Oral Roberts Visits Mark Light Field for a Three-Game Series
April 3, 2003
CORAL GABLES, Fla. (hurricanesports.com) — Oral Roberts visits Mark Light Field this weekend to take on Miami’s seventh-ranked baseball team in a three-game series that begins on Friday, April 4, at 7 p.m.
Saturday’s game with the Golden Eagles, which was originally scheduled for 7 p.m., has been moved up to 5 p.m. The series finale is set for 1 p.m. on Sunday.
Miami moved up to No. 7 in the Collegiate Baseball poll and No. 9 in both the Baseball America poll and the Sports Weekly/ESPN Coaches poll after sweeping then-No. 2 Georgia Tech.
The Hurricanes fell to 23-5 with a 5-3 loss to 17th-ranked FAU on Wednesday night.
Oral Roberts is 13-11 on the season after a mid-week loss to Arkansas and hitting .283 as a team. ORU advanced to the championship game of the NCAA Wichita Regional last season, knocking off Wichita State twice before losing to Arkansas.
The Oral Roberts pitching rotation isn’t set, but Taylor McIntyre and Dennis Bigley will both get a start over the weekend. McIntyre is 2-0 on the season with a 0.70 ERA, while Bigley is 1-2 with a 5.18 ERA.
Matt VanDerBosch leads the Golden Eagles at the plate with a .344 average. David Castillo supplies power with seven home runs and 27 RBIs.
The Hurricanes will go with their usual weekend rotation with J.D. Cockroft (4-0, 2.82 ERA) getting the start Friday night. Vince Bongiovanni (5-1, 2.64 ERA) will take the mound on Saturday, while Brandon Camardese (4-0, 4.85 ERA) will look to get back on track on Sunday.
Ryan Braun, who was named the NCBWA National Hitter of the Week on Tuesday, April 1, is hitting .382 with a team-high 10 home runs and 35 RBIs. Catcher Erick San Pedro’s 11-game hitting streak has boosted his average almost 200 points, checking in at .386. Richard Giannotti now leads UM with a .393 batting average in 15 games.
Miami leads the all-time series with Oral Roberts 5-1 after sweeping three games from the Golden Eagles at Mark Light Field in 1997. ORU’s only win, 4-3, came on May 14, 1984 in Tulsa, Okla.
