Baseball Blanks South Florida 6-0
Feb. 19, 2000
Coral Gables, FL – University of Miami starting pitcher Brian Walker (1-1) pitched a career-best six innings with six strikeouts in leading the No. 10 Hurricanes (7-5) to a 6-0 shutout victory over South Florida (4-5) in the second game of a three-game series at Mark Light Stadium.
With the Saturday win, plus Friday night’s 8-3 UM victory, the Hurricanes have now won 14 consecutive three-game series and 31 of their last 32. At Mark Light Stadium, UM has now won 37 of its last 38 three-game series. Miami has not lost a three-game series since Florida State took two-of-three games in Coral Gables in 1998.
The Hurricanes jumped out first with one run in the second inning, when first baseman Kevin Brown scored from third off a Chad Strong sacrifice fly to centerfield. Brown reached base with his first of two doubles on the evening.
UM put three more runs on the scoreboard in the fifth inning to open up its lead to 4-0. Centerfielder Mike Rodriguez singled to get on and moved to second on a Marcus Nettles sacrifice hit. USF starter John Vigue (1-2) then threw a wild pitch to allow Rodriguez to advance to third, but USF catcher Vince Parisi tried to get him on his way to third and overthrew teammate Mike Elyward allowing the UM base-runner to score.
Later in the fifth, right fielder Manny Crespo reached base with a single then stole second. The next batter, Lale Esquivel, took a 2-2 pitch over the left-centerfield wall to open up the 4-0 margin. The home run was Esquivel’s team-leading fourth of the season.
In the eighth, Strong would double in catcher Greg Lovelady from second base. Lovelady reached second in his team leading fifth double of the year. Strong, making his first career start at Miami playing third, also recorded his first two RBI’s of his UM career. Strong would also score from second base, following a pinch-hit single by Mark Walker.
Vigue took the loss for the Bulls, going six innings and allowing nine hits, four runs (three earned), and a walk with six strikeouts.
UM closer Luke DeBold finished up the final 1.1 innings for the Hurricanes third consecutive win of the season.
Miami and South Florida meet in the final game of the series on Sunday at 1 p.m. SportsChannel Florida will televise the game.
