs in the second inning, highlighted by a grand slam by Zunino (3-for-4, career-high four runs), who had a pair of hits in the frame. Sophomore Nolan Fontana (Winter Garden, Fla.) was 2-for-4 with two RBI and a pair of runs, senior Josh Adams (Jacksonville, Fla.) went 2-for-5 with a couple of RBI singles, Maddox was 2-for-5 and scored twice and junior Daniel Pigott (Ormond Beach, Fla.) (2-for-6, two runs) tallied three RBI.
Mississippi State rode a four-run first inning and a pair of homers by senior Jonathan Ogden to a 7-5 series-opening victory. The Gators pulled within two runs in the sixth but were held scoreless for the final three innings by the duo of freshman Taylor Stark and junior Caleb Reed, who registered four K over the last two frames to pick up a save. MSU handed sophomore Hudson Randall (Atlanta, Ga.) his first defeat after five wins by totaling nine hits and six runs over the first 2.1 innings. Randall entered the game having allowed six runs (three earned) in 49.2 innings. Tucker was 3-for-5, while the trio of Adams, Johnson and Zunino chipped in with two hits apiece.
Florida is batting .309 as a team, powered by SEC Player of the Year Zunino (.383, 62 runs, 59 RBI, 19 doubles, 15 homers), second-team All-SEC selection Adams (.340, 39 RBI, 10 doubles) and first-team All-SEC picks Tucker (.323, 50 RBI, 10 homers) and Johnson (.321, 25 runs, 23 RBI). As a staff, the Gators have a 3.08 ERA and boast a weekend rotation of Randall (8-3, 2.45), Johnson (8-3, 3.58) and All-SEC Freshman Team recipient Karsten Whitson (Chipley, Fla.) (7-0, 2.47). Out of the bullpen, Maddox is 2-0 with a 0.84 ERA with a team-high three saves, junior Greg Larson (Longwood, Fla.) (1-1) has a 1.62 ERA, junior Nick Maronde (Lexington, Ky.) (0-0, two saves) has a 1.74 ERA in a team-high 27 appearances and sophomore Steven Rodriguez (Miami, Fla.) is 2-1 with a 1.67 ERA and two saves.
