Wednesday, April 16, 2003

Miami tops FIU again, 6-4
Box Score

Falling behind early, the Florida International baseball team couldn’t complete a comeback bid against the University of Miam, losing 6-4 at University Park Wednesday evening. The loss spoiled a solid relief appearance by freshman Ammer Cabrera (Miami/Gulliver Prep), who struck out eight while allowing just two hits, two walks and one unearned run in six and a third innings.

Miami (28-7) jumped out to a quick lead, scoring five runs in the first two innings. In the first, Adam Ricks hit a solo home run to put Miami up 1-0. The Hurricanes then exploded for four runs, three of them unearned, in the second inning. Danny Figueroa started the scoring with a suicide squeeze bunt, and courtesy of an FIU error, Ryan Braun continued the scoring with an RBI single. FIU then walked in two more runs with the bases loaded, giving the Hurricanes a 5-0 lead.

The Golden Panthers (28-12, 6-3 SBC) cut the lead to 5-1 in the second inning on a bases loaded walk of their own. Junior outfielder Ricardo Nanita started the inning off with a walk, and senior infielder Skip Adams followed him with a single up the middle. After senior catcher Michael New got hit by a pitch, sophomore infielder Dennis Diaz drew the run-scoring walk.

FIU then tallied another run in the third. Freshman infielder Mike Lopez started the rally with a double down the right field line. He then got to third on a fielder’s choice before freshman outfielder Yahmed Yema singled to right field to drive Lopez home.

FIU continued the trend in the fourth inning with another run. New walked and afterwards Diaz and freshman infielder Luis Rivera each reached base on back-to-back bunts. Freshman infielder Bryan Pullin then cut the score to 5-3 with a groundout, scoring New from third.

In the sixth inning, Miami came back with another unearned run. Braun singled to move Danny Figueroa to third, but an errant throw got him home and gave the Hurricanes a 6-3 lead.

Once again, The Golden Panthers scored a run to answer. Diaz singled and then reached second on an error to lead things off. After reaching third on a sacrifice fly from Rivera, he scored on a sacrifice fly from Pullin to make the score 6-4.

From there, both pitching staffs controlled the game, as Miami’s George Huguet struck out three on the way to his seventh save of the season.

The Golden Panthers next take to the road for a conference series with Louisiana-Lafayette this weekend which kicks off with a Friday night opener at 6:30 p.m. Eastern.