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The Florida baseball is traveling to Jacksonville this afternoon in their attempt to go 2-0 against their Sunshine State Rivals, Florida State, in a 6 p.m. solo contest.
The Gators (16-9, 2-5 SEC) earned the 1-0 victory in the teams’ last matchup with the only run coming from a check swing from Jonathan India in McKethan Stadium.
Last weekend, Florida earned a series win against LSU but will look to shake off their 10-6 loss from Sunday afternoon against the Tigers. JJ Schwarz is hopeful that the team will show up tonight using the momentum from the first two games of the weekend series.
Florida at the plate
The Florida offense looked to be getting back on track this weekend. Although the team is batting just .243 on the season thus far, with Ryan Larson the only hitter with an average above .300, the Gators made some strides at the plate this weekend with a number of players coming up with clutch hits. Catcher Mike Rivera and Schwarz led the team in RBIs over the series, with both finishing with three on the weekend. Nelson Maldonado also broke out and hit his first homer of the year on Sunday. The team has a total of 17 home runs this season, and is led by Jonathan India with three.
Seminoles Strategy
Florida State (18-7 6-3 ACC) had starter Andrew Karp face the Gators in their matchup earlier this month and Karp will return to the mound for the start this evening. Karp held the Gators through six scoreless innings allowing only one run and striking out 11 in his seven innings of work. Karp has an ERA of 4.10 allowing only one home run and nineteen hits in his 26.1 innings of work this season.
FSU is coming off of their first weekend series sweep on the road against an ACC team since 2014 and is looking to tack another win on their mid-week scheduled games tonight.
Sunshine Showdown
Florida State has been unable to score a run against Florida in their last 31 innings and freshman Garrett Milchin will look to continue this streak in his first career start for Florida. The game will take place at Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville.
