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April 23, 2006
CORAL GABLES, Fla. (www.hurricanesports.com) - Miami freshman Jemile Weeks hit a walk-off single in the bottom of the 10th inning to snap an 8-8 tie and give the Hurricanes a 9-8 victory against Virginia at Mark Light Field on Sunday afternoon. The 19th-ranked Hurricanes improved to 27-15 and 12-9 in ACC play, while the No. 17 Cavaliers' (34-10 overall, 13-8) nine-game winning streak ended in the loss.
A game that featured four lead changes and four ties swung in Miami's favor in the 10th inning. Walter Diaz drew a leadoff walk and moved to second on Tommy Giles' sac bunt. Jon Jay was intentionally walked, bringing Weeks to the plate with one out. Diaz moved on Alex Smith's 3-1 delivery to Weeks, who drove the ball to center to bring home the winning run.
Chris Perez (2-1) earned the victory, pitching the final three innings for Miami and giving up two runs on four hits with four strike outs and one walk. Miami starter Scott Maine went six innings and gave up six runs, five earned, on eight hits with five strike outs and three walks in the no-decision.
Smith (0-1) took the loss going one-third of an inning giving up one run on one hit and two walks. Virginia starter Mike Ballard went allowed five runs, four earned, on nine hits with four strike outs for no decision.
Giles, who had missed the last five games due to injury, came off the bench to go 2-for-2 with a double and game-tying two-run home run. Yonder Alonso went 3-for-5 with two singles, a double and a RBI. Eddy Rodriguez homered and Jon Jay went 2-for-4 with two stolen bases.
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Patrick Wingfield went 3-for-4 with three singles and three RBI in for Virginia. Tom Hagan went 3-for-4 with two singles and a double.
Virginia opened the scoring in the second. Maine hit Brandon Guyer and gave up a ground-rule double to Hagan to put runners at second and third with one out. Wingfield hit a sac fly to right to drive in Guyer for the 1-0 lead.
Blake Tekotte tied the game in Miami's half of the second with a RBI single to center that drove Alonso from second base.
Wingfield struck again in the fourth, hitting a two-out, two-run single up the middle to score Sean Doolittle and Hagan for a 3-1 Virginia lead.
The Hurricanes battled back in its half of the fourth to claim their first lead of the game. Rodriguez homered to left on the first pitch of the inning to close the gap to 3-2. Alonso followed with a single to right and moved to third when Doolittle threw the ball away on Roger Tomas' sacrifice bunt attempt. Tekotte singled to right to drive in Alonso and tie the game at 3-3. Nick Freitas laid down a sac bunt to move Tekotte and Tomas to second and third. Jay's sac fly to center scored Tomas to put Miami ahead, 4-3.
O'Brien and Rodriguez hit consecutive one-out singles in the fifth to put runners at the corners for Miami. Alonso grounded out to first to push O'Brien across the plate for a 5-3 lead.
Virginia cut the gap to 5-4 in the sixth on Beau Seabury's double that scored Hagan.
The Cavaliers took a 6-5 lead with two runs in the seventh. Maine loaded the bases without retiring a batter and was spelled by Danny Gil. Gil got David Adams to ground the ball to second base, but Weeks' throw on an attempted double play went into the dugout and Greg Miclat and Brandon Marsh scored.
Virginia padded its lead in the eighth on a RBI single from Miclat.
Miami came back again in its half of the eight to retake the lead, 8-7. Giles hit a two-run blast to right to tie the game. Jay and Weeks executed a double-steal of second and third. Seabury's throw was off at second, allowing Jay to score and put Miami up 8-7.
Adams tied the game in the top of the ninth for Virginia, 8-8, on Perez's wild pitch with the bases loaded.
NOTES: This was Miami's first extra inning game of the season ... the 3.0 innings was Perez's longest outing of the season ... Nick Freitas made his first career start in right field ... Miami's 16 hits were the most since it had 16 hits against Manhattan on March 15.
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