[gatortalk] FW: [gatornews] GatorNews From The Gainesville SUN For 4/30, AM Edition

Yesterday was not a good day for Gators.

Dear Shane, try to find some better news to forward.

Thanks,

Oliver

 

Oliver Barry CRS,GRI

Real Estate Broker

Bob Parks Realty

1517 Hunt Club Blvd

Gallatin TN 37066

Phone: 615-826-4040

Fax: 615-822-2027

Mobile: 615-972-4239

 

 

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From: gatornews@googlegroups.com [mailto:gatornews@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Shane Ford
Sent: Monday, April 30, 2012 7:50 AM
To: GatorNEWS
Subject: [gatornews] GatorNews From The Gainesville SUN For 4/30, AM Edition

 

'Backs take series from Gators

 

Florida's Austin Maddox walks off the field after striking out against Arkansas at McKethan Stadium in Gainesville, April, 29, 2012.

Brad McClenny/Staff photographer

By Pat Dooley
Gainesville SUN Staff writer

Published: Sunday, April 29, 2012 at 6:43 p.m.

Last Modified: Sunday, April 29, 2012 at 6:43 p.m.

 

 

Kevin O’Sullivan knows his Florida baseball team will turn things around. He hopes it happens soon.

“We’ve been in a funk for awhile now to be honest with you,” said the Florida coach. “Teams do that. We’re not unusual. We’ll get through it and we’ll be a better team for it.”

It has been an April to forget for the Gators, who managed only five hits and struck out 13 times in a 3-1 loss to Arkansas in 10 innings at McKethan Stadium on Sunday.

Florida entered the month with a 24-3 record and a No. 1 ranking. But in April, Florida was a pedestrian 9-9. The good news — the next game will be played in May.

“We haven’t played great in awhile,” O’Sullivan said. “We’ll get out of this. It’s just very hard for us to score runs right now.”

The Gators scored only five runs in the series, scoring in only three of the 27 innings they came to the plate. Florida scored a single run in each of the last two games.

“I’m not sure what is going on right now,” said centerfielder Daniel Pigott. “We have to have better approaches at the plate.”

Arkansas starter DJ Baxendale pitched 7 1/3 innings and the Arkansas bullpen held the Gators hitless.

Mike Zunino had two of Florida’s five hits, one of them an infield single when he beat out a slow roller in the fourth. Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn was ejected while arguing first base umpire Scott Kennedy.

Florida managed to tie the game in the eighth on two singles, a hit batter and Preston Tucker’s ground out. But Zunino grounded out with runners on second and third to end the inning.

“You couldn’t have scripted it any better for us in the eighth,” O’Sullivan said. “We had our guys up there.”

The Razorbacks were shut out for eight straight innings but scored a run in the first and two in the 10th. Pinch-hitter Michael Gunn’s sharp single to right just eluded second baseman Casey Turgeon to bring home the winning run and Florida was unable to turn a double play on a ground ball hit back to reliever Daniel Gibson.

Florida went quietly in the bottom of the inning.

To make matters worse, Florida missed out on a golden opportunity to tighten the SEC race. The top two teams in the SEC — LSU and Kentucky — both lost Sunday, but Florida could not take advantage because of its anemic offense. South Carolina, which has fought back from a 1-5 start in the league, Kentucky and LSU are all tied for the league lead at 14-7 with nine games to play. Florida is 12-9 and 33-12 overall.

The Razorbacks (31-13 and 11-10) scored in the first inning off Florida starter Jonathon Crawford. Dominic Ficociello doubled with two out and came home on Bo Bigham’s RBI single.

Crawford was strong after that, striking four batters in a row at one point and left in the fifth inning after a walk and an error. Steven Rodriguez and Austin Maddox also pitched well in relief, holding the Razorbacks scoreless. Maddox struck out the side in the top of the ninth but after throwing three balls to start the 10th he was lifted for Johnny Magliozzi.

“The last fastball he threw didn’t look right,” O’Sullivan said. “We took him out for precautionary reasons.”

Florida begins a three-game series with Kentucky starting Thursday night in Lexington.

 

 

 

 

 

 

UF SOFTBALL

Gators unable to outlast Kentucky's ace hurler

By Jim Harvin
Gainesville SUN Correspondent

Published: Sunday, April 29, 2012 at 6:01 a.m.

Last Modified: Monday, April 30, 2012 at 12:22 a.m.

 

 

The Florida Gators were probably very happy to see Kentucky's Chanda Bell leave town.

For the second time in a 48-hour period, the Wildcats' senior right-hander had the second-ranked Gators' number, tossing her second complete-game victory of the weekend and matching her season-high with 13 strikeouts in a 5-1, series-clinching win over UF Sunday before a Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium crowd of 1,058.

The weekend's impressive line for Bell: one earned run and 21 strikeouts in 14 innings of work.

Although she was touched for seven hits Sunday – almost twice as many as the four she allowed in a 2-0 shutout in the series opener Friday – Bell (14-10) kept UF batters off balance, striking out the side in three of the first four innings.

“Chanda was exceptional, both Friday and today,” Kentucky head coach Rachel Lawson said. “She's been pitching that well for about the last three weeks, and it's been really awesome to see because she's reached a new level with her game.”

“They've got a good pitching staff, and good pitching staffs win ball games,” UF head coach Tim Walton said. “That was just a good pitcher who was flat-out dealing.”

The Wildcats (26-27, 12-13) jumped in front 1-0 on junior Kara Dill's RBI single in the top of the third off UF sophomore starter Hannah Rogers, but the Gators (43-8, 20-5) got the equalizer in the bottom of the fifth on freshman Lauren Haeger's bases-loaded sacrifice fly.

The next inning proved to be the difference. It started innocently enough as Haeger, who replaced Rogers in the circle in the fifth, sandwiched a pair of strikeouts around a walk.

But UK's No. 9 hitter, Alice O'Brien, stroked a single to put runners on the corners and keep the inning alive. That brought senior Brittany Cervantes to the plate, and she slapped a run-scoring single off the glove of a diving Katie Medina, UF's freshman second baseman, that scored the go-ahead run.

A walk to Dill loaded the bases, and designated player Rachel Riley provided the nail in the coffin with a bases-clearing, three-run double to the left field corner to make it 5-1.

O'Brien (3-for-3) and Dill (2-for-3) led a nine-hit Kentucky attack, while junior catcher Kelsey Horton (2-for-3) paced UF.

“Every win is a good win,” Lawson said. “We're fighting for our postseason lives. We've had a lot of good wins, but our record is kind of a middle of the road thing. We've got to put out another good weekend next weekend (against LSU), but this was awesome for us.

“Florida's such a good program; one of the best, if not the best, in the country. So for us to come into their home and play as well as we did is a real tribute to how hard our team has worked.”

Haeger (13-4) took the loss, giving up four runs, all earned, on four hits over the final three innings in relief of Rogers, who allowed five hits and an unearned run through the first four innings. With the upset, the Wildcats became the first team in nine tries to win a league series against UF this season.

The loss also dropped Florida a game behind No. 4 Alabama (45-5, 21-4), a 5-1 winner over Arkansas, in the overall SEC race. The Gators finish the regular season with a big three-game series beginning Friday against the two-time defending league champs in Tuscaloosa.

“Obviously we've still got a dogfight of a race going on, so it should be a good series,” Walton said. “It's obviously unfortunate that we couldn't take this one here and keep ourselves in control of our own fate, but again, give Kentucky credit. Their pitchers did a good job.”