Hurricanes Move Past Jaspers In Regional, 8-2
June 4, 2006
LINCOLN, Neb. (www.hurricanesports.com) – Miami put itself in the driver’s seat of the Lincoln Regional with a 8-2 win against fourth-seeded Manhattan in front of 2,210 Saturday night at Hawks Field at Haymarket Park. The win means that Miami will face the winner of tomorrow’s 2:05 p.m. ET elimination game, between third-seeded San Francisco and Manhattan, at 7:05 p.m. ET. A UM win tomorrow would mean a 13th-straight Regional Championship for the Hurricanes.
Tomorrow night’s game will be broadcasted on WVUM 90.5 FM, WQAM 560 AM, and in Spanish on WHRC 1550 AM.
Tough pitching by starter Manny Miguelez and solid defense by shortstop Roger Tomas helped Miami overcome some shaky play in the first three innings. Miguelez (8-4) limited the damage done in two bases-loaded situations in the first and third innings, and allowed one earned run across six innings with five strikeouts and two walks to pick up the win. Jon McLean provided two innings of scoreless relief and Chris Perez pitched the ninth to close out the game.
Jesse Darcy (5-3) was touched up for six runs on 12 hits in 7.0 innings of work in the loss for Manhattan.
Tomas made two tough defensive plays to end both Manhattan scoring threats in the first and third innings and went 3-for-4 at the plate, reaching twice on bunt singles to go along with a run and two RBI. Jemile Weeks doubled twice, walked twice and scored two runs. Tommy Giles, Jon Jay, Eddy Rodriguez and Dennis Raben collected two hits apiece to lead Miami’s 15-hit attack.
A mistake-filled first inning left the Hurricanes facing a 1-0 deficit. Manhattan cleanup hitter Matt Rizzotti hit a two-out pop fly to shallow left-center that dropped for a double thanks to some miscommunication between four converging Hurricanes. The play allowed Nick Derba, who reached on a one-out single, to advance to third. John Fitzpatrick walked to load the bases and a passed ball on a 1-1 count to Dom Lombardi allowed Derba to score before Lombardi grounded out to Tomas to end the inning.
Tomas tied the game smacked a two-out single to left in the second to score Raben from third.
UM put three more runs on the board in the third to take a 4-1 lead. Weeks drew a leadoff walk and ran to third on Giles’ single. The throw to third on the play was late, prompting Giles to take second. An errant throw to second allowed Weeks to score and put Giles at third. Jay chopped a RBI single over the third baseman’s head and Valencia hit a RBI double to center to give Miami its three-run lead.
Derba followed Eric Nieto’s two-out double down the left field line with a RBI single to right-center to bring Manhattan within 4-2 in the fourth.
Tomas led off the Hurricane sixth with a bunt single and moved to third on Weeks’ second double of the night. Giles slapped a two-run single to right to score Tomas and Weeks for a 6-2 Hurricane lead.
UM added two more runs in the ninth on Rodriguez’s single through the left side of the infield and another Tomas bunt single for the final 8-2 score.
Third-seeded San Francisco eliminated No. 6 national seed and host Nebraska with a 5-1 win earlier in the day. The winner of the USF-Manhattan game will have to beat Miami twice in the double-elimination format to move on to the Super Regional.
