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The No. 8 Florida Gator baseball team clinched their third-straight SEC sweep over No. 20 Alabama last weekend and look to do it again as they play host to No. 10 Vanderbilt this weekend. After a midweek loss to No. 24 Mercer, the Gators look to continue on their 11-game SEC winning streak as they enter their second-to-last conference series.
This past weekend the Gators offense went 31-for-100 (.310), with a 24-9 scoring edge, and drew 21 walks. They were led by NBCWA National Hitter of the Week and the SEC Player of the Week, Casey Turgeon (.270, 29 RBI, 29 runs). He went 8-for-11, with four walks, three runs, two RBI, two doubles, and a pair of sacrifice hits. Florida was also led by freshman left fielder Ryan Larson (.250, 7 RBI) who went 4-for-8 with three runs.
The Orange and Blue (33-16/18-6 SEC) enter this series leading No. 14 Ole Miss (35-14/15-9 SEC) by three games and have a four-game lead in the Eastern Division over South Carolina.
Vanderbilt is four games behind Florida in the SEC East at 36-13 overall and 14-10 in the SEC but the Commodores also come off a sweep of their own after taking all three against Missouri last weekend. Like Florida, the Commodores come off a mid-week loss as they dropped a game against Louisville.
Logan Shore will start on the mound for Florida on Friday with a pitcher to be determined on Saturday and Karsten Whitson pitching on Sunday. Vandy will counter with all right handed starters over the series with Tyler Beede (7-5, 3.60 ERA) starting Thursday. Games times are at 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, 7 p.m. on Friday, and 12 p.m. on Saturday.
Under coach Kevin O’Sullivan Florida is 16-9 against Vanderbilt, but 8-1 in Gainesville. This weekend’s matchup against Vanderbilt is the first top-10 series between teams in Gainesville since No. 7 LSU back on April 5-7, 2012.
