March 31, 2008

 

CORAL GABLES, Fla. - The Miami Hurricanes Baseball team is now ranked No. 2 in the country in three of the major college baseball polls. After adding to its eight-game winning streak with a 4-0 week last week, the Hurricanes remained the No. 2 team in the country in the National Collegiate Baseball Writer's Association (NCBWA) poll and climbed to No. 2 in both the USA Today/ESPN Top 25 coaches' poll and Baseball America poll released Monday.

 

Miami (21-2, 9-1 ACC) is one of three Atlantic Coast Conference teams ranked in the top five - No. 3 Florida State and No. 4 North Carolina. UM remained No. 2 in the Rivals.com poll. The Hurricanes jumped to No. 3 in the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper poll.

 

The Hurricanes will host FAU Tuesday at Mark Light Field at 7 p.m., before traveling across town to face FIU Wednesday at 6 p.m. at University Park. Tuesday's game can be heard locally on WQAM (560AM) and WVUM (90.5 FM).

 

Miami is fresh off its fourth straight ACC series win after sweeping Duke, 7-5, in 10 innings Friday and 8-1 Saturday. Sunday's game was rained out. Senior right-hander Enrique Garcia got on track turning in his best pitching performance of the season as he three-hit the Blue Devils through eight innings and struck out five in his first win of 2008. Junior Blake Tekotte continued his streak going 5-for-10 with a pair of runs and one RBI against Duke. Tekotte is hot at the plate lately hitting .529 (18-for-34) during a 10-game hitting streak. He's owned a .644 on-base percentage and gone 7-of-8 in stolen bases. 

 

The Hurricanes bring a .337 team batting average into the week while the pitching staff has compiled a 3.45 team ERA. The team has hit .352 during its eight-game hitting streak while teams are hitting just .216 against a pitching staff that has 73 K's in 73 innings.

 

FAU (16-9) is led by one of the top home run hitters in the country in right fielder Mike McKenna, who is hitting 408 with 42 hits, six doubles, 46 RBI and 13 homers, which ranks second nationally. As a team, the Owls hit .329 and have already hit 48 home runs in 25 games. FAU's pitching staff has a 5.78 team ERA.

 

Miami sophomore RHP John Housey (2-0, 5.71 ERA) is slated for his fourth straight start on Tuesday and will face FAU left-hander Jeff Beliveau (1-1, 4.01 ERA).

 

FAU and Miami have met 23 times with the Hurricanes owning a 20-3 lead all-time. Tuesday night's game will be the first of three meetings between the teams this season. The two teams have not met since 2004 and have not played a regular season game since 2003.

  

 

NCBWA Mar. 31 Division I Poll (www.ncbwa.com)

Rank-School-Conference-Overall Record-Previous Rank (Records Through Mar. 23)

1 Arizona State Pacific-10 25-1 1

2 Miami (Fla.) Atlantic Coast 21-2 2

3 Florida State ACC 23-3 4

4 North Carolina ACC 21-5 3

5 UC Irvine Big West 19-3 9

6 Vanderbilt Southeastern 18-6 11

7 South Carolina SEC 18-7 7

8 Wichita State Missouri Valley 20-3 13

9 Long Beach State Big West 17-7 5

10 Missouri Big 12 20-5 8

11 Arizona Pac-10 14-9 6

12 Virginia ACC 23-5 15

13 Texas Big 12 18-8 10

14 Kentucky SEC 22-4 14

15 Rice Conference USA 19-9 12

16 Texas A&M Big 12 21-6 20

17 Clemson ACC 18-8 19

18 San Diego West Coast 19-10 16

19 Cal State Fullerton Big West 15-9 21

20 California Pac-10 18-5-1 28

21 Coastal Carolina Big South 21-6 18

22 Nebraska Big 12 21-4-1 30

23 Oklahoma State Big 12 18-8 22

24 Georgia Tech ACC 22-5 27

25 Florida SEC 20-6 26

26 Oregon State Pac-10 13-8 25

27 Mississippi SEC 16-11 17

28 UCLA Pac-10 12-10 24

29 Baylor Big 12 16-9 23

30 UNC Wilmington Colonial 21-4 NR

 

USA TODAY/ESPN TOP 25 COACHES' POLL -- March 31, 2008

  The USA TODAY/ESPN Top 25 baseball coaches' poll, with RECORDS THROUGH SUNDAY, total points based on 25 points for first place through one point for 25th, ranking in last week's poll and first-place votes received:

                                                                                                                     Last week's                First-place

  Rank         School (record)                                   Points                             rank                           votes

 1.                Arizona State (25-1)                                 775                                   1                                 31

  2.               Miami (Fla.) (21-2)                                 714                                    3                                    0

  3.               Florida State (23-3)                                  711                                    2                                    0

  4.               North Carolina (21-5)                               636                                    4                                    0

  5.               UC-Irvine (19-3)                                       588                                    7                                    0

  6.               South Carolina (18-7)                              532                                    9                                    0

  7.               Missouri (20-5)                                        504                                    6                                    0

  8.               Vanderbilt (18-6)                                     430                                    13                                  0

  9.               Long Beach State (17-7)                         429                                    5                                    0

  10.             Nebraska (21-4-1)                                   415                                    17                                  0

  11.             Wichita State (20-3)                                 413                                    11                                  0

  12.             California (18-5-1)                                   385                                    19                                  0

  13.             Florida (20-6)                                           347                                    18                                  0

  14.             Texas (18-8)                                            343                                    10                                  0

  15.             Virginia (23-5)                                          327                                    15                                  0

  16.             Rice (19-9)                                               314                                    12                                  0

  17.             Kentucky (22-4)                                       307                                    14                                  0

  18.             Arizona (14-9)                                         262                                    8                                    0

  19.             Texas A&M (21-6)                                   226                                    22                                  0

  20.             Stanford (12-7)                                        186                                    21                                  0

  21.             Georgia Tech (22-5)                                163                                    NR                                  0

  22.             Coastal Carolina (21-6)                            159                                    20                                  0

  23. (tie)      Cal State Fullerton (15-9)                         121                                    25                                  0

  23. (tie)      Mississippi (16-11)                                  121                                    16                                  0

  25.             San Diego (19-10)                                     89                                    23                                  0

 

BASEBALL AMERICA (3/31/08)

Rank, School                         Rec         LW          Prev

1. Arizona State                      25-1         3-0           1

2. Miami                                 21-2         4-0           4

3. North Carolina                     21-5         3-1           3

4. Missouri                               20-5         2-3           2

5. UC Irvine                              19-3         3-1           7

6. Florida State                        23-3         4-1           8

7. California                             18-5         3-1           11

8. Vanderbilt                            18-6         4-0           9

9. South Carolina                     18-7         3-2           10

10. Long Beach State             17-7         1-4           5

11. Nebraska                           21-4         4-1           19

12. Wichita State                     20-3         6-0           16

13. Stanford                            12-7         3-2           17

14. Virginia                              23-5         4-1           21

15. Rice                                   19-9         2-3           12

16. Texas                                18-8         2-2           13

17. San Diego                          19-10       3-3           14

18. Arizona                             14-9         1-4           6

19. Florida                               20-6         3-2           24

20. UNC Wilmington 21-4         4-0           NR

21. Kentucky                           22-4         2-2           18

22. Michigan                            14-6         5-0           25

23. UCLA                 12-10       2-2           23

24. Coastal Carolina                21-6         3-2           22

25. Cal State Fullerton             15-9         3-1           NR