Gameday Prep: Florida series

by Barca Blog

No. 17 Vanderbilt (23-4, 4-2 SEC) and No. 8 Florida (18-5, 4-2) will meet for a three-game series starting tonight at McKethan Stadium in Gainesville. VU enters the weekend riding an eight-game win streak and has the most wins in the SEC with 23.

Let's get ready for the showdown by looking at stories from around the web:

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David Rutz of VUcommodores.com analyzes the established roles of the Commodore pitching staff.

David Boclair of The City Paper talks with senior catcher Andrew Giobbi about his ability to call pitches during the game.

Jeff Lockridge of The Tennessean writes about freshman Anthony Gomez's unexpected impact in the Commodores every day lineup.

Edward Aschoff of GatorSports.com looks at the recent struggles of Florida, losers of three of the last four games.

Kendall Rogers of Rivals.com lists the matchup as one of 10 intriguing series to watch this weekend.

Check out the official previews with game notes on VUcommodores.com and GatorZone.com.

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The expected weekend rotation is:

Friday at 5:30 p.m. CT
Sonny Gray (R, 4-2, 2.25) vs. Alex Panteliodis (L, 5-1, 2.03)

Saturday at 3 p.m. CT (SUN Sports)
Taylor Hill (R, 3-1, 3.25) vs. Brian Johnson (L, 2-1, 3.42)

Sunday at 12 p.m. CT (SUN Sports)
Jack Armstrong (R, 3-0, 4.70) vs. Hudson Randall (R, 2-2, 5.00)

You can listen to Joe Fisher's radio call live on 560 AM and vucommodores.com for all three games. GatorZone.com will also provide a pay-per-view webcast. The Saturday and Sunday contests will be televised on SUN Sports. Live Events

For Twitter updates, follow @VandyBaseball.

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Quotable No. 1: “It seems like he’s No. 1 on my speed dial lately. He and I communicate very well. … I’ll call him at midnight and wake his kids up if that’s how it has to be.” -- Giobbi on his relationship with pitching coach Derek Johnson (The City Paper)

Quotable No. 2: "I didn't know if he'd even be playing, actually. I just thought he was a guy who was serviceable. Frankly, I thought with his offensive role it would take some time before he jumped into a uniform and played on the weekend." -- head coach Tim Corbin on Gomez's emergence as a freshman (The Tennessean)

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Video of the Day: Hopefully the Commodores will perform better than Jumpin' Jeff Farmer this weekend. (Thanks to SID for the endless supply of rasslin' footage)