Sunday, March 17, 2002

Price collects 900th career win as FIU defeats Kansas State, 16-10

IU (20-4) head coach Danny Price earned his 900th career win as the Golden Panthers defeated Kansas State (9-7) 16-10 Sunday afternoon. It was the 10th consecutive win for FIU as the two teams combined for 38 hits and eight errors. Price became the 35th all-time coach to reach the 900-career win mark.

Offensively, Brad Eldred led the Golden Panthers going 4-5 with a double and a home run and Dean Adams was also 4-5 with a triple and a double. Freshman Dennis Diaz tied the school record with five stolen bases in the game going 3-4 with two RBI and four runs scored.

The Wildcats got on the board in the first as Osmar Castillo doubled to lead off and scored on Mark Montogomery's sacrifice fly.

In the bottom of the first Adams tripled to left center and scored on Bernie Gonzalez' fourth home run of the year and Eldred followed with his 10th home run of the year, to give FIU the 3-1 lead.

FIU opened the lead with five runs in the third. Adams hit a RBI single bringing in Diaz and Alex Suarez followed with a RBI double scoring Eldred. Suarez extended his hitting streak to eight games. Hector Nunez hit a sacrifice fly to right field knocking in Tommy Duenas. Adam Summerell added another RBI single scoring Suarez and Diaz scored on an Alex Ansoleaga groundout.

Kansas State closed the lead to 9-5 after four runs in the fourth. Tim Foley hit a solo home run to right field and Jason Long scored an error by Eldred. Castillo came in on Pat Maloney's RBI single and Ty Soto followed with another RBI single bringing in Montogomery.

The Golden Panthers regained the four runs as Diaz hit a two-run single scoring Duenas and Nunez and Ansoleaga added another two-run single knocking in Diaz and Summerell.

In the fifth Ryan Baldwin closed the lead to 13-6 with a solo home run to left field to lead off the fifth inning. FIU starter Derek DeCarlo was replaced with one out in the inning by Matthew Crandall as Derek DeCarlo allowed back-to-back singles by Long and Castillo. DeCarlo finished pitching 4.1 innings allowing four earned runs on 10 hits while striking out six.

FIU added one run in the fifth and sixth innings. In the fifth Duenas hit a sacrifice fly scoring Gonzalez and in the sixth Adams collected his fourth hit of the ballgame with a double and scored on Gonzalez' double to give FIU the 15-6 lead.

Kansas State scored two runs in the seventh as Foley scored on a throwing error by Ansoleaga and Castillo on a RBI single by Maloney to close the lead to 15-10.

The Golden Panthers will look to extend their winning streak to 11 as they host Rutgers tomorrow night at 7pm at University Park.