No. 12 Miami Falls Late to Rutgers, 5-4
Feb. 21, 2009
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The 12th-ranked University of Miami baseball team fell to Rutgers, 5-4, in the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader at Alex Rodriguez Park at Mark Light Field. With the game knotted at four heading into the final frame, Rutgers took advantage of a pair of defensive miscues to pick up its first win of the season.
After Brandon Boykin singled to lead off the seventh for Rutgers, he advanced to second on a Michael Lang sacrifice bunt to third. From there, Boykin moved up one more base with no one covering third and finally he stole home for the winning run.
The game changed hands a number of times throughout the course of the night, with single runs scored in nine of the 14 half-innings. Rutgers scored in the first, second, third, sixth and seventh while UM plated runs in the first, third, fifth and sixth.
Miami falls to 2-1 with the loss while Rutgers improves to 1-2.
Freshman Kevin Youst made his first career start for the `Canes and allowed just one earned run while walking one and striking out one in three innings of work. Fellow freshman Daniel Miranda, making his first career appearance at UM, had an effective relief outing in allowing just one run on one this while striking out three in three innings. Senior Rene Guerra suffered the loss in the final inning.
Rutgers starter Charlie Law lasted four innings, allowing two runs on four hits while walking six and striking out four. He was relieved by Sean Peterson, who allowed one run in 1 2/3 innings, and Tony Wargo, who picked up the win after holding UM scoreless over the final 1 1/3 innings.
Dave DiNatale reached base in all four plate appearances and finished 2-for-2 with an RBI. Yasmani Grandal, who had just one pinch-hit at-bat, hit his second home run of the season.
Jaren Matthews led Rutgers at the plate, going 2-for-4 with an RBI.
Rutgers scored first when Matthews singled home lead-off man Michael Lang in the top half of the first. The `Canes responded with a run of their own in the bottom half of the inning when Chris Herrmann’s sacrifice fly to center scored Nathan Melendres from third.
It didn’t take long for Rutgers to re-gain its lead however. The Scarlet Knights went up 2-1 in the second on a Jarred Jimenez solo homer to left and then pushed their lead to 3-1 in the third on groundout that plated Lang for his second run of game.
After DiNatale brought the `Canes to within one with an RBI single down the line in left in the third, UM tied the ballgame up in the fifth with another run. Iden Nazario picked up just his fourth career RBI when his single to right brought home Harold Martinez to knot the game up at three.
Rutgers re-took the lead again in the top half of the sixth however when Jiminez brought home Dan Betteridge home on a deep sacrifice fly to center in the sixth to put the Scarlet Knights up 4-3.
Grandal’s homer in the sixth tied it up four before Rutgers picked up the deciding run in the seventh.
The two teams will wrap up the four-game set Sunday at 1 p.m. at Alex Rodriguez Park.
Postgame Notes
– UM won the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader, 4-2.
– Freshman right-hander Kevin Youst started his first career game.
– Freshman Daniel Miranda made his first career appearance, tossing three innings in relief.
– Freshman Harold Martinez played three different positions on Saturday, playing third base in the first game of the doubleheader before playing both first and shortstop in the second.
– Freshman Vickash Ramjit made appearances defensively at first base in both games on Saturday.
– Today’s attendance was 2,803.
