Florida is 33-19 vs. FSU under Head Coach Kevin O’Sullivan including wins in 20 of the last 24 meetings.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The No. 3 Florida Gators welcome the Florida State Seminoles to Condron Family Ballpark on Tuesday night at 6 p.m. in the second of three installments in the Sunshine Showdown, presented by Fresh From Florida.
The Gators (27-6, 9-3 SEC) stole the premiere away from the Noles (13-18, 4-11 ACC) in comeback fashion by a score of 9-5 on March 21 in Tallahassee. In the first matchup, Jac Caglianone<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/jac-caglianone/15489> went 4-for-5 with three RBI while Philip Abner<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/philip-abner/15488> and Brandon Neely<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/brandon-neely/15499> combined for 4 1/3 scoreless innings of relief.
Florida has not lost a regular season series to Florida State since 2015 and enters having won 15 of the last 18 and 20 of the previous 24 meetings. The Gators are 33-19 against FSU under Head Coach Kevin O’Sullivan<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/coaches/kevin-o-sullivan/1551> including a 17-3 mark at home. Florida is 65-49 vs. Florida State in Gainesville despite trailing the all-time series, 125-131-1.
Pitching Matchups
Tuesday | 6 p.m. (SECN+)
FSU RHP Ben Barrett (0-0, 4.91)
Florida RHP Ryan Slater<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/ryan-slater/15506> (4-0, 3.80 ERA)
Links WATCH<https://www.espn.com/watch/player?id=130eeee1-6271-47b2-9669-a9736317f777> | LISTEN<https://floridagators.com/watch/?Live=5120&type=Archive>
Florida remained at No. 3 in the D1Baseball Top-25 this week and rank as highly as No. 2 nationally at Baseball America, Perfect Game and the NCBWA. The Gators are also USA Today’s No. 3 team.
SCOUTING THE NOLES
Florida State snapped a 10-game losing streak with a Thursday night win over Clemson, but dropped the following two installments in the series to enter as losers of 12 of their last 13. With a 13-8 (4-11 ACC) record on the season, the Seminoles are slashing .278/.350/.442 as a team while pitching to a 5.45 ERA.
SERIES REFRESH
Each of the last two years, Florida has finished the season series against Florida State with a walk-off home run at Condron Family Ballpark. Last year, the series was tied entering the Gainesville finale with the Gators winning in Jacksonville (6-3) and falling in Tallahassee (5-0), before Sterlin Thompson<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/sterlin-thompson/15108> delivered a 7-5 win on May 17 with his game-winning blast. In 2021, it was Kendrick Calilao<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/kendrick-calilao/15092> who provided the walk-off home run in the 10th inning.
LAST TIME OUT
The Gators are coming off a 3-1 week and have won nine of their last 11 games. Florida posted a Tuesday defeat of Bethune-Cookman (W, 8-4) before taking two of three games at No. 11 Tennessee (W 6-1, W 9-3, L 14-2). Starters Brandon Sproat<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/brandon-sproat/15508> (5.2 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 4 BB, 9 K) and Hurston Waldrep<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/hurston-waldrep/15517> (7.0 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 9 K) earned wins in the first two games at UT, with Josh Rivera<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/josh-rivera/15504>, BT Riopelle<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/bt-riopelle/15503> and Cade Kurland<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/cade-kurland/15514> homering in game one followed by blasts from Wyatt Langford<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/wyatt-langford/15497>, Caglianone, Rivera and Matt Prevesk<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/matt-prevesk/15501> – who finished with a career-high four RBI – in game two. When Luke Heyman<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/luke-heyman/15522> hit a two-run shot in the finale, he became the seventh different Gator to homer in the series.
ATLANTIC TOAST
Florida is 3-1 this season vs. teams from the Atlantic Coast Conference (Miami: 2-1, FSU: 1-0). The Gators are also 10-2 against teams whose campuses are located on the Atlantic Ocean coast (Charleston Southern: 3-0, Miami: 2-1, FAU: 2-0, Jacksonvile: 2-1, UNF: 1-0).
