Hurricanes Return Home to Face Illinois-Chicago
March 18, 2004
CORAL GABLES, Fla. — Miami returns to the friendly confines of Mark Light Field for a three-game series with the University of Illinois-Chicago beginning at 3 p.m. on Friday, March 19. The series continues at 7 p.m. on Saturday, March 20, and 7 p.m. Sunday, March 21.
The UM program enters the weekend series just three wins shy of 2,000. Miami’s 2,000th win would make the Hurricanes only the 28th program in the history of college baseball to accomplish that feat, having done son in just 59 seasons of baseball.
The Hurricanes lead the all-time series 2-0 after a 17-3 win over the Flames on March 24, 1983, and a 5-3 win on March 23, 1983.
UIC head coach Mike Dee led the Flames to a Horizon League title in 2003 and a trip to the Stanford Regional. Dee is in his sixth year at Illinois-Chicago with a 168-122 record. The Flames are not ranked, but started receiving votes (4) in this week’s Sports Weekly/ESPN Coaches Poll.
Miami enters the game with a .332 team batting average after pounding out 19 hits in a 17-3 win at South Florida on Wednesday, March, 17. On the mound the Hurricanes sport a 3.67 team ERA and are holding their opponents to a .236 batting average while averaging nearly nine strikeouts per game as a staff.
Illinois-Chicago is hitting .343 as a team with Bryan Russo leading the way with a .489 batting average. UIC has a team ERA of 3.97.
Right-hander Cesar Carrillo will go to the hill for UM in the series opener Friday afternoon against UIC. The sophomore is 2-0 on the season with a 3.18 ERA. The Flames will counter with freshman right-hander Ryan Zink (2-0, 2.20 ERA), who has struck out 21 batters in 16 innings while only walking one.
RHP Dan Touchet (3-0, 2.16 ERA) takes the mound for the Hurricanes on Saturday, having won all three of his starts this year. The Flames will start LHP David Haehnel (1-1, 3.38 ERA).
The series finale will pit Miami left-hander Brandon Camardese (2-0, 2.55 ERA) against Illinois-Chicago’s left-hander Ryan Gehring (2-1, 2.60 ERA).
For more information on the Hurricanes’ baseball team, log onto www.hurricanesports.com. For ticket information you can go to the website or call the ticket office at 1-800-GO CANES.
