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The sixth ranked Florida Gator baseball team welcomes the Kentucky Wildcats to McKethan Stadium for a three game series this weekend. The Gators are tied for first in the SEC East with Vandy and Missouri, while the Wildcats sit at fourth.
Both teams are riding four game winning streaks; the Gators swept Mississippi State last weekend and squeaked by Bethune-Cookman Tuesday night 2-1. Kentucky took all three games at home against Tennessee last weekend and defeated Xavier Tuesday night. During the Wildcat four game winning streak their pitchers have been dominant, posting a 1.00 ERA while holding opponents to a .202 average.
Kentucky head coach Gary Henderson says the pitching has carried the team lately.
“Well we’ve pitched pretty well over the last five games. We had a little hiccup like a lot of teams do in the middle of the SEC season, but it has been a lot better the last 10 days and hopefully we can continue to pitch well.”
The Gators have got it done in all aspects of the game this season. They have a team batting average of .304, a team ERA of 3.26, and lead the nation with a fielding percentage of .985. Florida has played error free baseball in 22 of their 42 games this season.
Henderson says the Gators don’t have a weak aspect to their game.
“Well they’re really balanced and talented. They’ve been good at the front of the game and they’ve got a lot of depth in the pen. They can divide the game up on you and match you up a little with the bullpen. Not a lot different than a lot of the Gator clubs you see; a really talented group.”
For Game One of the series the Gators send sophomore ace Logan Shore to the mound (6-2, 2.29) to oppose Wildcat starter Zack Brown (3-4, 3.13). Sophomore Dane Dunning (4-1, 3.02) gets the start for the Orange and Blue in Game Two and he will go up against junior right-hander Dustin Beggs (5-2. 2.78). Neither team has announced a starter for the final game of the series.
The last time these two clubs met was in Lexington last season where the Wildcats took the series two games to one. First pitch in game one of this series is Friday night at 7pm but tune into ESPN 850 WRUF at 6:55 to catch the call with Jeff Cardozo and Steve Russell.
Sound from Kentucky head coach Gary Henderson below:
