April 23, 2008

Box Score

CORAL GABLES, Fla. - Florida International scored a pair of insurance runs in the top of the ninth as the Golden Panthers held on to defeat No. 1 Miami, 6-3, Wednesday night at Mark Light Field. The Hurricanes (33-5) were held off the board until the seventh inning while the Golden Panthers (14-29) recorded a run in the third, three in the sixth and two more in the ninth to secure the three-run victory.

Jemile Weeks hit his ninth homer of the season and went 1-for-4 for the Hurricanes, who put together just six hits. Miami used six different pitchers with Anthony Nalepa (2-1) suffering the loss in his first career start. Nalepa allowied one run on three hits in four innings of work before giving way to Rene Guerra in the fifth. Guerra, P.J. Fisher, Alex Koronis, Michael Rudman and Kyle Bellamy combined to allow five runs over the final five innings.

FIU starter Eric Horstmann tossed three scoreless innings in his fourth start of the season but reliever James Lajiness earned the win. Lajiness (3-0) allowed three runs on four hits and three walks in 4 2/3 innings before giving way to Jorge Marban, who earned his second save of the season in 1 1/3 shutout innings. John Petika and Tyler Townsend each went 2-for-4 for FIU.

The Hurricanes rallied to within a run in the bottom of the seventh as UM plated its first three runs in the inning highlighted by a Weeks' two-run blast down the line in right. Adan Severino tripled to right-center to lead off the inning and scored two batters later on a Yasmani Grandal grounder to second for UM's first run of the night making it, 4-1. After a Blake Tekotte walk, Weeks made it 4-3 with his ninth home run of the season.

Miami threatened in the bottom of the eighth. With one out, back-to-back singles by Mark Sobolewski and Ryan Jackson put runners on first and second. Severino then flew out to right for the second out of the inning before Dave DiNatale walked to load the bases. Grandal followed DiNatale with a drive deep to right but Raimy Fuentes got the Golden Panthers out of the jam after he pulled it down with his back against the fence.

FIU then extended its lead in the ninth to 6-3. Pinch-runner Chris Altieri scored from third on a squeeze play for the fifth run before another pinch runner -- Lamar Guy - plated FIU's last run on a Mollica single to left.

A Mollica sacrifice fly to left brought home Ty Main -- who had doubled earlier to lead off the inning -- from third to give FIU the first run of the game.

The Golden Panthers pushed their lead to 4-0 in the sixth with three more runs. After Fuentes walked and reached third on a Townsend double, he scored the night's second run on a Steven Stropp sacrifice fly to right. With runners on the corners after a Javier Sujo walk, a passed ball scored Townsend to put FIU up 3-0 before the third run of the inning came when a John Petika double down the line in right scored Sujo from second to give the Golden Panthers the four-run advantage.

UM will remain at home this weekend when they play host to No. 16 Virginia, April 25-27. Game times are set for 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and 12 p.m. on Sunday.

Game Notes

-Junior Jemile Weeks extended his current hitting streak to nine straight games with his ninth homer of the season in the seventh.

-Junior Blake Tekotte stole his team-leading 19^th base of the season.

-With the loss, Miami snapped its seven-game winning streak over FIU.