Hurricanes Take Down Gators 6-4

Chris Diaz (2-0) stays unbeaten as the Miami Hurricanes defeated the Florida Gators 6-4 Friday night at Mark Light Field. The junior left-hander survived a rocky first inning in which he surrendered three runs on four hits as the Gators rushed out to a 3-0 lead. Diaz steadied the ship and did not allow another run, going seven innings, giving up eight hits and striking out three.

Freshman RHP Bryan Garcia came in to pitch the eighth and ninth innings to pick up the save. Garcia allowed one run on two hits while striking out three of the eight batters he faced.

Miami inched back into the game in the bottom of the second inning when Alex Hernandez doubled in Brad Fieger and Willie Abreu to cut the Florida lead to 3-2. The Canes tied the game in the third when David Thompson scored on a wild pitch by Gator starter Bobby Poyner. Moments later freshman Willie Abreu connected on an opposite field home run that just cleared the left-field fence giving Miami a 4-3 lead, a lead which they would not relinquish.

Dale Carey led off the fifth with a long home run to put the Hurricanes up 5-3 and knock Poyner (1-1) out of the game. Poyner suffered the loss pitching 4+ innings allowing five runs on five hits.

Garrett Kennedy launched a solo homer to right-field off Florida reliever Shaun Anderson in the bottom of the sixth to expand the Miami lead to 6-3.

With the victory Miami improves to 3-2 on the season and increases their all-time series lead over the Gators to 125-109-1.

Miami and Florida will continue the series Saturday night at 7pm. The game can be viewed on ESPN3 while 560WQAM will have the radio broadcast.

Sensational junior Bryan Radziewski will get the start for the Hurricanes.