BULLS BEGIN MAY WITH TOP-25 SHOWDOWN AT NO. 1 FLORIDA May 07, 2018
Matchup: No. 22 USF (29-15, 11-7 The American) at No. 1 Florida (38-11, 18-6 SEC)
Date: Tuesday, May 8Time: 6 p.m.Location: Gainesville, Fla. | Alfred A. McKethan Stadium (6,244)Follow: Stats | Listen | Watch (SECN+)TAMPA, May 7, 2018 – Rested following a rare bye week, the University of South Florida baseball team opens a stretch of eight-consecutive road games to close out the regular season at No. 1 Florida, Tuesday at 6 p.m. on the SEC Network +. The Bulls (29-15, 11-7 The American) closed out April and the final week at home winning 3-of-4 against Bethune-Cookman and Memphis. For a third-straight week, the Bulls find themselves in the top-25 of four major polls, which includes a No. 22 ranking according to Perfect Game, a No. 23 ranking according to Baseball America and the 24th spot in D1Baseball's top-25.Junior outfielder Kyle Phillips (Orlando) hit .500 against the Tigers and classmate Coco Montes(Miami) hit .308 with a team-best four RBI. Junior David Villar (Pembroke Pines, Fla.) hit two homers in the first game of the series, the second game he has smashed a pair of blasts this season. Lefty All-American Shane McClanahan (Cape Coral, Fla.) was named to the American Athletic Conference Weekly Honor Roll on April 30 after logging a season and career-long 7.0 innings in Game 1 against Memphis. He struck out 13 and allowed only three hits to guide the Bulls to a 4-2 win. McClanahan leads the country with 15.21 strikeouts per nine innings, is seventh nationally with 107 strikeouts and sixth with 4.97 hits allowed per nine innings.Sophomore lefty Noah Yager (Davie, Fla.) will start Tuesday. It'll be his first start of the season. Yager allowed just seven hits and two earned run over 12.2 innings with three walks and 19 strikeouts. On April 17 against UNF, Yager got the win out of the bullpen, pitching the final 5.1 scoreless innings and compiling a career-best 10 K's. SERIES HISTORYTuesday marks the 88th meeting between the Bulls and Gators. Florida holds a 61-25 edge in the all-time series and 38-9 advantage in Gainesville. But USF defeated Florida on the road last year, 15-10, ending what was a six-game slide. It was the second-most runs that the Bulls had scored against the Gators, and the most since 1989. The two sides met in the 2017 Gainesville Regional in June as the top two seeds, but UF got by the Bulls in a 12-inning battle, 5-1.SCOUTING REPORTThe 2018 Gators are considered to be even better than the team that won the national title in 2017. Sitting at 38-11 and 18-6 in the competitive SEC, Florida enters the week ranked No. 1 and led by one of the best players in the nation, junior Jonathan India. He is hitting .392 with 15 home runs, 53 runs scored, 10 doubles and 38 RBI. Senior JJ Schwarz is hitting .317 with 14 doubles, 46 runs and 41 RBI. Wil Dalton is seventh in the nation with 16 homers and leads the Gators with 48 RBI.The pitching staff leads the SEC with a 3.14 ERA and 7.32 hits allowed per nine innings. Righty Tyler Dyson has been in the weekend rotation for most of the year and will get the start Tuesday. He is 5-3 with a 3.78 ERA and 51 strikeouts in 50.0 inning pitched. Michael Byrne holds a 1.46 ERA with 11 saves in 23 appearances to lead the UF bullpen. NOTA-BULLS
Villar still leads the Bulls with a .373 average to sit second in The American. He is second in the league with 17 doubles and third with his 11 home runs.
The Bulls are tops in The American with a .290 team average and a .458 slugging, and they are second in scoring at 6.2 runs per. USF is also second with 435 hits and it is sixth nationally with 110 doubles.
USF's pitching leads the conference and is fourth in the country with 10.3 strikeouts per nine innings.