Miami Sweeps Wright State With 15-1 Victory
May 7, 2006
CORAL GABLES, Fla. (www.hurricanesports.com) – Miami had its hitting shoes on Sunday afternoon, tying a season high with 19 hits in a 15-1 victory against Wright State at Mark Light Field in the series finale. The No. 20 Hurricanes earned a series sweep and won their fifth-straight game to improve to 32-16 overall. Wright State dropped to 24-22 for the season.
Eleven Hurricanes had hits in the game, including three apiece from Tommy Giles and Roger Tomas. Tomas, who hit .615 in the series, led the offensive onslaught with three RBI. Giles doubled, homered and scored three runs. Jon Jay went 2-for-2 with a pair of RBI, a stolen base and three runs scored before coming out of the game in the fifth inning. Eddy Rodriguez added a two-run home run and freshman Yonder Alonso drove in two runs to bring his team-leading RBI total to 59 in 48 games.
Manny Miguelez (6-4) picked up the win for Miami, throwing five shutout innings before Ricky Orta came in to finish the game and pick up his first save of the year. Wright State’s Chris Snyder (3-6) gave up eight runs on eight hits in 2.1 innings in the loss.
Miami continued where it left off on Saturday’s 14-1 win, bolting to a 3-0 lead in the first on Jay’s two-run double and a RBI-single from Danny Valencia. Jemile Weeks’ sac fly to center scored Tomas from third in the second to give Miami a 4-0 lead.
The Hurricanes chased Snyder in the third. Valencia doubled home Giles and Alonso brought in Jay with a sac fly to center. Rodriguez followed with a two-run shot to left-center to put Miami up 8-0.
Alonso singled in Jay from second and Tomas hit a two-out bases-loaded double to push the lead to 11-0 in the fourth.
Wright State scored its lone run of the game off of Orta in the sixth with the help of an error. Dan Biederharn hit a bloop single to left and moved to second when Tomas attempted to hand the ball off to left fielder Dennis Raben. Amin Abusaleh drove in Biederharn with a single to left to put the Raiders on the board.
Giles hit his seventh home run of the year to lead off the Hurricane seventh and put the score at 12-1.
The `Canes struck again in the eighth after a leadoff error by Raiders’ center fielder John Kopilchack allowed Richard O’Brien Jr. to reach third. Tomas got his third RBI of the day on a single and then scored on Dennis Raben’s double. Raben advanced to third on a wild pitch by the eighth pitcher of the day for Wright State, Joe Smith, and then scored on a ground out to short by Gus Menendez for the final 15-1 score.
Orta finished the game to pick up his first save since 2004, allowing one unearned run on five hits.
Miami will face Wake Forest next weekend in ACC play in its last three-game home series of the year, starting Friday, May 12 at 7 p.m.
Notes: Valencia’s first-inning single was the 200th hit of his career … Jay tied a UM school record for hit by pitches in a career when he was plugged for the 33rd time in his career in the third inning … it was also the 18th time Jay was hit by a pitch this season, which ranks second all-time on the UM single-season list … the two hit by pitches in the game tied a UM record for combined HBPs in a series (14), set in the 2003 season against Georgia Tech … Rodriguez tied a career high with his eighth home run of the season, equaling his total from 2005 … the 15 runs were the most by Miami since a 16-4 win against Winthrop on Feb. 3.###
