No. 10 Miami Rolls Past Manhattan, 18-1

No. 10 Miami Rolls Past Manhattan, 18-1

Junior lefty Chris Hernandez struck out nine and junior catcher Yasmani Grandal drove in five runs as the 10th-ranked University of Miami baseball team picked up its fifth straight win to open the 2010 season with a 18-1 blowout victory over Manhattan Saturday night at Alex Rodriguez Park at Mark Light Field.
The 5-0 start is the best start for a UM team since the 2003 team opened the season 8-0. The `Canes have now scored 56 runs through their first five games - the highest total for a UM team since the 1992 team plated 72 runs through five contests.

Hernandez (1-0) earned his first win of the year and 19th of his career, allowing just one run on three hits in seven innings of work. Grandal finished 2-for-5 with one run scored while David Villasuso and Harold Martinez each had two hits and three RBI.

Manhattan starter Tom Costigan suffered the loss, allowing six runs on three hits while walking five and striking out one in 4 2/3 innings. Ramon Ortega led the Jaspers at the plate going 2-for-3 with an RBI.

The `Canes took advantage of timely hitting, a season-high 10 walks and six Manhattan errors en route to the 17-run victory. Miami's momentum from the late innings Friday night carried right over into Saturday's game as the `Canes scored five runs in the bottom of the first. After the first run came across on a wild pitch, Martinez and Rodriguez each hit two-run homers as Martinez blasted a shot to right two batters before Rodriguez hit his first career homer with a blast to left.

The Jaspers (0-2) got on the board in the fifth when a one-out single up the middle by Ortega scored Austin Sheffield from second to bring Manhattan within four.

Miami went back up five in the bottom of the fifth, as Villasuso's two-out single to right brought home Stephen Perez from third to put the `Canes up 6-1.

Miami loaded the bases with no outs in the sixth and scored its seventh run of the contest on a catcher's interference on an infield grounder. Two batters later with the bases still loaded, Scott Lawson drew his third walk of the game to bring a run home before a Grandal RBI grounder made it 8-1. The `Canes weren't done
however, as a Villasuso triple to center put the `Canes up by 10 before Martinez singled him home for UM's 12th run.

A bases-loaded single to right in the seventh by Grandal scored a pair of runs before a Zach Robinson sacrifice fly put UM, 15-1.

Miami tacked on three more runs in the bottom of the eighth as Grandal hit a two-run single and Thomas Powers had a run-scoring single in the frame putting the Hurricanes ahead by 17.

The two teams will wrap up the three-game set Sunday at 1 p.m. when Miami sends right-hander Jason Santana (0-0, 7.20) to the hill against Manhattan's left-hander Mike Gazzola.