The Florida baseball team will meet for the second time this season with rival Florida State tonight at The Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville.
The Seminoles are sporting a 22-2 season record and are ranked No. 6 in Baseball America. On the other hand, the Gators are off to a slow start this season with a record of 11-14.
The Sunshine State rivals meet three times within the year; once in Gainesville, once in Jacksonville, and once in Tallahassee. The first matchup this season in Gainesville resulted in the Gators being defeated 4-1. Florida could not solve Seminole sophomore right-hander Luke Weaver, who pitched 6.1 innings and gave up just three hits and one run. He will start again tonight for FSU.
The Gators are coming off of a 2-1 series defeat from No. 2 Vanderbilt in Nashville last weekend. Florida picked up a 7-1 victory in the Friday night opener but lost 6-1 on Saturday and 5-4 on Sunday.
Florida State heads to Jacksonville on a good note after defeating Georgia Tech 2-1 in a three game home weekend series. FSU lost 10-0 in the Friday night opener, but came back to win the series with an 11-3 win on Saturday and an 8-6 win on Sunday.
Getting the start on the mound for Florida will be freshman right-hander Tucker Simpson(1-1, 4.91). Simpson will be making his sixth career start after picking up the first win out of Florida’s starting pitching staff this season against North Florida on March 19.
Florida’s tentative lineup is as follows:
All of the action of the game can be heard on Country 103-7 The Gator at 5:55pm from Steve Russell and Jeff Cardozo.
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