Hurricanes Remain No. 2, Face FAU Tuesday
March 31, 2008
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CORAL GABLES, <?xml:namespace prefix=”st1″ ns=”urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags”?>Fla. – The Miami Hurricanes Baseball team is now ranked No. 2 in the country in three of the major college baseball polls. After adding to its eight-game winning streak with a 4-0 week last week, the Hurricanes remained the No. 2 team in the country in the National Collegiate Baseball Writer’s Association (NCBWA) poll and climbed to No. 2 in both the USA Today/ESPN Top 25 coaches’ poll and Baseball America poll released Monday.
Miami (21-2, 9-1 ACC) is one of three Atlantic Coast Conference teams ranked in the top five – No. 3 Florida State and No. 4 North Carolina. UM remained No. 2 in the Rivals.com poll. The Hurricanes jumped to No. 3 in the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper poll.
The Hurricanes will host FAU Tuesday at Mark Light Field at 7 p.m., before traveling across town to face FIU Wednesday at 6 p.m. at University Park. Tuesday’s game can be heard locally on WQAM (560AM) and WVUM (90.5 FM).
Miami is fresh off its fourth straight ACC series win after sweeping Duke, 7-5, in 10 innings Friday and 8-1 Saturday. Sunday’s game was rained out. Senior right-hander Enrique Garcia got on track turning in his best pitching performance of the season as he three-hit the Blue Devils through eight innings and struck out five in his first win of 2008. Junior Blake Tekotte continued his streak going 5-for-10 with a pair of runs and one RBI against Duke. Tekotte is hot at the plate lately hitting .529 (18-for-34) during a 10-game hitting streak. He’s owned a .644 on-base percentage and gone 7-of-8 in stolen bases.
The Hurricanes bring a .337 team batting average into the week while the pitching staff has compiled a 3.45 team ERA. The team has hit .352 during its eight-game hitting streak while teams are hitting just .216 against a pitching staff that has 73 K’s in 73 innings.
FAU (16-9) is led by one of the top home run hitters in the country in right fielder Mike McKenna, who is hitting 408 with 42 hits, six doubles, 46 RBI and 13 homers, which ranks second nationally. As a team, the Owls hit .329 and have already hit 48 home runs in 25 games. FAU’s pitching staff has a 5.78 team ERA.
Miami sophomore RHP John Housey (2-0, 5.71 ERA) is slated for his fourth straight start on Tuesday and will face FAU left-hander Jeff Beliveau (1-1, 4.01 ERA).
FAU and Miamihave met 23 times with the Hurricanes owning a 20-3 lead all-time. Tuesday night’s game will be the first of three meetings between the teams this season. The two teams have not met since 2004 and have not played a regular season game since 2003.
NCBWA Mar. 31 Division I Poll (www.ncbwa.com)
Rank-School-Conference-Overall Record-Previous Rank (Records Through Mar. 23)
1 ArizonaState Pacific-10 25-1 1
2 Miami (Fla.) Atlantic Coast 21-2 2
3 Florida State ACC 23-3 4
4 North Carolina ACC 21-5 3
5 UC Irvine Big West 19-3 9
6 Vanderbilt Southeastern 18-6 11
7 South Carolina SEC 18-7 7
8 Wichita State Missouri Valley 20-3 13
9 Long Beach State Big West 17-7 5
10 Missouri Big 12 20-5 8
11 Arizona Pac-10 14-9 6
12 Virginia ACC 23-5 15
13 Texas Big 12 18-8 10
14 Kentucky SEC 22-4 14
15 Rice Conference USA 19-9 12
16 Texas A&M Big 12 21-6 20
17 Clemson ACC 18-8 19
18 San Diego West Coast 19-10 16
19 Cal State Fullerton Big West 15-9 21
20 California Pac-10 18-5-1 28
21 Coastal Carolina Big South 21-6 18
22 Nebraska Big 12 21-4-1 30
23 Oklahoma State Big 12 18-8 22
24 Georgia Tech ACC 22-5 27
25 Florida SEC 20-6 26
26 OregonState Pac-10 13-8 25
27 Mississippi SEC 16-11 17
28 UCLA Pac-10 12-10 24
29 Baylor Big 12 16-9 23
30 UNC Wilmington Colonial 21-4 NR
USA TODAY/ESPN TOP 25 COACHES’ POLL — March 31, 2008
The USA TODAY/ESPN Top 25 baseball coaches’ poll, with RECORDS THROUGH SUNDAY, total points based on 25 points for first place through one point for 25th, ranking in last week’s poll and first-place votes received:
Last week’s First-place
Rank School (record) Points rank votes
1. Arizona State (25-1) 775 1 31
2. Miami (Fla.) (21-2) 714 3 0
3. Florida State (23-3) 711 2 0
4. North Carolina (21-5) 636 4 0
5. UC-Irvine (19-3) 588 7 0
6. South Carolina (18-7) 532 9 0
7. Missouri (20-5) 504 6 0
8. Vanderbilt (18-6) 430 13 0
9. Long Beach State (17-7) 429 5 0
10. Nebraska (21-4-1) 415 17 0
11. Wichita State (20-3) 413 11 0
12. California (18-5-1) 385 19 0
13. Florida (20-6) 347 18 0
14. Texas (18-8) 343 10 0
15. Virginia (23-5) 327 15 0
16. Rice (19-9) 314 12 0
17. Kentucky (22-4) 307 14 0
18. Arizona (14-9) 262 8 0
19. Texas A&M (21-6) 226 22 0
20. Stanford (12-7) 186 21 0
21. Georgia Tech (22-5) 163 NR 0
22. Coastal Carolina (21-6) 159 20 0
23. (tie) Cal State Fullerton (15-9) 121 25 0
23. (tie) Mississippi (16-11) 121 16 0
25. San Diego (19-10) 89 23 0
BASEBALL AMERICA (3/31/08)
Rank, School Rec LW Prev
1. Arizona State 25-1 3-0 1
2. Miami 21-2 4-0 4
3. North Carolina 21-5 3-1 3
4. Missouri 20-5 2-3 2
5. UC Irvine 19-3 3-1 7
6. Florida State 23-3 4-1 8
7. California 18-5 3-1 11
8. Vanderbilt 18-6 4-0 9
9. South Carolina 18-7 3-2 10
10. Long Beach State 17-7 1-4 5
11. Nebraska 21-4 4-1 19
12. Wichita State 20-3 6-0 16
13. Stanford 12-7 3-2 17
14. Virginia 23-5 4-1 21
15. Rice 19-9 2-3 12
16. Texas 18-8 2-2 13
17. San Diego 19-10 3-3 14
18. Arizona 14-9 1-4 6
19. Florida 20-6 3-2 24
20. UNC Wilmington 21-4 4-0 NR
21. Kentucky 22-4 2-2 18
22. Michigan 14-6 5-0 25
23. UCLA 12-10 2-2 23
24. Coastal Carolina 21-6 3-2 22
25. CalStateFullerton 15-9 3-1 NR
