Miami Baseball Remains as Consensus No. 1 in Polls
April 28, 2008
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CORAL GABLES, <?xml:namespace prefix=”st1″ ns=”urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags”?>Fla. – The Miami Hurricanes Baseball team remained at No. 1 in the latest USA Today/ESPN Top 25 coaches poll, Baseball America, National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) and Collegiate Baseball polls released Monday.
The Atlantic Coast Conference continues to have the top three teams ranked in two major college baseball polls as North Carolina (No. 2 in Baseball America, NCBWA, Collegiate Baseball, USA Today/ESPN Top25) and Florida State (No. 3 in the NCBWA and USA Today/ESPN Top25) also represent the conference.
Miami (36-5, 20-2 ACC) also held the top spot in the Rivals.com, PingBaseball, Perfect Game Crosschecker and CollegeBaseballhub.com polls.
The Hurricanes are coming off a 3-1 week which saw UM sweep No. 16 Virginia which also included two shutouts. The last time the Hurricanes recorded two shutouts in a three-game series was during the 1998 season when UM defeated Harvard in the series opener, 7-0, and won 10-0 in game two of the series. Miami’s pitching staff had a dominant weekend against the Cavaliers compiling a 0.64 ERA. Hurricane pitchers combined to strike out 30 in 28 innings and held the Cavaliers to a .144 batting average.
Freshman lefty Chris Hernandez was named the ACC Pitcher of the Week. Hernandez matched a career-high with 11 strikeouts in a career-long eight innings. The rookie southpaw struck out eight of the first 11 batters he faced and retired 11 of the final 13 batters, giving up only two hits and one walk. Hernandez improved to 7-0 on the season with a 2.77 ERA.
The Hurricanes step out of conference action this weekend, entertaining Saint Mary’s (Calif.) for three games at Mark Light Field.
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