Friday, April 18, 2003

Golden Panthers jump on Cajuns 5-1, lead series 1-0
Box Score

Led by another dominating performance by junior right-hander Josh Banks, the Florida International baseball team defeated Louisiana-Lafayette 5-1 Friday night in the first of a three-game Sun Belt Conference series. Banks (8-1) went seven innings in the win, striking out 10 and allowing just one run.

Pitching dominated the contest early, as Lafayette’s Kevin Ardoin fanned the first three batters he faced, and Banks followed suit in the bottom half of the opening stanza with two strikeouts of his own.

FIU (29-12, 7-3 SBC) grabbed a run in the second inning to go up 1-0. Junior outfielder Ricardo Nanita singled through the right side and stole second base to get the offense going. Freshman outfielder Yahmed Yema then singled through the middle, scoring Nanita from second.

The Ragin’ Cajuns (15-25, 6-7 SBC) scored a run in the third to tie the game up. Dallas Morris tripled to left center before Corey Coles hit a sacrifice fly to left field to bring him home.

The Golden Panthers answered with two runs in the next inning. Freshman infielder Mike Lopez singled through the right side and Nanita walked. Senior infielder Skip Adams then hit a sacrifice bunt to advance both runners. Finally, freshman infielder Luis Rivera singled to bring both runners home and extend his hitting streak to 23 straight games, joining Oriol Perez (1983) at fifth place all-time in FIU history.

In the sixth inning, FIU scored once again. Nanita led off the inning by walking, and Adams followed with a single to keep his own hitting streak alive (14 straight games), advancing Nanita to third. Yema then hit a sacrifice fly to score Nanita from third and give FIU a 4-1 lead.

Freshman infielder Bryan Pullin got the Golden Panthers another run in the eighth inning. Pullin led off the inning with a single through the right side, advanced to second on a Lopez sacrifice bunt, and then got to third on a flyout. Adams drove him home by singling through the left side.

The Golden Panthers face the Ragin’ Cajuns in the second game of the series tomorrow afternoon at 3:00 p.m. Eastern.