Miami Baseball Tied For Second in National Rankings

May 10, 2004

CORAL GABLES, Fla. — The University of Miami baseball team moved into a tie for second in the latest Sports Weekly/ESPN Coaches Poll with 930 total votes and one first-place vote.

The Hurricanes, the highest ranked team in Florida, are 36-9 after sweeping three games from Jacksonville this past weekend. Miami has now won six games in a row and eight of its last nine.

Head Coach Jim Morris’ squad is also ranked third by Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball.

UM welcomes ACC foe North Carolina to Mark Light Field beginning Friday, May 14, at 8 p.m. The game with the 16th-ranked Tar Heels will be broadcast on College Sports Television. CSTV can be found on Direct TV.

Brian Barton (.378) and Jim Burt (.370) lead the Hurricanes’ offensive attack. UM is batting .331 as a team with 108 stolen bases in just 45 games. Miami has five players with at least 13 stolen bases.

Adam Ricks has caught fire for UM over the past four games, raising his average from .299 to .337. In those four games, Ricks has 11 hits in 16 at bats for a .688 average with a home run, double and six RBI.

The Hurricanes’ pitching staff boasts a solid team ERA of 3.67 and is striking out 8.2 batters per nine innings. J.D. Cockroft has won four straight starts with a 0.94 ERA over that span, while Cesar Carrillo leads the Hurricanes with an 8-0 record and a 2.67 ERA.