Hurricanes Hand Gators First Loss, 4-1
Feb. 14, 2004
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The battery of pitcher Vince Bongiovanni and catcher Erick San Pedro carried top-ranked Miami (1-0) to a 4-1 win over Florida (3-1) Saturday night at Mark Light Field to give the Hurricanes their first victory of the 2004 campaign.
Richard Giannotti paced UM at the plate with a 3 for 3 performance, while San Pedro drove in three runs with a home run and a double.
Miami got on the scoreboard in the third inning with a solo home run to right-center field off the bat of San Pedro.
The Hurricanes would score three more runs in the fifth inning with San Pedro providing the power once again with a two-run double to left-center field. Joey Hooft added a run-scoring sacrifice fly to right field.
Bongiovanni (1-0) pitched five no-hit innings before Florida’s Adam Davis singled to lead off the sixth inning. He would surrender two more hits before giving way to Alex Blanco with two runners on and two outs.
The Gators’ C.J. Smith scored when Brian LeClerc greeted Blanco with a double down the left field line to score Florida’s first run of the game. Blanco came back to strike out UF’s Ben Harrison to end the inning.
Bongiovanni finished with 5.2 innings pitched to earn the win, allowing one run on three hits while striking out seven. Blanco would pitch 1.1 innings before giving way to Cesar Carrillo was credited with the save in his first ever appearance as a Hurricane.
The Hurricanes and Gators will conclude their three-game series on Sunday at 1 p.m. at Mark Light Field.
