No. 1 Seed Miami Set For ACC Championships
May 20, 2008
Wednesday: Miami vs. Clemson
May 21, 1 p.m. (Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville)
Radio: WVUM (90.5 FM)
Internet Radio: www.wqam.com, www.wvum.org, wwww.hurricanesports.comTV: SunSports
Probable Starting Pitchers:
CU: 9 D.J. Mitchell, RHP (6-4, 3.11 ERA)
UM: 27 Chris Hernandez, LHP (10-0, 2.67 ERA)
No. 1 seed Miami (43-8, 23-5 ACC) opens up pool play in the 2008 Atlantic Coast Conference Championship Wednesday when the Hurricanes take on No. 8 seed Clemson at 1 p.m. at the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville. Miami will face No. 5 seed Georgia Tech at 5 p.m. Thursday and No. 4 seed NC State Saturday at 1 p.m. The team with the best record in Division A will face the winner of Division B (No. 2 seed Florida State, No. 3 seed North Carolina, No. 6 seed Virginia, No. 7 seed Wake Forest) in the championship game at 1 p.m. Sunday.
ABOUT THE MIAMI HURRICANES
Miami (43-8, 23-5 ACC) enters the 2008 ACC Championship after finishing up one of the best regular seasons under head coach Jim Morris and the best season for the Hurricanes in the ACC. Eight Hurricanes earned All-ACC honors. Despite dropping its first series of the season last weekend at home to then No. 2 North Carolina, the Hurricanes showed fight rallying back from an eight-run deficit in the series finale and loading the bases in the ninth which ended in a 10-6 loss in game two of the series. Junior first baseman Yonder Alonso had a good series for the Tar Heels as he hit .545 (6-for-11) with six runs, three home runs and nine RBI. He slugged 1.364 on the weekend. Alonso has been homering at an unreal pace lately. He has hit home runs in each of his last four games and has 13 home runs in the last 21 games. He leads the ACC with 19 long balls.Freshman lefty Chris Hernandez improved to 10-0 winning the series opener which led Miami to the Coastal Division crown and the No. 1 seed. Hernandez earned ACC Freshman of the Year honors after posting a 2.67 ERA with 87 K’s in 84.1 innings pitched while holding opponents to a .216 average.
MIAMI IN THE ACC TOURNAMENT
Miami looks to reverse its luck in Jacksonville and at the ACC Tournament in 2008. The Hurricanes are 2-6 in the tournament winning a game over Florida State, 9-3, in the 2007 tournament and against Wake Forest in 2006. The Hurricanes went 1-2 in the 2007 tournament with losses to Clemson and Wake Forest. UM lost to Clemson, 9-1, and NC State, 2-1, in the tournament in 2005 – Miami’s inaugural season. The Hurricanes dropped two games to Georgia Tech in 2006 to go 1-2. In tournament play, UM is a combined 0-5 against teams in its side of the pool in the 2008 Championship – Clemson (0-2), Georgia Tech (0-2) and NC State (0-1).
