Hurricanes Hang On For 4-3 Win Against Duke
March 18, 2006
DURHAM, N.C. (www.hurricanesports.com) – Manny Miguelez struck out a career-high 10 batters and Miami survived a ninth-inning rally to defeat Duke 4-3 at Jack Coombs Field Saturday night. The 19th-ranked Hurricanes won their 14th-straight game and improved to 20-6 overall and 5-0 in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Duke dropped to 8-15 overall and 1-4 in conference play.
Miguelez (5-1) earned his fifth win of the season with outstanding control. He walked just one batter and 66 of his 93 pitches were strikes. All three hits he gave up were singles, including two in the infield. Closer Chris Perez gave up two runs in the ninth but earned his sixth save of the season and his second in as many nights.
Eddy Rodriguez doubled twice and went 4-for-4 with a run scored, tying a career high for hits. Yonder Alonso hit his fourth home run of the season and drove in two runs and Jon Jay went 2-for-4 with a double, run scored and a RBI.
Blue Devil starter Jimmy Saris (0-3) lasted seven innings in the loss, giving up three earned runs on seven hits with two walks and seven strikeouts.
Miami added on to its 3-1 lead in the eighth inning following Jemile Weeks’ lead off triple and RBI single from Jay for a 4-1 advantage. But what looked like an insurance run proved to be much more important by the end of the game.
Perez started the ninth by giving up an infield single to Jon Anderson and a walk to Javier Socorro. Matt Williams struck out looking and Brett Bartles flied out to center, bringing Jimmy Gallagher to the plate. A wild pitch moved Anderson and Socorro to second and third before Gallagher ripped a double to right field to score them both and bring Duke within a run. Perez worked through the pressure and fielded Adam Murray’s grounder before throwing to first for the final out of the game.
The Hurricanes got going early, scoring two runs in the first. Jay hit a two-out double to center and Alonso crushed a 1-1 pitch from Saris to right field for his fourth home run of the season for the 2-0 lead. Rodriguez led off the second with a single and moved to third on a balk and sacrifice bunt by Dennis Raben. Walter Diaz’s grounder to short brought in Rodriguez to put Miami up 3-0.
Duke gained some ground in the fifth with Jonathan Nicolla’s sacrifice fly to center to score Gallagher from third and cut the deficit to 3-1.
Miami and Duke conclude the series Sunday at 1 p.m. at Jack Coombs Field.
Notes: Weeks extended his hitting streak to 12 games … Miguelez lowered his season earned run average to 1.79 … Miguelez’s 10 strikeouts were the most by a Hurricane pitcher since Cesar Carrillo struck out 10 against Jacksonville on May 6, 2005 … the 14-game winning streak is the Hurricanes’ longest since the 2002 season (18 games) and is the third-longest winning streak during Jim Morris’ tenure at Miami (26 in 1998 and 18 in 2002).
