Hurricanes Ride Early Lead To 11-3 Win At FIU
March 24, 2005
MIAMI, Fla. (www.hurricanesports.com) – Miami left-hander Brandon Camardese won his second consecutive start and catcher Eddy Rodriguez hit his third home run in as many games to lead the Hurricanes (21-5, 7-2 ACC) to a 11-3 win against Florida International (18-8, 0-0 Sun Belt) Wednesday night at University Park.
Camardese pitched five and two-thirds innings, giving up two runs, one walk and one strikeout to move his record to 3-0. FIU freshman Elih Villanueva’s record dropped to 5-2 after giving up four runs and five hits in two innings. Villanueva, who was on a pre-determined pitch count, left the game prior to the third inning.
Ryan Braun and Paco Figueroa both went 3 for 5 and Rodriguez went 2 for 3 with a home run and three RBIs to help the Hurricanes build an 8-2 lead at the end of the sixth inning.
Miami totaled 15 runs and scored two unearned runs on four errors by the Golden Panthers.
Paco Figueroa hit a one-out double and advanced to third on a balk by Villanueva. Braun used his first triple of the year to drive in Figueroa and scored on an error hit by Jon Jay to shortstop Corey Lozano.
Rodriguez continued his hot hitting in the second inning with a two-run shot that brought in Roger Tomas from first.
Rodriguez scored on a sacrifice fly to right field by Paco Figueroa for a 5-0 lead in the third. The Golden Panthers got on the board in the bottom of the fourth on a solo shot to right field by Yahmed Yema off Camardese.
A soft single from Brendan Katin scored Danny Valencia and Rodriguez grounded out to bring in Walter Diaz for a 7-1 lead in the fifth. Kevin Santiago pinch hit for Jay in the sixth and drove in Braun with a ground out to second for an 8-1 lead.
FIU scored a run in the bottom of the seventh to pull within 8-2. The Hurricanes added three more insurance runs and the Golden Panthers tacked on another score in the bottom of the ninth for the 11-3 final.
Miami resumes its ACC schedule this Friday, March 25, at Mark Light Field against eighth-ranked Georgia Tech at 7 p.m. For ticket information, visit www.hurricanesports.com or call the UM ticket office at 1-800-GO-CANES.
Notes: The attendance was a season-high 1,819 at University Park… Diaz extended his hitting streak to 11 games… Paco Figueroa extended his hitting streak to eight games… After not hitting a home run in the first 40 games of his career, Rodriguez has hit a home run in each of the last three games.
