Jay Blasts Walk-Off Grand Slam to Lead Miami past Long Beach State, 7-3
May 28, 2004
CORAL GABLES, Fla. — Freshman Jon Jay belted a walk-off grand slam in the bottom of the ninth inning with two outs to lead the third-ranked University of Miami baseball team past Long Beach State, 7-3, Friday night at Mark Light Field.
Jay’s home run, his third of the year and second hit of the night, capped off a Miami (43-11) five-run ninth inning to give the Hurricanes win over the Dirtbags (36-18) before a crowd of 2,023.
With a 3-2 lead, Long Beach State reliever Neil Jamison replaced Dirtbags’ starter Cesar Ramos in the bottom of the ninth in an attempt to secure the LBSU lead.
Erick San Pedro led off the inning by drawing a walk off that was followed by a single to right field by Gaby Sanchez, advancing Joey Hooft – pinch running for San Pedro – to second base. Jamison then loaded the bases, walking Richard Giannotti to bring up Roger Tomas.
The freshman Tomas battled off a 3-2 count by fouling off six pitches before chopping a single up the middle that was knocked down by the second baseman. The single plated Hooft to tie the game at 3-3. With the bases loaded, Jay blasted a 0-1 pitch over the left field fence for a walk-off grand slam to give the Hurricanes the 7-3 win.
The walk-off grand slam was the first by a Hurricane since Jason Michaels beat Arizona State to send Miami to the College World Series on May 25, 1997, at the Atlantic Regional at Mark Light Stadium.
Behind a 10-hit performance by the Hurricanes, UM reliever Danny Gil (8-0) earned the win while LBSU’s Neil Jamison (2-3) took the loss with the grand slam by Jay.
Jay led a battery of Hurricanes’ hitters as Ryan Braun, San Pedro and Sanchez all collected two hits each.
The Dirtbags opened the scoring in the second inning when Troy Tulowitzki scored on a sac fly off the bat of Brad Davis to go up 1-0.
Miami responded in the bottom of the second on a two-run home run by Gaby Sanchez to put the Hurricanes up 2-1.
Long Beach State tied the score up at 2-2 in the third with a home run to right field by Chuck Sindlinger.
The two schools would remain locked at 2-2 until the top of the ninth when LBSU’s Jason Vargas broke the standstill, scoring on a throwing error to third base by UM pitcher Cesar Carillo to give the Dirtbags the go ahead run, ending Carillo’s outing after a career high 8.3 innings and giving way to Danny Gil who smothered the Long Beach State rally.
The Hurricanes will return to action Saturday at 1 p.m., facing Long Beach State in the regular season finale at Mark Light Field with Miami head basketball coach Frank Haith scheduled to throw out the first pitch.
