June 4, 2010

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CBI Live
Hurricanes Hold off Big Green

By Christina De Nicola

Special to CollegeBaseballInsider.com

CORAL GABLES, Fla. – Through five innings, the University of Miami Hurricanes looked like the top seed during Game 2 of the Coral Gables Regional Friday at Alex Rodriguez Park at Mark Light Field.

Fueled by three three-run home runs and a solo shot, Miami jumped out to an 11-0 lead by the fourth.

But following an hour and eight-minute lightning delay, the Canes looked like a different team and had to hold off a late Dartmouth rally for a 12-8 victory.

“Wow, I’m not sure what to say,” Hurricanes coach Jim Morris said. “We played so well the first five or six innings. We came out after the lightning delay, and it was another team on the field. You just have to play nine innings.”

After leadoff hitter Zeke DeVoss struck out swinging to start the game, seven consecutive batters reached base.

The Hurricanes (41-17) took a 6-0 lead in the first with three-run home runs by Harold Martinez and Michael Broad.  For Martinez, it was his team-high 20^th dinger. Broad, who drove in four runs, notched his sixth long ball.

“It was a fastball low and in, and I was just trying to put metal on it and hit it good, and it got out,” Broad said. “It was a good feeling.”

Scott Lawson added a blast, his sixth of the year, to extend the lead to 7-0, while Chris Pelaez joined the homer parade with a three-run blast to right, his 10^th of the season.

But Miami wouldn’t score again until the eighth inning off Pelaez’s RBI single to left.

Right-hander Eric Whaley, making only his third career start, went four scoreless innings with four strikeouts.

“I felt pretty good; I felt like I was hitting my spots and mixing it up,” Whaley said. “They put the ball in play, too, and the defense did their job. All around, I thought it was a pretty good effort.”

First out of the bullpen, right-hander Joe Lovecchio (1-0) earned the win despite giving up five runs on six hits in 3.1 innings.

Charged with the loss was right-hander Kyle Hendricks (4-6) who allowed 11 runs on 10 hits in three-plus innings for the fourth-seeded Big Green (26-18).

Dartmouth, the Ivy League champion that hadn’t seen action since May 16, got on the board in the sixth when Joe Sclafani hit a two-run shot (his second of the year) to right to make it 11-2.

Soon after, the game was halted because of lightning in the area.

The Big Green produced a four-run eighth to make things interesting at 11-6 with five hits and an error. Sam Bean, who finished 4 for 5 with two runs and a RBI, got the inning started with a one-out double.

Two other relievers would take the mound before Canes closer Daniel Miranda was forced into the game with runners at the corners and one out in the ninth and the score 12-7. Sclafani already had added a solo home run in the inning, and with the tying run in the hole, Jake Carlson grounded out to Miranda for the final out.

Miami will face second-seeded Texas A&M (41-19-1) tomorrow at 4 p.m., following a game between third-seeded Florida International (36-24) and Dartmouth. 

“Certainly you’d rather have guys feeling better about themselves,” Dartmouth coach Bob Whalen said. “I think we did that in the latter part of the game, but when you play at this level you’ve got to play for nine innings.”