June 17, 2008

No. 1 Miami eliminates No. 4 Florida State

Seminoles get 18 hits, leave 17 on base

Big off the Bench

More Missed Opportunities

By Ben Trittipoe

CollegeBaseballInsider.com

OMAHA, Neb. – When Florida State and Miami meet in any sport, there is little love lost between the teams and their fans.

Throw in the fact that the two baseball teams were meeting in an elimination game Monday afternoon at the 2008 College World Series, and the intensity level rose through the roof at Rosenblatt Stadium

In the end, Miami got the better of its cross-state rival as the Hurricanes held off a Florida State rally in the ninth inning to defeat the Seminoles, 7-5, before 17,251 in Game 5 of the CWS.

Miami (53-10) advanced to meet the Stanford-Georgia loser on Wednesday at 7 p.m. ET. Florida State (54-14) was eliminated from the tournament with the loss.

“It was just a normal Florida State-Miami game,” Miami head coach Jim Morris said. “It always seems to come down to one run. My heart can’t take too many more of those. It was a great job by our guys, a total team effort.”

“If you had told me before the game we would get 18 hits and not commit an error, I’d have liked our chances,” Florida State head coach Mike Martin said. “But you have to credit Miami. Their pitching got the job done.”

Trailing 7-2 entering the top of the ninth, the Seminoles began to rally against Miami closer Carlos Gutierrez. Stuart Tapley, Tyler Holt and Jason Stidham each drove in runs to pull FSU within 7-5, and the Seminoles loaded the bases with Jack Rye coming to the plate. But the Hurricanes turned his groundball up the middle into a force out at second to clinch the victory.

Florida State had many opportunities to score in the game, but it left seven runners on base in the first three innings and 17 for the game. That total tied a CWS record for most runners left on base in a nine-inning game (Springfield vs. Oklahoma in 1951).

A key to that number of stranded runners was the Miami pitching staff. Hurricanes starter David Gutierrez was forced out of the game when hit in the arm with a batted ball in the second inning, turning things over to Eric Erickson (9-1). Erickson responded with five solid innings, allowing one run on eight hits while walking two and striking out six, and Kyle Bellamy followed with two shutout innings.

“FSU is a phenomenal hitting team,” Erickson said. “They’re going to be on base every inning. I don’t mind pitching with runners on base and I was fortunate to make my pitches.”

The Seminoles drew first blood against David Gutierrez in the top of the first as Dennis Guinn hit a run-scoring double for a 1-0 lead. Miami, however, rallied in the bottom of the third. Jemile Weeks (left, photo courtesy of Miami Media Relations Office) blasted a two-run home run, his 13th of the season and second in the tournament, to put the Hurricanes in front and Dennis Raben added a two-run single for a 4-1 advantage.

The Seminoles got a run back in the fourth as Buster Posey doubled to drive in Mike McGee. The Hurricanes appeared to clinch the victory with two runs in the seventh on Jason Hagerty’s two-run single and Blake Tekotte added his 13th homer, a solo shot, in the eighth.

Posey had four hits and Holt, Guinn and Tommy Oravetz each added three to lead the Florida State offense, while starting pitcher Elih Villanueva (7-4) took the loss on the mound. Ryan Jackson had three hits to pace the Hurricanes.