Baseball Forces Game Three With 5-2 Win Over South Carolina
June 8, 2002
Columbia, SC (www.hurricanesports.com) – – The Miami Hurricanes (34-28) forced a decisive third game in the Columbia Super Regional with a 5-2 defeat over host and No. 6 national seed South Carolina (52-16) in front of 6,482 fans Saturday night at Sarge Frye Field.
Miami fell to South Carolina, 10-7, in the opener Friday night. The Hurricanes also won the coin toss following the Saturday night game and will be the home team.
Hurricane starter Dan Touchet (6-2) scored the crucial victory going 7.2 innings allowing on earned run on five hits with five walks and four strikeouts. Luke DeBold, J.D. Cockroft and George Huguet then combined to hold the Gamecocks to just one more run on three hits the final 1.1 innings.
South Carolina left 12 men on base.
Miami scored all its runs in a five run third inning where the Hurricanes hit USC starter David Marchbanks (9-4) for four hits, including Danny Matienzo’s third home run of the season and sixth of the postseason.
In the fifth, Matt Dryer led off with a fly out to centerfield. Kevin Mannix then got on base with a single to left center. He moved to third on Danny Figueroa’s single down the right field line. Paco Figueroa followed with a walk to load the bases. Brad Safchik then hit into a fielder’s choice grounder to first base that forced Mannix out at home plate. With two outs, Javy Rodriguez knocked in two runs with a single to centerfield scoring the Figueroa brothers. Matienzo then hit a three-run homer deep over the batter’s eye in centerfield.
Marchbanks was removed after the inning for Chris Spigner after going 3.0 innings with four hits, five earned runs, one walk and three strikeouts in 49 pitches thrown.
USC broke up the shutout in the eighth inning on Brian Buscher’s sacrifice fly RBI to left field scoring Steve Thomas from third. Thomas led off with a walk, moved to second on Yaron Peters single to left field and then to third on a Touchet wild pitch.
USC then added another run in the ninth on a Peters single that scored Drew Meyer.
The series concludes on Sunday at 1:30 p.m. with the winner advancing to the College World Series in Omaha, NE.
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.
WQAM will be broadcasting over WSRF 1580 AM, while SBN will broadcast on WRHC 1550 AM.
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.
