Friday, home vs Florida (6:00)
Saturday, home vs (2:00)
Sunday, away vs Florida (2:00 - Gainesville, FL)

--------------------------------

No. 1 Florida State Baseball Hosts No. 15 Florida
Friday (6:00 p.m.) and Saturday (2:00 p.m.) at Dick Howser Stadium

March 6, 2003
(Sent to MsNole by Drew Hankin via email)


#1 FLORIDA STATE (17-1)
Florida State remained No. 1 in Monday's Collegiate Baseball and Sports Weekly/ESPN Coaches polls and held at No. 3 in Baseball America after sweeping Charleston Southern last weekend. The Seminoles, who swept Siena in a mid-week series, have won 14 straight games and are off to the best start since the 1982 club began the year 21-1. FSU hosts UF on Friday and Saturday before traveling to Gainesville for Sunday's contest. Senior LHP Matt Lynch (4-0) and Junior LHP Trent Peterson (3-0) will start against Florida on Friday and Saturday in Tallahassee. Junior RHP Eddie Cannon, who struck out nine in six innings of relief last Sunday vs. Charleston Southern, will make his first start as a Seminole at Florida on Sunday. FSU got right fielder Blake Balkcom (out with a quad injury for four weeks) back in the starting lineup this week vs. Siena.


#15 FLORIDA (12-1)
The Gators are on a winning streak of their own, taking their last nine after a February 14th loss to Miami. Florida will start sophomore LHP Mike Pete (1-0, 6.61 ERA) on Friday, sophomore RHP Connor Falkenbach (2-0, 3.38 ERA) on Saturday, and sophomore RHP Justin Hoyman (2-0, 2.11 ERA) on Sunday. 1B C.J. Smith (.428, 5 HR, 17 RBI) and OF Ben Harrison (.490, 3 HR, 23 RBI) lead the Gators offensively.


THE SERIES
Florida State leads the all-time series 105-83, which dates back to 1956. FSU won both games last year, 5-4 in Gainesville and 9-4 in Tallahassee. The series was shortened by a game due to weather. The Seminoles have won eight of the last 10 meetings (2000-present). Mike Martin is 51-38 all-time vs. Florida.


FOLLOWING THE 'NOLES ON THE RADIO & THE WEB
All three games against Florida will be carried live by WFLA News Radio 1270 (FSU's flagship station) in Tallahassee. Lee Bowen and Jim Crosby will begin coverage 15 minutes prior to game time. Live audio broadcasts as well as live stats (Gametracker) can be followed via the internet at http://www.seminoles.com.

PROBABLE STARTING LINEUP
Pos. Player
SS Stephen Drew (.297, 1 HR, 18 RBI)
LF Tony McQuade (.311, 2 HR, 18 RBI)
C Tony Richie (.387, 4 HR, 24 RBI)
1B Jerrod Brown (.344, 1 HR, 14 RBI)
2B Chris Hart (.381, 2 HR, 7 RBI)
3B Eddy Martinez-Esteve (.343, 2 HR, 19 RBI)
DH Derrick Smith (.300, 1 HR, 8 RBI)
or Daniel Wardell (.429, 2 HR, 10 RBI)
RF Blake Balkcom (.409, 1 2B, 5 RBI)
CF Matt Sauls (.245, 3 2B, 10 RBI)

Starting Pitchers
Fri. LHP Matt Lynch (4-0, 3.38 ERA, 25 K)
Sat. LHP Trent Peterson (3-0, 1.42 ERA, 28 K)
Sun. RHP Eddie Cannon (0-0, 1.15 ERA, 17 K)

Sure looks like it's gonna rain in Tallahassee today :frown:

Go Seminoles, Beat those Gators



<!--EDIT|MsNole|Mar 7 2003, 11:31 AM-->

No. 1 Florida State Baseball Drops No. 15 Florida, 5-4

You need to do better today!

Sounds like it was a good game, UF is a big surprise this year!

ASU is now 26-1 they beat Southern Utah(Powerhouse :laugh: ) last night
19-0, they meet again today!Actually ASU plays the Utah Utes today!





<!--EDIT|SDSundevil|Mar 8 2003, 05:30 PM-->

Saturday FSU 9 uf 7


~NOLEY~ :wave:

What a game that was... a BIG come from behind in the 8th inning.

Go Seminoles!!!

Also Cal State Fullerton lost Friday at Minnesota, hopefully they lose two of three to the Gophers, they are ranked in the top 5 in most polls!The Noles are stepping up vs quality opponents.

The gators scored 8 runs in the 1st 3 innings in Gainesville this afternoon in a rain-delayed game with the Seminoles. The Noles hit back-to-back homeruns in the 8th inning. The final score was 9-8 - gators. But the Noles win the series with the gators, taking 2 out of the 3 games.

