Miami Hosts Alumni in Annual Matchup at The Light
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The 2016 Miami Hurricanes took the field for their annual matchup with Hurricanes Alumni Saturday night, emerging with a 17-4 victory at Alex Rodriguez Park at Mark Light Field.
Roughly 2,000 fans made their way through the gates for Fan Fest and the Alumni Game, which featured a number of Hurricanes greats taking part in Baseball Alumni Weekend.
Introduced in pregame ceremonies were 2015 MLB All-Star and Los Angeles Dodgers catcher Yasmani Grandal, former Florida Marlins first-round MLB Draft pick and Hurricanes retired number honoree Charles Johnson, 13-year MLB veteran Orlando Palmeiro and 2015 Miami staff ace and San Francisco Giants minor leaguer Andy Suarez, among others.
Roughly 50 former Canes were introduced during pregame ceremonies.
The Alumni team featured several current minor leaguers – including Dale Carey (Washington Nationals), Garrett Kennedy (Los Angeles Dodgers), and Chantz Mack and Ricky Eusebio (Seattle Mariners). Alex Prendes, a two-time national champion lefthander at Miami (1999 and 2001), got the start on the mound for the Alumni.
Other players taking part in the game included “Downtown” Kevin Brown, former MLB outfielder Brian Barton, former All-ACC outfielder Nathan Melendres, fan favorite Jose Trujillo, and sidewinder Sam Abrams, who was pivotal in Miami’s run to the College World Series in 2015 with his work out of the bullpen.
The 2016 Hurricanes scored runs in each of the first four innings to jump out to an early commanding lead, including a four-run second inning and a six-run third.
Preseason All-America Zack Collins opened the scoring with a sacrifice fly off Prendes in the first inning. An RBI single from Johnny Ruiz made it 2-0 with one out in the second, while Carl Chester followed with a two-run single to center to pad Miami’s lead.
Two errors by the Alumni keyed Miami’s six-run third inning. Collins had his second sacrifice fly of the night in the frame.
A number of Hurricanes made their debuts Saturday night: freshman Romy Gonzalez started at third, freshmen Isaiah Musa and Frankie Bartow pitched in relief, redshirt freshman Ryan Alvarez saw time in right field, juniors Barry Buchowski and Joe Gomez entered the game in the middle innings, freshman Alex MacDonagh worked behind the plate, junior Randy Batista entered and played second base, while redshirt freshman Keven Pimentel pitched a scoreless ninth.
Chester, who hit leadoff for Miami, finished the game 3-for-6 with four RBI. Ruiz went 3-for-4 with four runs scored, while redshirt junior Edgar Michelangeli scored three runs and sophomore Peter Crocitto added three RBI.
