Friday March 21, 2003

Golden Panther Baseball wins conference opener
Box Score

In the Sun Belt Conference opener for both teams, Florida International topped Arkansas-Little Rock 7-6 Friday evening in Little Rock, Ark. Junior right-hander Josh Banks set a personal best for strikeouts in a game with 12, pitching eight innings of four-hit, two-run baseball in the win.

Trojan starting pitcher Brad Cherry struck out the first six batters he faced, as the Golden Panthers struggled to get anything going. In the third inning, they finally got on track, scoring four runs to grab the lead.

Junior outfielder Fernando Alvarez started the inning by walking, and then senior catcher Michael New followed by singling to right center. Senior outfielder Solomon Frieder singled to left field to score Alvarez and give FIU a 1-0 lead. From there, sophomore infielder Dennis Diaz walked to load the bases, and freshman infielder Luis Rivera reached on an error, which scored New from third. Frieder then scored on a wild pitch before freshman infielder Mike Lopez hit an RBI groundout.

FIU added another run in the fourth inning, courtesy of an Alvarez home run to right field. The homer, which extended the Golden Panther lead to 5-0, was Alvarez’s third of the year.

The Trojans answered with a home run of their own in the bottom half of the inning, a shot down the left field line by Rick Guarno.

FIU came back with a run of its own quickly. Junior outfielder Ricardo Nanita earned the RBI on a sacrifice fly that scored Rivera.

With the score 6-1 in favor of the Golden Panthers, Guarno gave UALR another run in the bottom of the sixth inning with an RBI double.

The Golden Panthers answered again in the eighth. After Alvarez reached base on balls, New moved the runner to scoring position on a sacrifice bunt. Frieder followed him up by recording his second RBI of the day with a double to right center.

UALR made things interesting in the bottom of the ninth. After a walk, Josh Ward hit an RBI double to left center, was advanced to third on a single and scored on a wild pitch. Following two more walks with the score now at 7-4, Guarno singled through the right side for another RBI to cut the lead further. Golden Panther freshman reliever Edgar Ramirez then walked in another run before striking out the final batter to earn his fifth save of the season.

The Golden Panthers take on the Trojans in the second contest of the three-game series tomorrow afternoon at 2:00 p.m. Central Standard Time.