No. 15 Miami and FAU Conclude Yearly Series on Tuesday
May 16, 2011
Complete Release in PDF Format 
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The No. 15 University of Miami baseball team is set to host its final non-conference opponent of the 2011 regular season Tuesday, May, 17, welcoming South Florida foe Florida Atlantic University to Alex Rodriguez Park at 6 p.m. Gates will open at 4:30 p.m.
Miami (32-18) is preparing for a rigorous week, playing four games in five days – beginning with the Owls of Florida Atlantic (30-20) out of the Sun Belt Conference, and concluding with its final ACC series with Duke. This will be the rubber match of the yearly series between the Hurricanes and Owls, with the series standing at 1-all – and the home team winning each of the contests to date. UM took the last contest in Coral Gables on March 15, using a 7-3 advantage behind the pitching of sophomore Steven Ewing.
The Hurricanes are coming into the week after a tough weekend at top-ranked Virginia, where UMiami took the opening game of the three-game tilt, before the Cavaliers bounced back for a pair of one-run victories in two classic pitching duels. UM enters Tuesday’s contest having won 10 of its last 11 non-conference outings – dropping the last game to Hofstra in the three-game series finale on May 8 at Alex Rodriguez Park.
Miami is led offensively by junior center fielder Nathan Melendres with a .329 batting average on 50 hits (12 doubles, two triples) and fellow junior left fielder/designated hitter Rony Rodriguez hitting at a .306 clip with 49 hits – including a team-leading nine home runs and 32 RBI. Over the weekend at Virginia, Rodriguez hit his ninth homer of the season with a shot to left field in the upset win over the top-ranked Cavaliers as part of the series-opener on May 13.
Sophomore outfielder/infielder Zeke DeVoss leads the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) with 28 stolen bases, as well as helping the Hurricanes with a team second-best 52 hits – adding 11 doubles, three triples and a team-high 47 walks (third most in the league). Freshman third baseman Brad Fieger and junior first baseman Harold Martinez each hold a .293 batting average, while Fieger has a team-high 54 hits and team-high matching 12 doubles. At the plate, Fieger has just 19 strikeouts in a team-leading 184 at-bats.
On Tuesday, Miami will send sophomore left-hander Steven Ewing to the mound for the third time this season against the Owls. Ewing enters working on a 7-1 record – his only loss being a 7-4 setback in Boca Raton against FAU in his first start of the season. Following back-to-back no-decision contests at USF and at home against Illinois State, Ewing has collected seven consecutive wins in posting a team-leading 2.49 ERA – good for seventh place in the league.
In his last outing against the Owls, Ewing went six innings on the bump, giving up three unearned runs on just two hits while striking out eight FAU batters and walking two in the win.
FAU will counter tomorrow night with right-hander Jake Meiers, who also started the last contest against UMiami on March 15. Meiers owns a record of 4-5 on the campaign, and uses an ERA of 4.83. Meiers took the loss in the last game against the Hurricanes, going 5 1/3 innings with seven runs (four earned) on six hits and striking out three with three walks.
For ticket information, please call 1-800-GO-CANES or visit Hurricanesports.com. Tickets may also be picked up at the Alex Rodriguez Park ticket office two hours prior to the start of the contest.
Live stats for the game will be provided through Game Tracker at HurricaneSports.com. Fans can also join the live chat, provided by Cover It Live, by visiting HurricaneSports.com as well. The game will be streamed live via Canes All-Access, also located at HurricaneSports.com.
For more information on the University of Miami baseball team, please log on to HurricaneSports.com. To follow the UM Baseball Team via twitter, please navigate to Twitter.com/CanesBaseball. You can also access the official UMiami Baseball blog at TheUBaseball.com.
Fans can keep up-to-date with all UM Athletics via twitter at Twitter.com/HurricaneSports. You can also become a fan of the Canes on Facebook at Facebook.com/MiamiHurricanes.
SCOUTING FAU
Florida Atlantic enters the game with a 30-20 record, and holds a record of 16-11 in the Sun Belt Conference. The Owls are led at the dish by six players hitting above a .300 mark, starting at the top with left fielder Alex Hudak, now staking a .383 average on a team-leading 67 hits (15 doubles, three home runs). Behind him are shortstop Nick Delguidice (.337) and Raymond Church (.332). Delguidice leads the Owls with 40 RBI and 19 doubles, while Dan Scheffler and Andy Mee each lead the team in homers with four apiece.
MIAMI VS. FAU ALL-TIME SERIES
Miami leads the all-time series with FAU, 48-9, with the two teams splitting two games played this season – as the home team won each contest in Boca Raton and Coral Gables, respectively. FAU took the series-opener on Feb. 23, using a 7-4 decision, and UM came back for a 7-3 win on March 15. UM has won eight of the last 10 meetings between the two schools.
POLL POSITION
The University of Miami jumped a spot to No. 15 in the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper poll this week after taking a game in a three-game tilt with top-ranked University of Virginia over the weekend in Charlottesville, Va. The Hurricanes also jumped a spot to No. 22 in the NCBWA poll. UMiami stayed at No. 16 in the Baseball America poll, and hopped a spot to No. 22 in the USA Today/ESPN Coaches Poll.
WEEKEND RECAP (at No. 1 Virginia)
The University of Miami went 1-2 at top-ranked University of Virginia over the weekend, with the Hurricanes defeating the Cavaliers in the series-opener against the ACC’s top statistical pitcher, left-hander Danny Hultzen. The Hurricanes defeated the Cavs, 6-2, on Friday night, before dropping a pair of tough one-run contests (3-2 & 5-4) on Saturday and Sunday, respectively. The Canes mounted comebacks against the Cavaliers in the top of the ninth in both the second and third game of the series, but were just short in their efforts as UVa closer Branden Kline collected the save each day.
