March 7, 2007

Box Score

CORAL GABLES, FL - In its last scheduled game in the state of Florida, the La Salle University Baseball team dropped a 7-2 decision to the 11th-ranked Miami Hurricanes, Wednesday night at Mark Light Field.

Trailing after the first, 2-0, the Explorers answered right back in the top of the second. Dennis Burge started the frame with a walk and Davis Hewitt followed with a double to left field. He moved to third and Burge scored on the left fielder's error. The next batter, Kevin Jones knocked a single back up the middle plating Hewitt and tying the game at 2-2.

La Salle starter Dan Waters, who had won three straight starts dating back to last season, ran into trouble in the third, allowing back-to-back singles and an RBI double to Yonder Alonso to start the inning. Two straight groundball outs plated two more and Miami led 5-2.

Miami (7-5) plated two more runs in the fifth inning, as the Hurricanes 2-through-6 hitters just kept coming up with hits. Combined, they had nine of the team's 10 hits, scored all seven runs and drove in five.

La Salle (5-5) turned the game over to Craig Muschko in the fifth inning, and he silenced the Miami bats through the seventh. He worked 2.2 innings, allowing just one hit and striking out two batters.

The Explorers threatened to score in the eighth inning, as Rich Prall hit a two-out single to put runners at the corners. However, Michael Rudman struck out John Rickards to end the threat and finished off the game in the ninth.

Hurricane starter Jason Santana picked up the win, improving to 3-0 this season, while Waters fell to 2-1 with the loss. 

La Salle returns to Philadelphia and is scheduled to host 17 of its next 20 games at Hank DeVincent Field, starting with this weekend's games versus Cornell, Friday (2:30 PM) and Sunday (12 PM), and Iona, Saturday (12 PM).