No. 5 Miami Travels to Atlanta to Take On No. 6 Georgia Tech
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The fifth-ranked University of Miami baseball team will make its final road trip of the 2010 regular season this weekend when the Hurricanes head to Atlanta to take on No. 6 Georgia Tech in a three-game series at Russ Chandler Stadium, May 14-16.
Miami (36-11, 18-6) – winners of seven straight and 21 of its last 25 – is currently tied with Virginia atop the Atlantic Coast Conference while Georgia Tech (39-9, 17-7) sits a game back of the `Canes and Cavaliers with two weekends to go in the regular season.
All three games between Miami and Georgia Tech will be televised live on CSS. Game times are set for 7 p.m. Friday, 7 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday.
Game one between the Hurricanes and Yellow Jackets will feature the ACC’s two most winningest active pitchers in Chris Hernandez and Deck McGuire, both of whom have 25 career wins. Hernandez (7-2, 3.04), who was named ACC Pitcher of the Week for the second time this season on Monday, leads Miami in wins, innings pitched (71) and strikeouts (76).
Following Hernandez, the Hurricanes will go with Jason Santana (5-2, 4.83) on Saturday and David Gutierrez (5-0, 3.86) on Sunday with regular weekend starter Eric Erickson receiving the weekend off to rest his arm. The Sunday start will mark Gutierrez’s first weekend start of the year after spending the first half of the season as UM’s closer before moving into the mid-week starter role most recently.
Yasmani Grandal continues to lead in the league in hitting (.421) and on-base percentage (.545), while ranking second in doubles (19) and slugging percentage (.732). Grandal not only leads all ACC hitters by a wide margin with a .471 average in conference play, but he is hitting .511 (24-for-47) with four homers, 13 RBI, 11 walks and 10 runs scored in 12 conference road games thus far.
Michael Broad and Nathan Melendres have had the hottest bats in the line-up as of late however, with the duo combining to go 26-for-61 (.426) with 15 RBI over UM’s last 10 games.
WEEKEND SCHEDULE
GAME 48: FRIDAY, MAY 14, 7 p.m.
PROBABLE STARTERS
GEORGIA TECH – RHP Deck McGuire (6-3, 3.05 ERA) @ MIAMI – LHP Chris Hernandez (7-2, 3.04)
TV: CSS
RADIO: 90.5 WVUM
GAME 49: SATURDAY, MAY 15, 7 p.m.
PROBABLE STARTERS
GEORGIA TECH – RHP Mark Pope (7-0, 3.73 ERA) @ MIAMI – RHP Jason Santana (5-2, 4.83)
TV: CSS
RADIO: 90.5 WVUM
GAME 50: SUNDAY, MAY 16, 1 p.m.
PROBABLE STARTERS
GEORGIA TECH – LHP Jed Bradley (8-2, 3.75 ERA) @ MIAMI – RHP David Gutierrez (5-0, 3.86)
TV: CSS
RADIO: 90.5 WVUM
GEORGIA TECH REPORT
The Yellow Jackets enter the weekend with an overall record of 39-9 and a conference mark of 17-7, sitting just a game back of Miami and Virginia for the Coastal Division lead. After dropping back-to-back ACC series versus Virginia Tech and NC State, Georgia Tech bounced back with a three-game sweep of Illinois-Chicago this past weekend in Atlanta. Five Yellow Jackets have recorded double-digit homers this year, led by Tony Plagman (.375) and Matt Skole (.354) who are tied for the team-lead with 15. Thomas Nichols is the team’s top hitter, coming in with a .384 average, while Jeff Rowland (.342) has a team-high 65 runs scored. The pitching staff is anchored by right-handed ace Deck McGuire (6-3, 3.05), who will start in the opener for the Yellow Jackets. Andrew Robinson (4-0, 2.63 ERA) boasts the team’s lowest ERA and has a team-high five saves.
MIAMI-GEORGIA TECH ALL-TIME SERIES
Miami is 46-24 all-time versus Georgia Tech. Jim Morris owns a mark of 23-14 against the Yellow Jackets as Miami’s head coach, including a record of 9-6 in Atlanta. The Hurricanes have won 8 of the last 10 meetings with the Yellow Jackets, including a sweep their last time in Atlanta in 2008.
AFTER GEORGIA TECH
The Hurricanes will play their final mid-week game of the 2010 season when they play host to Florida Gulf Coast on Tuesday, May 18 at 6 p.m. at Alex Rodriguez Park.
COASTAL DIVISION UPDATE
Miami is currently tied with Virginia atop the ACC standings with an 18-6 mark in league play, while Georgia Tech is a game back at 17-7. The Coastal Division boasts four of the five best teams in the league currently, with fourth-place Virginia Tech owning a 14-10 record. North Carolina is fifth in the Coastal with an 11-13 record while Duke is sixth at 7-17. In addition to Miami playing at Georgia Tech, North Carolina visits Virginia this weekend while Duke plays at Virginia Tech.
ERA KINGS
Miami’s pitching staff currently boasts the the eighth-lowest ERA in the country and the lowest in the ACC (3.43) as well as the lowest ERA in league play (3.22). Nine UM pitchers that have logged double-digit innings this year own ERAs under four, including E.J. Encinosa who owns a 1.66 ERA in 38 innings of work. The last time a Miami team finished the season with an ERA under four was in 2004, when the Hurricanes finished with a 3.73 ERA. The last time the staff finished with an earned run average under 3.70 was 1996.
POWER SURGE
After hitting just 24 home runs through the season’s first 23 games, Miami has hit 49 over its last 24, including five last weekend against Barry. Eight Hurricanes have hit five home runs or more this season, led by Harold Martinez’s 14 and Yasmani Grandal’s 10. The `Canes have 73 home runs as a team already this year, five more than they hit all of last year.
