Hurricanes To Play In Homestead Challenge

Feb. 20, 2002

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University of Miami Hurricanes (5-4)#7 Baseball America, #12 Baseball Weekly/ESPN, #16 Collegiate Baseball and #18 NCBWAat the Homestead Challenge
vs.
FIU Golden Panthers (7-1)#25 Collegiate Baseball, #30 Baseball Weekly/ESPN and #30 NCBWA
vs.
Kansas State Wildcats (3-0)Lipscomb Bison
Friday: FSN (TV), WQAM, WACC (Spanish), WVUM
Saturday: WVUM
Sunday: WQAM, WVUM
Game #10-11, February 22-23, 2002 – Homestead Sports Complex
Game #12, February 24, 2002 – Mark Light Stadium

MIAMI AT THE HOMESTEAD CHALLENGE – The 2002 season marksthe fifth consecutive year Miami has participated in the Homestead Chal-lengeat the Homestead Sports Complex. Miami is 10-1 in HomesteadChallenge games dating back to 1998. Most notable is that five of the topsix paid attendance games at the Homestead Sports Complex, including theall-time high, are Miami games. The Miami/FIU game in 2000 drew aHomestead Challenge-best 3,861, while UM’s two games with FIU in 2001drew the No. 2 (2,782) and No. 3 (2,317) attendance marks. The Hurri-caneshave also placed three players on Homestead Challenge All-Tourna-mentteams, including Kiki Bengochea in 2001, Kevin Howard in 2000 andDaryl Roque in 1999.

The Hurricanes began play at the Homestead Challenge in thetournament’s second season, 1998, with an 8-6 victory over Drexel in frontof the No. 6 crowd (1,861). In UM’s 1999 National Championship season,the Hurricanes played in back-to-back games defeating Marist, 15-1, andfalling to Iowa, 9-3. The Iowa game drew the fourth-most fans at theChallenge (1,703). The 2000 season saw UM play three games at theChallenge, defeating Eastern Michigan in back-to-back nights, 10-1 and 9-1,and FIU, 5-2.

For the first time last season, Miami hosted Homestead Challengegames at Mark Light Stadium as the Hurricanes defeated Albany, Pitts-burghand Cornell at the Light. At the Homestead Complex the Hurricanesdefeated FIU twice, 10-2 and 2-0, in back-to-back games to open the Chal-lenge.Game No. 1 saw UM score nine runs over the first four innings,including four in the first. Brian Walker went a career-high 8.0 innings onthe mound. The Hurricanes pounded five extra-base hits, including twodoubles and three home runs. In game No. 2 vs. FIU, Bengochea recordedthe first complete-game shutout for Miami during the Jim Morris era.Miami scored once in the first and again in the eighth to hold off the GoldenPanthers. The game began with Javy Rodriguez stealing second, third andhome plate for the early 1-0 lead. Charlton Jimerson hit an eighth inninghome run for the game’s other score.

Miami at the Homestead Challenge
3/21/01 Cornell W 2-1 (10) Mark Light Stadium
3/7/01 Pittsburgh W 6-2 Mark Light Stadium
2/25/01 Albany W 14-0 Mark Light Stadium
2/24/01 FIU W 2-0 Homestead Complex
2/23/01 FIU W 10-2 Homestead Complex
3/28/00 FIU W 5-2 Homestead Complex
2/27/00 E. Michigan W 9-1 Homestead Complex
2/26/00 E. Michigan W 10-1 Homestead Complex
3/20/99 Iowa L 9-3 Homestead Complex
3/19/99 Marist W 15-1 Homestead Complex
3/25/98 Drexel W 8-6 Homestead Complex

THIS YEARS’ HOMESTEAD CHALLENGE OPPONENTS — TheHurricanes will face FIU and Kansas State in back-to-back nights on Feb.22-23 at the Homestead Sports Complex and Lipscomb University atMark Light Stadium on Feb. 24. UM is 81-19 against FIU all-time and willbe facing Kansas State and Lipscomb for the first time.

