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Florida Baseball: No. 1-ranked Gators host Sunshine State foe No. 19 Florida Atlantic Tuesday night

By Andrew Schutte

Jun 17, 2015; Omaha, NE, USA; Florida Gators outfielder Buddy Reed (23) celebrates with pitcher Kirby Snead (13) after hitting a home run during the first inning against the Miami Hurricanes in the 2015 College World Series at TD Ameritrade Park. Mandatory Credit: Steven Branscombe-USA TODAY Sports
Jun 17, 2015; Omaha, NE, USA; Florida Gators outfielder Buddy Reed (23) celebrates with pitcher Kirby Snead (13) after hitting a home run during the first inning against the Miami Hurricanes in the 2015 College World Series at TD Ameritrade Park. Mandatory Credit: Steven Branscombe-USA TODAY Sports /
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Florida baseball seeks its 24th consecutive home victory Tuesday night before it begins its four-game road stretch.

The top-ranked Florida Gators (21-1) will complete a nine-game home stretch when they host the No. 19 Florida Atlantic Owls (15-3) Tuesday at 7 PM in McKethan Stadium.

Following their meeting with the Owls, the Gators will travel to Kentucky over Easter weekend and then face No. 11 Florida State next Tuesday at The Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville.

Drawing the start for the Gators for the third time this season is freshman right-hander Jackson Kowar (2-0, 3.38). He’ll oppose FAU redshirt sophomore David McKay (2-1, 5.40). Kowar has made six appearances and two starts in 2016 and he’s totaled 20 strikeouts and four walks in a 16-inning span. His last start came against North Florida on March 9, where he recorded a relatively solid performance (6.0 innings pitched, four hits, two runs, four strikeouts and one walk).

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Florida Gators

Florida enters Tuesday’s contest coming off of a sweep over Missouri to open SEC play, extending its winning streak to 15 games now (second-longest in school history).

In that matchup, the Gators’ pitching staff — which currently boasts a 2.51 earned run average — registered 44 strikeouts over 28 innings against the Tigers. Florida’s trio of starters — junior right-hander Logan Shore (4-0, 2.23), junior lefty A.J. Puk (1-1, 1.88) and sophomore RHP Alex Faedo (5-0, 2.61) — accounted for 30 of those strikeouts and walked only two batters in 18 innings.

Meanwhile, junior righty Shaun Anderson (3-0, 1.15) was called upon in all three games of the series and delivered a win in Friday’s opener and notched a pair of saves. In over 3.1 innings, he totaled six strikeouts and allowed only a single hit. So far, Anderson has 21 Ks and zero walks in 15.2 innings of play. Additionally, the Gators have an impressive fielding percentage of .982 as a team.

The Gators also improved their hitting to .307 after defeating Mizzou in the weekend set. Sophomore catcher Mike Rivera (.292, 24 RBI) led Florida in its first league series by going 5-for-9 (.556) with five RBI. Junior center fielder Buddy Reed (.308, 19 runs, 13 walks) and freshman third baseman Jonathan India (.323, 13 runs, 8 RBI) performed well in the SEC debut as well, going 5-for-11 (.455) and 4-for-11 (.364), respectively.

Florida is 16-0 at home and 10-1 (.909) against Sunshine State opponents this season: 3-0 vs. Florida Gulf Coast, 2-1 vs. No. 6 Miami (Fla.), 2-0 vs. Central Florida, 2-0 vs. North Florida and 1-0 vs. No. 11 Florida State.

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UF head coach Kevin O’Sullivan is 7-2 (.778) against FAU, including 5-2 (.714) in Gainesville and a perfect 2-0 (1.000) at neutral sites. Overall, the Gators have claimed 22 of the 29 (.759) meetings with the Owls and hold a 17-5 (.773) advantage in Gainesville.

The game can be heard through the Gator IMG Sports Network and will be streamed live SEC Network+ through the Watch ESPN app. Live stats will be available via FloridaGators.com.

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