Hurricane Baseball Continues ACC Home Play with NC State
April 13, 2007
Game #36
Friday: NC State at Miami
Apr. 13, 7 p.m. (Mark Light Field)
Radio: WVUM (90.5 FM), WRHC (1550AM)
Probable Starting Pitchers:
UM: 24 Scott Maine, LHP (2-5, 4.03 ERA)NCST: 43 Eric Surkamp, LHP (2-1, 2.84 ERA)
Game #37
Saturday: NC State at Miami
Apr. 14, 1 p.m. (Mark Light Field)
Radio: WVUM (90.5 FM), WQAM (560 AM)
TV: CSS (Game to be shown on tape delay at 4 p.m.)
Probable Starting Pitcher
UM: 31 Enrique Garcia, RHP (2-2, 3.08 ERA)
NCST: 40 Andrew Brackman, RHP (6-2, 3.31 ERA)
Game #38
Sunday: NC State at Miami
Apr. 15, 1 p.m. (Mark Light Field)
Radio: WVUM (90.5 FM)
Probable Starting Pitchers:
UM: TBA
NCST: 27 Jimmy Gillheeney, LHP (3-1, 2.45 ERA)
HURRICANES CONTINUE ACC HOME SLATE WITH NC STATE
Miami (21-14) continues Atlantic Coast Conference home play by hosting NC State for a three-game series at Mark Light Field. Game times are 7 p.m., 1 p.m. and 1 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The games will be carried by the Student Voice of UM, WVUM (90.5 FM), which can also be picked up online at www.wvum.org. The flagship of Miami athletics, WQAM (560 AM), will also broadcast the game on Saturday, while Spanish radio (WRHC 1550AM) is set to broadcast on Friday and Saturday.
ABOUT THE MIAMI HURRICANES
The Hurricanes completed the season sweep of Florida International with an 11-7 win at FIU Wednesday. Miami returns to Mark Light Field looking for their second straight ACC home series win and third straight series win in league play. The Hurricanes have won sive of their last nine games. Four of UM’s last five wins have come in their last at-bats. Miami had three walk-off wins last week – Wednesday against FIU (10-9 in 10 innings), Saturday against Georgia Tech (5-2 in 11 innings) and Sunday against Georgia Tech (8-7). UM exploded for five runs in the top of ninth to win at FIU earlier this week. UM has now had at least 10 hits in six of its last eight games while going 5-2 during that time and 14-5 this season when they have at least 10 hits in a game. Miami’s pitching staff held Georgia Tech to .225 batting averaging and struck out 29 batters in 29 innings. UM ranks sixth in the ACC in team pitching in ACC only games with a 3.85 team ERA.
Sophomore first baseman Yonder Alonso homered for the 10th time season against FIU. He’s already tied his season-high. Alonso homered twice in the first game of the Clemson series. Since then, opposing teams have been careful with him. Alonso is 10-for-29 with nine runs scored, four homers and 15 RBI. However, he has walked 10 times and intentionally walked three times. Alonso walked six times in the Tech series.Center fielder Blake Tekotte went 3-for-5 against the Golden Panthers. Tekotte is hitting .550 (11-for-20) in his last four games for Miami wiith four runs and two doubles.
