Hurricanes Bounce Back With 7-0 Win Against Ole Miss In Super Regional
June 11, 2006
OXFORD, Miss. (www.hurricanesports.com) – Miami entered Sunday night’s Super Regional game against Ole Miss in dire need of some clutch performances to save its season. The Hurricanes (40-22) got what they needed and rode career games by starter Danny Gil and freshman Jemile Weeks to a 7-0 win against the Rebels (44-21) in front of 9,139 at Swayze Field to force a winner-take-all game on Monday night in the best-of-three series.
Gil (4-2) turned in one of his best outings in the biggest game of his career to keep the Hurricanes’ season alive. Only two of the four hits Gil allowed left the infield in a career high six-innings of shutout ball that included three strikeouts. Jon McLean, who gave up a game-tying home run in Saturday’s loss, redeemed him self with two innings of perfect relief and Chris Perez closed out the game in the ninth to preserve the shutout.
It was Miami’s first postseason shutout on the road since blanking Lamar 6-0 in the 1976 South Central Regional.
Weeks went 3-for-4 with a pair of home runs and had a career-high five RBI to go along with an intentional walk. Yonder Alonso and Dennis Raben joined Weeks in a freshman offensive onslaught that accounted for all seven Miami runs. Alonso went 3-for-4 with a double and solo home run and Raben went 1-for-3 with a walk and solo home run.
The Hurricanes totaled five leadoff hits in the game, including home runs by Weeks (first), Raben (second) and Alonso (eighth) to pressure Ole Miss pitchers Brett Bukvich (6-6) and Cody Satterwhite.
Weeks set the tone with a leadoff home run on Bukvich’s second pitch of the game for a 1-0 lead.
Raben duplicated Weeks’ feat, homering to right on a 1-2 count to lead off the second. Gus Menendez and Alonso followed with consecutive bloop singles. Menendez was thrown out on Eddy Rodriguez’s sac bunt attempt, but the `Canes were able to load the bases on Roger Tomas’ bunt single. Weeks followed with a two-run single to right-center to put the score at 4-0.
Ole Miss threatened to score in the fourth, loading the bases against Gil with one out. But catcher Justin Brashear’s bouncer up the middle was caught by Tomas, who turned an inning-ending double play on the run.
Weeks struck again in the fourth, ending Bukvich’s night with a towering, two-out, two-run shot to left that gave Miami a 6-0 lead. Satterwhite entered the game and struck out Jon Jay to end the inning after giving up a double to Tommy Giles.
Alonso hit Miami’s third leadoff home run of the game in the eighth, crushing a Satterwhite pitch an estimated 412 feet to dead-center.
It was Miami’s first Super Regional road win since beating South Carolina, 5-2, on June 8, 2002.
Miami and Ole Miss will play for the right to go to the College World Series in Omaha, Neb. on Monday at 7 p.m. The game will be televised by ESPN2.
Notes: The leadoff home run was the first by a Hurricane since Danny Figueroa did the same against Duke on March 11, 2005 … it was also the first time Weeks has homered in back-to-back games this season … Rusty DeBold, June 1, 1985 vs. Stanford – 4-for-5 2 HR, 3 runs scored, 11 total bases and 4 RBI.
