San Pedro and Katin Power Hurricanes Past FIU, 9-7
Feb. 27, 2004
HOMESTEAD, Fla. – Erick San Pedro and Brendan Katin connected for home runs as the fourth-ranked Miami Baseball team beat Florida International, 9-7, in front of 3,011 fans at the Papa John’s Homestead Challenge.
Katin crushed a one ball, no strike pitch to deep center field into a strong cross wind in the seventh inning for his first home run at the University of Miami. The long ball staked the Hurricanes to a 9-6 lead that proved to be enough as UM improves to 5-3 on the season.
Cesar Carrillo came on to pitch in the seventh inning after Danny Gil threw 1.2 innings for UM, holding FIU without a hit to improve to 2-0 on the season. He would register three strikeouts to go along with three walks.
Carrillo would allow one run on a Luis Rivera RBI ground out in the seventh inning, but pitched a career-best three innings to earn his second save.
It did not take the Hurricanes long to get the bats in full swing on Friday night as back-to-back doubles from Ryan Braun and Jim Burt staked UM to a 3-0 lead in the top of the first inning.
FIU got one run back in the bottom half of the inning on a RBI double off the bat of Dennis Diaz, scoring Luis Rivera who had led off the game with a double down the left-field line.
Miami extended the lead to 4-1 in the second inning on a RBI single from Joey Hooft that scored Roger Tomas. The Golden Panthers scratched back to within one run at 4-3 with a run scoring ground out from Rivera and a RBI single from P.J. Lehmann.
Erick San Pedro blasted his team-leading fourth home run of the season deep to left-center field in the third inning. The three-run shot scored Burt who had walked and Gaby Sanchez who had singled earlier in the inning.
FIU wouldn’t go away in the fifth inning, chasing Bongiovanni from the game after 4.1 innings. The right-hander allowed seven hits and six earned runs, while walking four. The big blow to the Hurricanes in the fifth inning was a two-RBI double by freshman catcher Cody Jacobs.
The Hurricanes return to Homestead on Saturday at 7 p.m. for their second game of the Papa John’s Homestead Challenge against LaSalle.