MIAMI/FIU ONCE AGAIN OPEN THE CHALLENGE — Last season,Miami and FIU opened up the Homestead Challenge with the Orange BowlClassic as the game sponsor. Once again, the two schools will open up theannual one-month, 300-game tournament. Earlier this season, on Feb. 6,FIU handed Miami a 7-1 loss at a sold-out University Park. FIU out-hitMiami 13-6 and scored three runs in the first and seventh innings to hold offthe Hurricanes.

THE MIAMI/FIU SERIES — Miami leads the all-time series with FIU,81-19, dating back to the 1973 season. The series is the third-longest on-goingrivalry on the UM baseball schedule behind Florida (1940) and FloridaState (1951). Miami has won 12 of the past 17 meetings with FIU, includ-ingfive of the past seven. Last season, Miami took three of four meetings.Head Coach Jim Morris is 20-9 vs. FIU since coming to Miami in 1994.

MIAMI VS. THE SUN BELT — Miami has forged an all-time record of117-36 against teams currently in the Sun Belt Conference.

THE MIAMI/FLORIDA MARLINS SERIES — The 2001 College Series Champion Miami Hurricanes will host an exhibition game against Major League Florida Marlins at Mark Light Stadium on the UM campus,Wednesday, March 6 at 3:05 p.m.

The Hurricanes earned the right to play Florida in exhibition play, to finishing the 2001 season as the top-ranked team in the state of Florida.

The Marlins will play one exhibition game per spring training season the state’s highest-ranked college program the previous season. The Mar-linsseason.

Miami has played 21 exhibition games against Major League ball 1950, not including professional minor league clubs. UM is 1-20 in games with its lone victory coming against the Baltimore Orioles, 1982. The Hurricanes are 0-5 against the Marlins since the 1995 season.

In the two programs last meeting on April 1, 2000, Florida handed 1999 Defending National Champion Miami Hurricanes a 12-6 defeat front of 4,022 fans at Mark Light Stadium. Five current Hurricanes action in that 2000 game, including Troy Roberson, Javy Rodriguez, Howard, Danny Matienzo and Kiki Bengochea.

Roberson pitched the final inning allowing just one hit in four faced. Bengochea saw 4.0 innings of relief work, allowing five hits, runs (one earned), two walks and one strikeout. At the plate, Howard for-4, run scored) and Matienzo (2-for-5) both led the team with performances, while each had two RBI. Rodriguez went 1-for-2 with scored, one RBI and a stolen base.

HURRICANE BATS GET REVIVED IN MINNESOTA SERIES —Miami entered the series with Minnesota with a team batting average of.251 (50-for-199) over the season’s first six games. Additionally, UM had30 runs scored, 10 doubles, zero triples, four home runs and 29 RBI. Theteam’s slugging percentage was .362 and base runners only had five steals.Following the three games with Minnesota, UM’s offensive numbersdoubled, tripled and quadrupled in the various columns.

INDIVIDUAL BATTING AVERAGES JUMP FOLLOWINGMINNE-SOTA SERIES — The Hurricanes had several players step up and en-hancetheir offensive statistics following three games against Minnesota incomparison to the season first six games.

MIAMI SWEEPS MINNESOTA — The Hurricanes pulled of their firstthree-game sweep of the 2002 season with three victories over visitingMinnesota (10-4, 21-17 and 7-6). The three wins over the Golden Gopherspushed UM’s record to 14-3 since the 1981 season.

Series Highlights

• Coach Morris earned his 900th D-1 victory in game No. 1. He is among 16 current D-1 head coaches to have done so.
• The Hurricanes had season-high numbers in each offensive categoryon Friday and again on Saturday. Saturday’s offense was the most by Miami since defeating Tennessee 21-13 on June 9, 2001 in the CWS.
• The line-up took a shuffle for the weekend with Matt Dryer playing at 3B from 1B, Javy Rodriguez moving to 2B from SS, Kevin Howard moving from 3B to SS, Haas Pratt from DH to 1B, Danny Matienzo from C to DH and Erick San Pedro at C.
• Danny Matienzo (5), Kevin Howard (4) and Jim Burt (3) accounted for the Hurricanes 12 home runs in the series, quadrupling the season total to 16. Matienzo had two in each of the first two games and one in the third.Howard had one in the first two games and two on Sunday, including a walk-off shot to lead off the bottom of the ninth on the first pitch. Burt hadone on Friday and two on Saturday, including the season’s first grand slam.

