Hurricanes Open Regional Play Against San Francisco Friday Night
June 1, 2006
LINCOLN, Neb. (www.hurricanesports.com) – Miami begins its quest for a fifth College World Series title against San Francisco on Friday at 8:05 p.m. ET at Hawks Field at Haymarket Park in the 2006 Lincoln NCAA Regional. The Hurricanes, who are making their NCAA-record 34th consecutive postseason appearance, will send junior right-hander Danny Gil to the mound against USF lefty Scott Cousins.
Three Miami radio stations will be calling every play of the Hurricanes’ Regional run. Doug Kroll will call all the action for the Student Voice of UM, WVUM 90.5 FM. WQAM 560 AM’s Joe Zagacki and Brian London will call Miami’s game against San Francisco WQAM’s sister station, WKAT 1360 AM. The game can also be heard in Spanish on 1550 WHRC AM.
Gil (2-2, 3.44 ERA) will be making his third career start, and first since a February 12 win against UCLA. In his previous two starts Gil went 1-1 in a combined 9.0 innings and gave up eight hits and three earned runs with eight strikeouts and four walks against the Bruins and Winthrop, both of which are in the NCAA Tournament.
While Miami (36-21) added onto its record of NCAA appearances with its berth into the Lincoln Regional, San Francisco (38-21) is making school history with its first NCAA Regional. The West Coast Conference Co-Champion Dons have posted a 10-6 record against 2006 NCAA participants, including wins against regional hosts Pepperdine and Oregon State, Hawai’i, San Diego and Oral Roberts.
That fact was not lost on UM head coach Jim Morris, who reminded reporters Wednesday that revenge against Nebraska for a pair of losses in the 2005 Lincoln Super Regional was not the first thing on the Hurricanes minds.
“(Our players) understand you have to beat everybody one game at a time,” Morris said. “We’re not good enough to overlook anybody. We’ve lost four of our last six games. We have to be ready to play every time we get out there. They (San Francisco) have a better record than we do, and we are facing the best player in their conference.”
Morris is referring to Cousins, the 2006 West Coast Conference Player of the Year. Cousins compiled a 4-2 record with a 3.40 ERA on the mound and led the Dons at the plate with a .357 average and 45 RBI. The Dons have won 10 of their last 12 games and are 13-3 in their last 16 games, with all three losses coming against NCAA Tournament teams.
Regional host and No. 6 national seed Nebraska opens regional play at 2:05 p.m. ET against fourth-seeded Manhattan.
