Baseball 5/23/2017 11:27:00 AM

No. 4 North Florida Prepares for No. 3 Florida Gulf Coast

DELAND, Fla. -- The North Florida baseball team collected the fourth seed in the upcoming ASUN Championship and will face off against No. 3 Florida Gulf Coast on Wednesday at 3 p.m at Melching Field.

UNF Game Notes (PDF)

GAME DAY CENTRAL
WHAT: North Florida (33-22) vs. Florida Gulf Coast (37-17)
WHERE: Melching Field at Conrad Park (2,500)
WHEN: Wednesday, May 24 (3 p.m.)
THE SERIES: UNF 24-12
LAST MEETING: In last year's series, UNF took the sweep in the regular season (G1 UNF 11-10 (12) | G2 UNF 6-3 | G3 UNF 12-6) before FGCU won in the ASUN Championship (3-2). The Ospreys completed the regular season sweep again this season (G1 UNF 6-3 | G2 UNF 8-2 | G3 UNF 10-5) at home.

FOLLOWING THE ACTION
WATCH: ESPN3
LIVE STATS: StatBraodcast
TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE: ASUN Bracket

MOUND MATCH-UPS
Friday
UNF - Cooper Bradford (RHP, 1-3, 2.57 ERA, 49.0 IP, 19 BB, 49 K)
FGCU - Kutter Crawford (RHP, 6-1, 1.76 ERA, 72.1 IP, 25 BB, 81 K)

NOTEWORTHY
- Ospreys opened the 2017 season with 26 of first 32 games at home including seven consecutive weekends of home series
- UNF ended the season with three-straight series losses against USC Upstate (May 5-7), Stetson (May 12-14) and Jacksonville (May 18-20). The Ospreys have series sweeps of Penn (Mar. 3-5), NJIT (Apr. 13-15) and FGCU (Apr. 21-23)... The Ospreys split both of their four-game series this year against Northeastern and Rutgers
- North Florida claimed the opening game in 8 of their 13 weekend series.
- UNF has been most explosive in the 1st inning (46 runs)... Ospreys are outscoring opponents 91-44 over the first two innings of games
- Ospreys have held 16 opponents under 3 runs scored, owning an 18-4 record when accomplishing that feat
- UNF is 24-6 when scoring first and own a 17-4 record when tallying runs in their first at-bat
- STREAKING: Alex Merritt leads the team and holds a seven-game hit streak with a 13-game on base streak.. Chris Thibideau has hits in 22 of the last 27 games... Patrick Ervin has reached base in 20 of 22 games... Chris Berry has reached base in 45 of the 49 games he has played... Merritt leads UNF with 24 multi hit games, while Yahir Gurrola and Ervin are right behind with 22.
ASUN RISING: North Florida leads the ASUN Offensive rankings in Batting Avg, Hits and Doubles, they rank second in Runs and RBI and third in Total Bases, Slug % and On Base %... On the Mound, UNF leads the conference in ERA, runs allowed, runners picked off and doubles allowed... UNF also features the top fielding team in the conference and have committed the fewest errors
- Four Ospreys are ranked in ASUN Top 10 for hitting: Patrick Ervin (2nd), Alex Merritt (4th), Chris Thibideau (9th), Yahir Gurrola (10th).. Gurrola tops the league charts in Runs, Doubles and Total Bases, sits tied for second in Hits and RBI and is fourth in Slug % and HR... Merritt is in the top 10 in: Hits (T2), Doubles (4), RBI (6) and Total Bases (9)... Thibideau is in the top 10 in: Doubles (T1), Stolen Bases (4), Total Bases (T6), Slug % (7), Hits (7) and HR(8) Total Bases (2), Runs (T4), Hits (6), Slug % (7) and HR (T8).
-FACE THE NATION: UNF is currently listed in NCAA Top 50 for Hits (26th), Batting Avg (35th) and ERA (33rd)... Gurrola ranks 18th in runs, T52th in total bases and T64th in Doubles and T68th in hits.

SCOUTING FLORIDA GULF COAST
Roster | Schedule | Statistics | Notes

UP NEXT
If the Ospreys win, they will take on the winner of Stetson and Kennesaw on Thursday at 7 p.m. If North Florida loses, they will play the winner of Jacksonville and Lipscomb on Thursday at 3 p.m.

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Players Mentioned

#21 Chris Berry: UTL; 6' 0"; Sophomore; L/R

#3 Patrick Ervin: 2B; 6' 0"; Redshirt Senior; L-R

#4 Alex Merritt: INF; 6' 1"; Senior; R-R

#15 Chris Thibideau: UTL; 6' 0"; Senior; R/R

#7 Cooper Bradford: RHP; 6' 1"; Freshman; R/R

#20 Yahir Gurrola: OF; 6' 0"; Junior; R/R

Players Mentioned

#21 Chris Berry
: 6' 0"; Sophomore; L/R
: UTL

#3 Patrick Ervin
: 6' 0"; Redshirt Senior; L-R
: 2B

#4 Alex Merritt
: 6' 1"; Senior; R-R
: INF

#15 Chris Thibideau
: 6' 0"; Senior; R/R
: UTL

#7 Cooper Bradford
: 6' 1"; Freshman; R/R
: RHP

#20 Yahir Gurrola
: 6' 0"; Junior; R/R
: OF