Baseball Hits The Road
May 29, 2002
Coral Gables, Fla. (www.hurricanesports.com) – The third-seeded University of Miami Hurricanes (30-26) departed Wednesday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. for this weekend’s NCAA Gainesville Regional at Alfred A. McKethen Stadium on the University of Florida campus.
The Hurricanes will begin their postseason quest with its first practice session at the McKethan Stadium on Thursday from 1-2:15 p.m. Head Coach Jim Morris and select players will be available to the media following the practice session.
Miami will play No. 2-seed Florida International (41-18) in the first game on Friday at 3:00 p.m. Host-school and No. 1 seed Florida (43-17) will face No. 4 Bethune-Cookman (38-20) in the Friday evening game at 7 p.m.
Miami’s 2002 NCAA tournament appearance can be heard over the Internet at www.hurricanesports.com, or on the student voice of the Hurricanes, WVUM 90.5 FM.
The flagship stations of the Miami Hurricanes, Sports Radio 560 WQAM and UM’s Spanish Broadcast Network will also be covering the action on WWFE 1550 AM. WQAM 560 AM will air the Friday and Saturday games, until the Florida Marlins broadcast begins at 6:30 p.m., then make the switch to WAXY 790 AM.
Miami is making its 31st postseason appearance since 1971, including a NCAA-record 30 straight since 1973. The second-longest mark is Florida State’s current string of 25 seasons since 1978. Miami has a 138-62 (.690) all-time record in the postseason, including a 90-30 (.750) overall regional record.
Under Head Coach Jim Morris the Hurricanes will be making their ninth straight NCAA regional appearances since 1994. Morris’ clubs have earned a NCAA regional bid for the past 18 seasons, including his final nine seasons as the head coach at Georgia Tech prior to Miami.
In their 30 previous postseason appearances, UM has played on the road in 28 of those seasons, either at opponent regional sites or qualifying for the College World Series in Omaha, Neb. Miami has forged a 70-52 (.574) record in postseason contests away from Mark Light Stadium, including a 26-20 (.565) mark in NCAA regional road games.
Miami, a NCAA regional host the past five seasons, last played at a road site at the 1996 Central I Regional in Austin, Tex., hosted by the University of Texas. Miami would drop its first game, a 5-4 stunner to Sam Houston State, but rebound to win four straight and advance to the College World Series.
UM currently has a nine-game win streak in the postseason after sweeping through the 2001 tournament en route to the College World Series title. The Hurricanes, who have won the College World Series in two of the past three seasons, hosted the first two rounds last year at Mark Light Stadium, sweeping three games in the Regional, followed by two wins over Clemson in the Super Regional. The Hurricanes defeated Tennessee twice, Southern California and Stanford in the title game at the CWS.
The Hurricanes enter this year’s postseason riding a five-game overall win streak, having swept a three-game series with New York Tech this past weekend at Mark Light Stadium. By way of the three-game sweep over the Bears, UM also extended its record to 32 straight seasons since 1970 with at least 30 wins.
The five-game win streak, which started with the final two games of the Jacksonville series, is one shy of the 2002 season-long of six, recorded in February. UM also won five straight this year, in March, which included a series sweep over UCLA wrapped between mid-week wins over UW-Milwaukee and Northwestern. The Hurricanes season-long six-game win streak included back-to-back weekend sweeps of Minnesota followed by FIU, Kansas State and Lipscomb at the Homestead Challenge.
Javy Rodriguez, the 2002 MVP Trophy winner, continues to lead the team with a .369 batting average, 87 hits, 51 runs scored and 36 stolen bases. Rodriguez also put together 13 doubles, two triples, five home runs and 30 RBI in 2002.
Junior Kevin Howard is not far behind batting .359 also with 51 runs scored, 74 hits, 21 doubles, 11 home runs and 47 RBI. Howard also has a team-high .631 slugging percentage, .453 on-base percentage and 130 total bases. 2002 Team Co-Captain Jim Burt finished the regular season with a .335 batting average, third on the team, along with 40 runs scored, 59 hits, 17 doubles, eight home runs and 42 RBI. Burt also drew a 2002 team-high 34 walks.
Miami leads the all-time series with FIU, 82-20, dating back to the 1973 season. The series is the third-longest on-going rivalry on the UM baseball schedule behind Florida (1940) and Florida State (1951). In 2002, the Golden Panthers won two of the three meetings, 7-1, at University Park on Feb. 6 and at Mark Light Stadium, 9-7, on May 2. UM defeated FIU, 6-2, in the opening game of the Homestead Challenge on Feb. 22. Under Morris, the Hurricanes have gone 21-10 vs. FIU since 1994. UM and FIU have played three times in the postseason, with the Hurricanes leading 3-0.
Miami leads the all-time series with Florida, 107-82-1, including a 36-52-1 mark in Gainesville. The series is the longest on-going rivalry on the Hurricanes schedule dating back to the 1940 season. Only Florida State and Miami have met more times (226) since the 1951 season. In 2002, the Gators traveled to Mark Light Stadium and defeated the Hurricanes in two meetings, 12-9 and 6-2, on Friday and Sunday, respectively. The Saturday game was rained out. Under Morris, the Hurricanes have gone 20-16 against the Gators since 1994. UM and Florida have met eight times in the postseason, with the Hurricanes leading 7-1. The Hurricanes have won the two meetings with UF outside of a Coral Gables regional, in Gainesville in 1989 and in Tallahassee in 1984.
Miami leads the all-time series with Bethune-Cookman, 11-1, dating back to the 1983 season. All 12 games of the series were played at Mark Light Stadium. In 2002, Miami took two of three games with the Wildcats in Coral Gables, May 3-5.
Ticket Prices:
Reserved Chairback All Tourney: $50 (limited availability)Reserved Bleacher All Tourney: $40Reserved Single Game: $8General Admission Adult Single Game: $6General Admission College Student/Youth (12-under): $4
For ticket information, please contact the University of Florida box office at 1-800-344-2867, x16800. gatorzone.com
For more information on the NCAA Regionals, visit ncaa.org
For more information on University of Miami athletics log on to its newly designed website www.hurricanesports.com, the official site for all Hurricane news, tickets and apparel. For Hurricane ticket information call 1-800-GO CANES.
