Miami Takes Series With 5-2 Win Against UCLA
Feb. 12, 2006
LOS ANGELES – The University of Miami baseball team defeated UCLA 5-2 to ensure a series victory against the Bruins at Jackie Robinson Stadium Sunday afternoon. Chris Perez worked his way out of a one-out bases-loaded situation by forcing Sean Smith into a 4-6-3 double play to end the game and help the Hurricanes improve to 5-3 for the season.
UM starter Danny Gil improved to 1-1, pitching five innings of two-hit ball with five strikeouts and three walks. Andrew Lane provided 1.2 innings of scoreless relief before giving way to Perez, who earned his second save of the series with 2.1 innings on the mound.
Danny Valencia and Jemile Weeks both went 2-for-4 with an RBI and run scored to lead the Hurricanes.
Tyson Brummett (1-1) was charged with the loss for UCLA (2-4) and gave up seven hits and four runs with four strikeouts and two walks.
The Hurricanes jumped to a 3-0 in the third. Eddy Rodriguez led off the inning with a double and moved to third on a bunt from Blake Tekotte. Weeks singled to left to score Rodriguez. Brummett was called for a balk, setting up Jon Jay’s sacrifice fly to score Tekotte. Valencia put Miami up by three runs with a single that scored Weeks from second.
Dennis Raben walked to leadoff the fourth and advanced to third on Rodriguez’s sac bunt and Tekotte’s ground out to first. Brummett threw a 1-0 wild pitch to Weeks that bounced off catcher Ryan Babineau and allowed Raben to score from third for a 4-0 UM advantage.
UCLA cut the lead to 4-1 in the bottom of the fifth on a one-out bases loaded walk to Will Penniall that scored Jermaine Curtis from third base. The damage was limited to one run thanks to a diving catch in left field by Tekotte, who robbed Sean Smith of a possible three-run double. Tekotte threw home to Rodriguez, who threw to third for a double play after the umpires ruled that Babineau tagged the base early.
The Hurricanes added an insurance run in the eighth on Yonder Alonso’s RBI single that scored Valencia from second. UCLA came as close as 5-2 with a pinch-hit sac fly RBI from Anthony Norman in the eighth off Perez.
Miami begins a 16-game stretch at home against Louisville at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, February 15 at Mark Light Field.