MIAMI VS. THE BIG TEN — The Hurricanes are 97-40-5 vs. the Big TenConference all-time. Under Jim Morris, the Hurricanes are 23-4-1 vs. theBig Ten since 1994.

FLORIDA SNAGS TWO FROM MIAMI — Florida defeated Miamitwice in Coral Gables last weekend 12-9 and 6-2. The losses to UF endeda string of 13 games since 1996 that the Gators had lost at Mark LightStadium. The middle game of the series was rained out and will not berescheduled. The pair of wins for UF at Miami was a first since 1956, whenthe Gators last swept UM at home. The Hurricanes still lead the all-timeseries with the Gators 107-82-1, including a 68-30 mark in Coral Gables.The Florida series is the longest on-going series on the Hurricanes’ sched-ule.Only Miami and Florida State have met more times (220), since the1951 season. Since the 1994 season, Jim Morris has gone 20-16 against theGators, including a 17-4 mark in Coral Gables.

MIAMI VS. THE SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE — With the twolosses to Florida, the Hurricanes move to 166-117-1 against SEC teams all-time.Under Jim Morris, Miami is 34-21 vs. the SEC since 1994.

MIAMI OPENS SEASON TAKING TWO OF THREE FROMTENNESSEE — Miami opened the season taking the bookend games withTennessee at Mark Light. UM won the first game 5-4, dropped game No.2 7-4 and won on Sunday 9-4. The 2-1 mark against Tennessee pushesUM’s record against the Volunteers to 8-5 since 1989.

Series Highlights

• After a near-two-year absence due to injury Troy Roberson earned the opening day start for the Hurricanes on the mound. Roberson pitched 4.1 innings with one earned run along with five strikeouts. Kevin Mannix and Matt Dryer hit back-to-back home runs in the seventh inning of game No. 3 and added six runs in the to surge past UT.
• During the sixth inning of game No. 3 with bases loaded and no outs, UT’s Ryan Moffett lined-out at third baseman Kevin Howard (first out). Howard stepped on third base to force Javi Herrera out (#2) and the threw to first to force out Hal Bibee (#3). It was the first triple play at Miami since a 1982 game against Lewis College. Additionally, it was just the fifth triple play ever recorded at Miami and first ever in Head Coach Jim Morris’ career.
• Miami holds a 38-21 overall record in season opening games. UM has not lost a season-opener at home since a 9-7 defeat to Florida on Feb. 1984 (15 games).

SEVERAL HURRICANES GARNER PRESEASON ALL-AMERICAHONORS — A total of five Hurricanes received preseason All-Americanhonors, including Javy Rodriguez, Kiki Bengochea, George Huguet, LukeDeBold and Danny Matienzo.

BASEBALL AMERICA’S COLLEGE PREVIEW RECOGNIZESMI-AMI — Baseball America’s Allen Simpson rated junior RHP Kiki BengocheaNo. 6 among the top 100 college prospects for the 2002 draft. Also makingSimpson’s list were Kevin Howard (#23), T.J. Prunty (#56) and JavyRodriguez (#72).

Baseball America listed the top 50 players by class, which consistedof seven Hurricanes in each of the four classes. Danny Figueroa (#32),Ryan Dixon (#34) and Rich Giannotti (#43) were among the freshmenlisted. T.J. Prunty (#30) was the lone UM sophomore listed and was ratedthe No. 2 draft eligible sophomore. Kiki Bengochea (#6) and Kevin Howard(#22) were among the juniors and Javy Rodriguez (#6) was listed amongseniors.

Miami was selected the top independent school heading into 2002,while Bengochea, Howard, Rodriguez, Prunty and Troy Roberson were thetop five independent prospects. Figueroa, Dixon and Brandon Camardesewere the top three independent newcomers.