Hurricanes Eliminate Seminoles from CWS, 7-5

June 16, 2008

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OMAHA, Neb. (AP) Jemile Weeks hit his second home run of the College World Series, closer Carlos Gutierrez worked out of a bases-loaded situation in the ninth inning and Miami held off Florida State 7-5 in a Bracket 1 elimination game on Monday.

The Seminoles banged out 18 hits – four by national player of the year Buster Posey – but they left 17 runners on base to set a CWS record for a nine-inning game.

Miami, the No. 1 national seed, plays Wednesday against the winner of Monday night’s game between Stanford and Georgia. The Hurricanes (53-10) have not gone two-and-out in 20 CWS appearances since 1979. FSU (54-14) leaves Omaha after two games for the fourth time in 13 appearances under coach Mike Martin.

Ryan Jackson went 3-for-4 and Dennis Raben and Jason Hagerty joined Weeks in driving in two runs apiece for the Hurricanes, who have beaten FSU in three of four meetings this season.

The Seminoles had no problem hitting the four pitchers they faced, but they had lots of trouble pushing across runs.

They looked as if they might break through in the ninth against Gutierrez, whose two-run throwing error in the ninth inning Saturday was part of a Miami implosion that led to a 7-4 loss to Georgia.

Gutierrez got out of trouble this time after the Seminoles scored three runs on four singles and two walks. After Gutierrez walked Posey to load the bases, he got Jack Rye to ground out to Weeks to end the game.

Dennis Guinn and Posey hit RBI doubles in the first and fourth innings, but the Seminoles stranded at least two runners in six of the first seven innings. They left 11 on base who were in scoring position, including five on third base.

Weeks, the Oakland Athletics’ first-round draft pick, sent a Elih Villanueva pitch into the right-field bleachers with a man on base for his 13th homer in the third inning. Raben followed with a bases-loaded single for a 4-1 lead.

Hagerty’s two-run base hit in the seventh made it 6-2 in the seventh, and Blake Tekotte hit his 13th homer leading off the eighth.

Miami right-hander David Gutierrez, Carlos’ brother, struggled in his short outing. He gave up four hits and walked one. He was knocked out at the start of the second when he was hit in the right biceps by a line drive off the bat of Tommy Oravetz.

Erickson (9-1) worked five innings, holding the Seminoles to one run and eight hits. He struck out six.

Kyle Bellamy pitched two shutout innings before Carlos Gutierrez entered.

Villanueva (7-4) went 3 2-3 innings, giving up four runs and six hits with four walks.