Senior closer Danny Gil appeared in three games last week and picked up two wins. He tossed an inning in relief to help Miami defeat FIU in extra innings on Wednesday. Gil no-hit Georgia Tech in Saturday’s game through 2 2/3 innings. He won the series finale when he recorded the final two outs in the top of the 11th. In four games last week, the senior closer tossed 4 1/3 innings and allowed two runs on two hits and struck out three. He no-hit Georgia Tech 3 1/3 innings. Gil actually has won three games in the last 10 days for Miami. He earned the win in the series finale at Clemson as he tossed 3 2/3 innings in relief. Sophomore right fielder/LHP Dennis Raben won his first career game on Saturday. It happened in an unusual fashion as Raben made two relief appearances in the game. Raben pitched to two batters in the eighth inning before going back to right field. He started the 11th inning and pitched a perfect inning. Raben also had a big bat for UM, going 6-for-17 at the plate last week
ABOUT THE NC STATE WOLFPACK
NC State (24-10, 9-6 ACC) took the mid-week off after dropping a series at home to Florida State. The Wolfpack enter the week ranked No. 21 in the National Collegiate Baseball Writer’s Association (NCBWA) and No. 26 in Collegiate Baseball. The Wolfpack hit .299 as a team while the pitching staff boasts a 3.21 team ERA and holds opponents to a .236 batting average. First Baseman Pat Ferguson is hitting .372 with seven doubles and 12 RBI. Six different players have at least 20 RBI led by right fielder Ryan Pond, who has a team-high 28. Pond has 12 extra-base hits which include five home runs. Designated hitter Mike Roskopf has a team-high seven home runs. NC State has won 13 of its last 17 games. The team has ACC series wins over Virginia Tech, Wake Forest and Boston College. Florida State and Maryland have won series over the Wolfpack in the conference play. NC State will send LHP Eric Surkamp (3-1, 2.84 ERA), RHP Andrew Brackman (6-2, 3.21 ERA) and LHP Jimmy Gillheeney (3-1, 2.45 ERA) to the mound this weekend.
THE UM-NC STATE SERIES
The Hurricanes lead the all-time series, 15-7. Miami has won both regular season series since joining the ACC. After dropping the series opener last season, Miami bounced back to win game two and three.
COME-BACK CANES
Miami has won four of its last five games in dramatic fashion in its last at-bats. UM has three walk-off wins in their last five games. Against FIU on Apr. 4, Miami rallied from a 9-7 deficit in the 10th inning with three runs in the bottom of the 10th highlighted by a Mark Sobolewski game-tying two-run home run and a Ryan Jackson walk-off single. UM evened its series with Georgia Tech when Sobolewski hit a walk-off three-run home run in the bottom of the 11th inning. One day later, Gus Menendez hit a game-tying three-run home run in the bottom of the seventh, before Menendez played hero again with walk-off single in the ninth giving UM that series.
YELLOW JACKETS, TIGERS GO DOWN IN SAME YEAR
The series win over Georgia Tech gave the Hurricanes a first. Miami had never won a series over both Clemson and Georgia Tech in the same year and had not taken series from either team since joining the ACC. The Hurricanes won a series over Tech during the 2004 season in Atlanta, before its inaugural season in the conference. UM snapped a seven-game losing streak to Clemson last weekend. Both Clemson and Georgia Tech advanced to the 2006 College World Series.
TEKOTTE NAMED TO COLLEGE BASEBALL FOUNDATION WEEKLY HONOR ROLL
Sophomore center fielder Blake Tekotte was named to the College Baseball Foundation’s weekly honor after hitting .474 going 9-for-19 with two RBI as he helped Miami to a 3-1 week including a series win over Georgia Tech. It was the Hurricanes second straight series win. From his leadoff spot, Tekotte owned a .500 on-base percentage. He hit .533 in the Georgia Tech series racking up a team-high eight hits. He started Miami’s comeback on Sunday with an RBI double. Tekotte has now hit safely in 16 of Miami’s last 17 games in which he is hitting .406 while going 26-for-64 with nine runs and seven RBI.
ALONSO, SOBOLEWSKI IN COLLEGEBASEBALL.RIVALS.COM POWER RANKINGS
Yonder Alonso and freshman third baseman Mark Sobolewski have garnered praise for being a few of the best in the country at their positions. A weekly feature on collegebaseball.rivals.com ranks the top players at their positions. Alonso enters this week’s power ranking as the third-best first baseman playing right now. Alonso already has 10 home runs with four coming in the last eight games. Sobolewski broke into the power rankings this week as the 10th best third baseman in the game right now. He ranks second on the team with 35 RBI.
MENENDEZ TO THE RESCUE
Senior Gus Menendez has filled in well as a pinch-hitter and designated hitter for the Hurricanes. He provided a two-run single at Clemson, which drove in the go-ahead and eventual game-winning runs which clinched UM’s first ACC series win over Clemson. In the series finale against Georgia Tech, Menendez hit the game-tying three-run home run before hitting a walk-off single that gave Miami the series win over Georgia Tech, which also was Miami’s first series win over the Yellow Jackets since joining the ACC.
