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Locke Booted Off Gators

Posted Jan. 27, 2009 3:32 pm by Aaron Fitt
Filed under: Around The Nation

Florida has dismissed senior righthander Stephen Locke from the team in the wake of his arrest early Saturday morning for drunk driving. Locke, who started Florida’s opening game of the 2005 College World Series before missing all of 2006 with Tommy John surgery, made 12 starts a year ago, second-most on the team. The Gators were planning on using him as their Saturday starter in 2009 once he returned from a knee injury in late March.

Locke’s dismissal means Florida could have two freshmen in the weekend rotation. Lefthander Nick Maronde and rigthy Anthony Desclafani both have the talent and the polish to succeed immediately, but the Gators probably would have felt more comfortable with a senior going on Saturdays.

Locke’s dismissal comes days after Texas coach Augie Garrido received just a four-game suspension for a drunken driving arrest in Austin.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 27, 2009 at 3:32 pm by Aaron Fitt and is filed under Around The Nation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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4 Comments

There must have been prior offenses??? An area player here in town has been busted four times, and now finally released from the team after several embarassments.

Posted by hoosiermama | January 28, 2009 at 10:09 pm | Shortcut

Hoosiermama, who are you talking about?

I follow IU closely and I can’t remember hearing about that at all… at least no among the baseball team

Posted by NMS | January 31, 2009 at 2:50 am | Shortcut

not sure if there were any prior arrest , but in the wake of the situation with arrest of Texas manager for DUI , I feel this may have been to heavy of a penalty for Locke. I also believe that if someone is a head coach / manager the fine sure did not fit the crime. Isn’t that position were the student / player looks for guidance and stability. I think Texas fell way short on doing the right thing for the University (must be looking for wins) and intergrity

Posted by gatorfan | January 31, 2009 at 12:30 pm | Shortcut

Wow, if he had been a football player he wouldn’t even have gotten a slap on the writst!

Posted by cindy | January 31, 2009 at 8:58 pm | Shortcut

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Aaron Fitt is the lead college writer for Baseball America. If you have questions or comments about college baseball you can e-mail him at collegeblog@baseballamerica.com.