Hurricanes Close Out Home Stand With 12-2 Win Against Manhattan
March 15, 2006
CORAL GABLES, Fla. (www.hurricanesports.com) – Miami closed out its 16-game home stand on a high note, pounding out 16 hits to defeat Manhattan 12-2 at Mark Light Field Wednesday night. The win pushed Miami’s record to 18-6 overall and ran its win streak to 12 games. Manhattan dropped to 5-4 with the loss.
Four Hurricanes had three hits apiece to highlight Miami’s offensive charge. Jon Jay went 3-for-5 at the plate with two RBI, three runs scored and two stolen bases. Jemile Weeks doubled twice and scored three runs to extend his hitting streak to 10 games. Yonder Alonso went 2-for-4 and drove in three runs to increase his team-leading season total to 34 RBI. Danny Valencia and Tommy Giles both went 3-for-5 and Valencia hit his second home run of the season. Eddy Rodriguez tied a Miami record with two sac-fly RBI.
UM starter Ricky Orta went seven strong innings and gave up five hits and one earned run with five strikeouts to improve to 2-1 on the season. Manhattan’s Chris Cody (2-1) was charged with the loss and gave up nine runs on nine hits in five and one-third innings.
Miami took a 3-0 lead in the third without hitting a ball out of the infield. Roger Tomas reached on an error to the shortstop, and then advanced to third on a passed ball and Blake Tekotte’s infield single. Weeks followed with another infield single to bring in Tomas. Jay reached first UM’s third infield single of the inning. Cody hit Alonso with the bases loaded to bring in Tekotte, and Valencia hit a fielder’s choice grounder to third to drive in Weeks.
The Jaspers answered with a run in the fourth on Mike Garcia’s single to left, bringing in Nick Derba from second base.
UM used some alert base running and took advantage of two Manhattan errors to score three runs in the fifth. Weeks led off the inning with a check-swing double that squirted by Manhattan third baseman Matt Rizzotti, and stole third when time wasn’t called by the Jaspers after the ball was returned to Cody. Jay reached on second baseman Ruben Perez’s error, scoring Weeks in the process. He moved to third on a stolen base and errant throw to the catcher. Alonso followed with a RBI-single and scored two batters later on Rodriguez’s sacrifice fly to center.
Cody was spelled in the sixth by Mike Gozzola after giving up a RBI single to Jay. Jay stole his second base of the game and moved to third on a wild pitch before Alonso drove him home with a single to center. Valencia and Giles singled to load the bases for Rodriguez, who drove in Miami’s final run of the inning with his second sac fly RBI of the game.
Manhattan added another run in the seventh when Rodriguez’s snap throw to first got by Alonso, allowing Dom Lombardi to score from third to bring the Jaspers within 10-2.
Valencia hit a two-run shot to left in the eighth for the final 12-2 score.
The Hurricanes begin a six-game road swing with their first Atlantic Coast Conference road series at Duke, March 17-19. Miami and the Blue Devils are scheduled to begin their series with a 7 p.m. first pitch on Friday at Jack Coombs Field in Durham, N.C.
Notes: The 12-game win streak is the longest for Miami since the 2004 season, when the team won 13 games between May 21 and June 19 … Valencia upped his average to .400 for the season … Jay now has 198 hits for his career and stole two bases for the second consecutive game … Miami’s pitching staff put together a 1.67 ERA, held opponents to .179 hitting and did not allow more than four runs in any game of the current winning streak.