The Seminoles are now 19-2

Maybe ASU will be #1 in some of the polls now, they were 4-0 over the weekend and are now 28-1!

I was checking some weekend scores and Cal State Fullerton dropped 2 out of 3 at Minnesota, Arizona took 1 of 3 from Texas, Stanford swept Cal, and UCLA took 2 of 3 from USC. Ga Tech went 3-0 over the weekend but have yet to play a upper echelon top 25 type team. So there should be a shakeup in the top five which I suspect will continue over the next couple of weeks.

We went 5-1 during the past week (Tues thru Sunday) so who knows what will happen in the polls... :rolleyes: But here's a rundown on what happened in yesterday's game.


FSU 000 005 030 8 13 1
UF 404 001 00X 9 11 1

W - Hoyman (3-0) L - Cannon (0-1) S - Sanabria (1)

Nole comeback not quite enough
by Drew Hankin

Despite a monumental effort to climb back from an 8-0 deficit, Florida State fell just short of a comeback win over the University of Florida on Sunday with a 9-8 loss. Eddie Cannon (0-1) started the game on the mound for the Seminoles, and the Gator hitters wasted no time jumping on him, with four runs in the first and fourth innings before Cannon was removed from the game. With starter Justin Hoyman mowing down the first seven FSU batters with strikeouts, it looked like the makings of an ugly rout until the sixth inning when the Noles finally put something together.

After a hard liner that Cannon caught to begin the Florida half of the first inning, the Gators rattled off a single, a couple of doubles, and a homerun that quickly put FSU in a 4-0 hole after only one frame. A couple of innings later, the Gators put another four-spot on the board with a walk, a single, a double, and a homerun off of Cannon before Hunter Jones came in to relieve him.

The Seminoles bats woke up in the sixth inning when Tony Richie singled to left-center, Jerrod Brown drew a walk, and Chris Hart singled to right-center to load the bases with no outs. Eddy Martinez-Esteve then cleared the bases with a double to right-center that cut the Gator lead to 8-3. After advancing to third on a throwing error by the Florida catcher, Martinez-Esteve scored on a double by Matt Sauls down the left
field line. Sauls would then score the final run of the inning on a single up the middle by Stephen Drew.

UF picked up what would turn out to be the winning run in the bottom of the inning when thirdbaseman Brett Dowdy homered to right off of Jones. After giving up another single, Jones was pulled in favor of Rhett James who completely shut the Gators down for the final 3+ innings.

After a scoreless seventh, the Noles managed one last rally in the eighth inning when Balkcom led off the inning with a single to left. After Derrick Smith struck out, Matt Sauls launched his second homerun of the season that cut the UF lead to within two runs. Drew followed it up with a homerun of his own, a shot to right-center that made it a 9-8 game before Adam Sanabria came in to shut the door on the Seminole comeback.

With the loss, Florida State's winning streak was snapped at 15 games, and the Noles fell to 19-2 on the season while UF improved to 13-3. After a day off, the Seminoles go back to work by hosting a two-game series with St. Joseph's on Tuesday and Wednesday. First pitch for both games is 6:00.

Section B Online Player of the Game:
Stephen Drew (4-5, 1 R, 2 RBI, 2B, HR)

Looks like Fla was lucky y'all didn't have another at bat!

Some polls

<a href='http://www.baseballnews.com/polls/divI/currentpolldivI.htm' target='_blank'>http://www.baseballnews.com/polls/divI/cur...entpolldivI.htm</a>

<a href='http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/leagues/NCAA/top25.html' target='_blank'>http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/leagu...NCAA/top25.html</a>

<a href='http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/baseball/usatpoll.htm' target='_blank'>http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/bas...ll/usatpoll.htm</a>

Devils are #1 in 2 of three, I expect them to stay top 5 for a while as with FSU. I still think Stanford is dangerous.

SDSundevil Wrote:Some polls

<a href='http://www.baseballnews.com/polls/divI/currentpolldivI.htm' target='_blank'>http://www.baseballnews.com/polls/divI/cur...entpolldivI.htm</a>

<a href='http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/leagues/NCAA/top25.html' target='_blank'>http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/leagu...NCAA/top25.html</a>

<a href='http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/baseball/usatpoll.htm' target='_blank'>http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/bas...ll/usatpoll.htm</a>

Devils are #1 in 2 of three, I expect them to stay top 5 for a while as with FSU. I still think Stanford is dangerous.

I have to agree with you on Stanford. They are a VERY good team.

I sure wish FSU's pitcher Marc LaMacchia would heal and get back in the pitching rotation. He hurt his pitching arm (elbow) and hasn't thrown since Stanford.

The Seminoles play St. Joseph this evening at 6 pm and tomorrow at 6pm too :D

Thanks for posting the polls SDSundevil.