Thursday, April 10, 2003

Golden Panthers beat Wildcats 4-1
Box Score

In a low-scoring affair, the Florida International baseball team edged Bethune-Cookman 4-1 Thursday afternoon in Daytona Beach, Fla. The win was keyed by junior righthander Josh Banks, who pitched six and a third innings, gave up one walk, allowed one run and struck out four.

FIU (28-11, 6-3 SBC) staked a 2-0 lead in the second inning. Senior infielder Skip Adams got on base first with a successful bunt and junior outfielder Fernando Alvarez got him to third with a single. Junior catcher Mario Monreal scored Adams with a single through the left side. Freshman infielder Luis Rivera then extended his hitting streak to 21 straight games with a single to center, which scored Alvarez.

BCC finally got on the board in the bottom of the fifth inning, thanks to an RBI single from Luis Turmero. The play scored Alberto Meran who had singled earlier in the inning.

The Golden Panthers quickly got the run back in the sixth inning, with help from BCC. Senior outfielder Solomon Frieder grounded to the pitcher with two outs, but made it safely to first. After stealing second, Frieder proceeded to reach third on a passed ball and then made it home on another passed ball, putting FIU back up 3-1.

FIU got into a little trouble in the seventh inning, loading the bases with just one out. However, sophomore righthander Derek DeCarlo entered in relief to strike out the final two batters of the inning. The Wildcats loaded the bases again in the eighth inning, but once again couldn’t score as DeCarlo got the final batter to fly out.

The Golden Panthers did manage to score in the ninth. Freshman infielder David San Juan tripled to score Monreal, who had singled earlier in the inning.

From there, BCC couldn’t score as they dropped to 15-19 on the season.

The Golden Panthers return home to host Miami (Fla.) Wednesday evening at 7:00 p.m. at University Park. The game will be broadcast on Radiate 88, FIU’s student radio station, and on Spanish Radio WRHC 1550 AM. The student broadcast can be heard on 88.1 FM in Miami or on the Internet at http://wrgp.fiu.edu/sports.