RELENTLESS REPTILES
13 of Florida’s wins this season have been in comeback fashion, matching last year’s 66-game total of 13 come-from-behind victories. After going 0-20 last season when trailing after six innings, Florida is 2-4 in that scenario already in 2023. Even more impressively, the Gators are 11-3 when the opponent scores first this season, compared to 11-15 last year.
NON-CON RESUME
Off to a 18-3 start (.857) this season, Florida went 20-5 (.800) against non-conference regular season opponents in 2022. That mark featured a 19-3 record following the opening weekend of the year. Adding the totals together, UF is 37-6 across its previous 43 non-conference games (.860).
SLATER-AID
Tuesday starter Ryan Slater<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/ryan-slater/15506> is making his fifth-career start including his second of the 2023 campaign. In his first start of the year, the Palm Harbor, Fla. native held Jacksonville to one run on three hits over four innings, striking out four. In his last three appearances, Slater owns a 1.08 ERA, .167 batting average against and 11 strikeouts against one walk across 8 1/3 innings. Coincidentally, he was the winning pitcher when Florida walked off FSU at home on May 17 of last season.
OFFENSIVE JUGGERNAUT
Florida is found near the top of the leaderboard for nearly every offensive statistic, ranking top-five nationally in runs (third – 315), home runs (third – 73), slugging percentage (third – .599), hits (fourth – 364) and triples (fourth – 17). The Gators also rank ninth in the NCAA with a .319 batting average (second in SEC). Florida paces the SEC in hits, slugging, triples, at bats and total bases, as the Gators’ 682 bases are 73 more than the next-closest team (South Carolina, 609).
GOLDEN SPIKES
Rivera and Caglianone were named to the Golden Spikes Midseason Watch List on April 5. The duo was among 24 players to be added to the Midseason List, which now sits at 45 athletes.
PEN PALS
The relief duo of Abner and Neely has been particularly dominant across the last 19 games, helping to anchor a bullpen turnaround that has produced an 8-0 record, seven saves, 3.12 ERA, .218 batting average against and 11.4 strikeouts per nine. In that span, Abner is 3-0 with one save and a percect 0.00 ERA to pair with a .218 batting average against and 13.2 strikeouts per nine. Neely has posted four saves in that time to the tune of a 1.29 ERA, .208 BAA and a 13.5 K/9. Neely (6-for-6) is tied for 14th in the NCAA with an SEC-leading six saves.
OUR RIVERA RUNS THRU IT
Rivera leads UF with a .398 batting average, 45 runs (T-second in NCAA) and 11 stolen bases, having already set career highs in the latter two categories along with homers (13) and RBI (46). The Avon Park, Fla. native ranks top-10 in the SEC in runs (second), RBI (fourth, T-12th in NCAA), hits (T-fifth, 49), batting (sixth), home runs (T-sixth) total bases (T-sixth, 94), slugging (eighth, .764) and on-base percentage (T-eighth, .500). Perhaps most impressively, Rivera is hitting even better in SEC play, .404/.491/.766, ranking fourth in the SEC in batting and slugging. As one of two Gators to start all 33 games, Rivera has drawn more walks (23) than strikeouts (16).
FILLING UP FRAMES
Now 33 games into the season, the Gators are still scoring in exactly half of their batted innings at 50.0% (132 of 264). Florida has a run differential of plus-144, averaging 9.5 runs/game and 11.0 hits/game.
CAGLIAGONERS
Caglianone remains atop the national leaderboard with 19 home runs, two ahead of former teammate Kris Armstrong<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/kris-armstrong/15090> of Jacksonville. Caglianone has four more homers than any player in the SEC while leading the conference with an .899 slugging percentage.
GATORBOMBS
Florida’s 73 home runs are on pace for 121 in the regular season alone and 146 across 66 games – the length of the 2022 season. The school record of 132 home runs was set in 1998. UF has homered in six-straight games entering Tuesday.
ON DECK
Florida hosts Georgia this weekend in a three-game series from Friday, May 14 through Sunday, May 16. Game two airs on SEC Network at 7 p.m. on Saturday while the other installments stream on SEC Network+ on Friday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m.
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