Hurricanes Drop Third Straight In 9-2 Loss To Clemson
May 20, 2005
CLEMSON, S.C. – The fourth-ranked Hurricanes could not overcome three costly errors in a 9-2 loss to Clemson Friday night in front of 4,834 at Doug Kingsmore Stadium. The loss dropped Miami to 38-14-1 overall and 19-9-1 in the Atlantic Coast Conference, and marked the first time the Hurricanes have lost three games in a row since the 2002 season.
Clemson improved to 36-19 overall and 20-9 in the ACC with the win.
Dan Touchet (3-4) was charged with the loss, despite allowing only two earned runs in six innings on seven hits with five strikeouts and no walks. All three of Miami’s errors were committed while Touchet was on the mound and led to four more Clemson runs.
Josh Cribb (6-4) picked up the win, giving up two earned runs on seven hits with nine strikeouts and a walk in seven innings of work.
Ryan Braun went 3-for-4 with an RBI and Paco Figueroa scored two runs on two hits to lead Miami.
Kris Harvey led Clemson with a pair of home runs, three RBIs and three runs scored.
Braun followed Paco Figueroa’s soft single with a double to the gap in right-center to bring Figueroa and give Miami a 1-0 lead in the first inning.
Clemson leadoff man Herman Demmink reached base on an error, stole second, advanced to third on a ground out and then scored on a wild pitch to tie the game.
The Tigers took the lead in the second on Stan Widmann’s double down the left field line that scored Andy D’Alessio from second base.
Clemson opened up a 5-1 lead with a three-run fourth, taking advantage of more Miami errors. Brad Chalk led off the inning with a single and took two more bases on Touchet’s failed pickoff attempt, which got past first baseman Danny Valencia and hit the wall beyond the Clemson dugout. Tyler Colvin singled to left to score Chalk and then stole second. Harvey singled to put runners at the corners. Colvin scored on a fielding error by Valencia and D’Alessio hit a sacrifice fly to center to bring in Harvey to complete the scoring in the inning.
Harvey made it 6-1 with his ACC-leading 20th home run of the season to right field in the fifth.
The `Canes got an RBI single from Valencia in the sixth that scored Paco Figueroa to cut the deficit to 6-2. Miami was denied its third run of the game when Travis Storrer gunned out Roger Tomas at the plate on Eddy Rodriguez’s single to close the top half of the seventh inning.
Taylor Harbin knocked in Demmink with a single up the middle for a 7-2 lead in the seventh against Hurricane reliever Andrew Lane. Harvey hit his second home run of the game two batters later, a two-run shot to left on the first pitch he saw from Lane to increase the lead to 9-2.
Miami and Clemson conclude their series finale Sunday at 1 p.m.
Notes: Braun’s first-inning single was the 190th of his career, moving him past Danny Matienzo (2000-02) and into fourth place on the school’s all-time RBI list.
