No. 13 Miami Wraps Up Homestand Against North Florida Tuesday
April 27, 2009
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The 13th-ranked University of Miami baseball team will play its final mid-week game of the 2009 season when the Hurricanes will play host to North Florida Tuesday night at 6 p.m. at Alex Rodriguez Park at Mark Light Field.
The Hurricanes (29-14) are coming off their fifth Atlantic Coast Conference series win of the year after taking two-of-three from Virginia Tech this past weekend at home. Scott Lawson, who leads the team with a .350 average, had a solid weekend at the plate against the Hokies, recording two hits in each contest. Yasmani Grandal homered in each of the first two games of the series and is now tied for fifth in the ACC with 12 home runs.
UM’s bullpen also had a strong weekend, allowing just one earned run in a combined 12 innings of work against Virginia Tech. Closer Kyle Bellamy continued his late-inning dominance, recording two multi-inning saves in both of Miami’s wins. Bellamy, whose 12 saves is four more than any other ACC closer, has allowed just five earned runs while striking out 52 in 33 2/3 innings this season.
Starters Chris Hernandez and Iden Nazario are both coming off strong starts against the Hokies. Hernandez (5-3, 5.07 ERA) allowed just one run on one hit in 6 1/3 innings while Nazario (5-2, 6.00 ERA) allowed two earned runs on three hits in five innings.
Jason Santana (6-0), who leads team with six wins and has the lowest ERA (3.77) of any regular starter, is slated to start Tuesday against the Ospreys.
On the season, the Hurricanes have won 7-of-10 weekend series, including series wins at No. 12 Florida, at No. 7 Virginia, and home against No. 23 Florida State.
With just 10 regular season games remaining, Miami will play four games at home and six on the road before next month’s Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament in Durham, N.C. After Tuesday’s game against UNF, Miami will play six of its final nine on the road, including this upcoming weekend’s series at Boston College, May 1-3.
UNF REPORT
The Ospreys (17-24) are coming off a series win at home over Mercer. Last Wednesday, UNF was leading 7-5 in the seventh before the Seminoles came back for an 8-7 win. Preston Hale is the team’s top hitter, coming into Saturday’s game hitting .358 with seven homers, 28 RBI, 30 runs scored and a team-high .449 on-base percentage. Kevin Martin leads the team in both homers (8) and RBI (34) despite having only started 18 games this season. Tucker Pryor (2-2, 6.65 ERA) leads the UNF pitching staff with 18 appearances and has tallied three of the team’s five saves.
MIAMI vs. UNF
Miami is 4-1 all-time against North Florida. UM and UNF have split single games the last two seasons after the Hurricanes won three games against the Ospreys in the early 90’s. In 2007, UNF came away with a 3-2 win before Miami returned the favor last season with a 5-2 victory over UNF.
AFTER UNF
The Hurricanes will make their northernmost trip of the season this weekend when the team heads to Boston to take on Boston College in a three-game series, May 1-3. Games one and three of the series will be played at Shea Field in Chestnut Hill while Saturday’s contest will be held at Campanelli Stadium in Brockton.
`CANES TOP 20 IN ALL FIVE MAJOR POLLS
After taking two-of-three games from Virginia Tech over the weekend, the University of Miami baseball team continues to be ranked in the Top 20 all five major college baseball polls. The National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association poll has UM at No. 13 nationally this week, while the USA TODAY/ESPN Coaches Poll has the `Canes ranked 14th. In the three other polls, UM is ranked 16th by Rivals.com and 18th by both Collegiate Baseball and Baseball America.
22 in 20
Over the last 20 games, junior first baseman Jason Hagerty is hitting a team-best .384 with team-highs in hits (28), doubles (7), triples (2), RBI (25), total bases (51) and slugging percentage (.699). Hagerty is also second on the team in runs (21) and on-base percentage (.478) over that span and has at least one RBI in 15 of the last 20 contests.
WEDNESDAY’S MIAMI-FGCU GAME CANCELED
Wednesday’s baseball game between the University of Miami and Florida Gulf Coast University has been canceled. Both programs mutually agreed to cancel the game due to rigorous scheduling demands for both teams. After playing three games over the weekend against Virginia Tech, the Hurricanes (29-14) will host the University of North Florida Tuesday night before leaving Thursday for this weekend’s series at Boston College. FGCU hosts FIU on Tuesday before traveling to Johnson City, Tenn., for a weekend series at East Tennessee State. Scheduling conflicts the remainder of the season will not allow for the game to be made up. Tickets purchased for the FGCU game will be honored at any of the Bethune Cookman games, May 8-10. For more information, contact the Hurricane Ticket office at 1-800-GO-CANES.
CLOSING TIME
After picking up two more saves against Virginia Tech, closer Kyle Bellamy increased his league-leading save total to 12. Bellamy turned in three scoreless outings last week, allowing just two hits and two walks while striking out eight in five innings of work. He earned his seventh and eighth multi-inning saves of the season with 1 1/3 innings of work on Friday before tossing 2 1/3 innings in Sunday’s series finale. His 2 1/3 innings on Sunday also marked the seventh time this season that he went at least two innings. On the season, he is 3-1 with a 1.34 ERA with 12 saves. He has 52 strikeouts in 33 2/3 innings and opponents hit just .172 against him.
QUITE A STRECH
The series against Virginia Tech this past weekend was Miami’s first against a team not ranked in the Top 25 since hosting Duke, March 13-15. From March 20 to April 19 (span of 31 days), Miami played 16 games against ranked opponents, facing five ranked ACC teams in a row (No. 7 Virginia, No. 3 Georgia Tech, No. 23 Florida State, No. 20 Clemson, No. 4 North Carolina) before hosting Virginia Tech.
