Miami Rally Falls Short In 4-3 Loss To Virginia
May 15, 2005
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Miami came up on the short end of the third one-run game of its series against Virginia, losing 4-3 to the Cavaliers Sunday afternoon at Davenport Field. The Hurricanes dropped to 38-12-1 overall and 19-7-1 in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Virginia improved to 33-17 overall and 11-14 in the ACC.
Trailing 4-1, the `Canes loaded the bases against Virginia reliever Casey Lambert in the ninth on a pair of leadoff walks to Danny Valencia and Brendan Katin and a two-out single up the middle by Alex Garabedian. Danny Figueroa singled to right to bring in Valencia and Katin and put the score at 4-3. The game ended when Lambert forced Paco Figueroa to ground out to second.
It was a day of missed opportunities for the Hurricanes, who left eight runners stranded and hit into three double plays. Miami out-hit Virginia, 11-10, but could not find a hit with runners in scoring position until the ninth inning.
UM starter Manny Miguelez (1-1) threw two complete innings and gave up three earned runs on six hits with a walk, strikeout and wild pitch and was charged with his first loss of the season. Ricky Orta pitched five innings of solid relief, allowing one run on three hits with four strikeouts and no walks.
Mike Ballard moved his record to 8-3 on the season, pitching six-plus innings and eight hits and one earned run for the Cavaliers. Lambert picked up his 12th save of the season for UVA despite giving up three hits and two earned runs in relief.
Miguelez dug himself an early hole, allowing the first five Cavalier hitters to reach base on a walk and four hits, including RBI singles from Ryan Zimmerman and Sean Doolittle that put Virginia up 2-0 with no outs in the first. Brandon Guyer was called for interference sliding into second base on a ball hit by Scott Headd, resulting in a double play and preventing another Virginia run from scoring. Ryan Braun made a nifty bare-handed play to end the inning.
Zimmerman knocked in his second run of the game in the second inning with an RBI single to left for a 3-0 Virginia advantage.
The Hurricanes got on the board in the third with a two-out RBI single to left from Paco Figueroa that scored Eddy Rodriguez from third.
Orta took the mound for Miami to start the third and gave up a leadoff single to Guyer, who advanced to second on a passed ball and scored on a single from Headd for a 4-1 advantage.
Lambert spelled Ballard after he gave up consecutive singles up the middle to Diaz and Katin to start the seventh inning. Lambert worked his way out of the situation by getting Rodriguez to fly out to left and turned a 1-4-3 double play on a check swing by pinch-hitter Alex Garabedian.
Lambert avoided another Hurricane scoring threat in the eighth after giving up a leadoff triple to Danny Figueroa and walking Paco Figueroa by striking out Ryan Braun and forcing Jon Jay to hit into a 4-6-3 double play.
Miami closes out the regular season with a three-game series at Clemson May 19-21.
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