Miami Bests Florida Baseball in NCAA Regional Play

Miami (32-26) broke a four-game Florida (44-18) win streak in NCAA Regional games in Gainesville with a win this afternoon at McKethan Stadium. The defending national champion Hurricanes defeated the Gators 7- 2 in the second of Saturday's three games.

Sharp defense by both teams kept the game scoreless through two and a half innings. Miami broke through the zeros in the bottom of the third as Javy Rodriguez scored from third on an Alex Hart wild pitch. Two innings later, Florida had an answer. Catcher Brian Rose hit a double down the right field line with one out in the fifth. Matt Goss walked. Aaron Davidson loaded the bases with a single up the middle. Rose scored on the bases loaded, two-out walk to Pat Osborn to tie the game at 1-1. Miami took a 6-1 lead in the bottom of the sixth. Kevin Mannix led off the inning with a single through the left side. He advanced to second on a Danny Figueroa sacrifice bunt. Paco Figueroa was safe on a dropped fly ball in left field. Both runners scored on the Brad Safchik single up the middle. After the following batter, Rodriguez grabbed another pitch for a single, Florida starter Alex Hart was replaced by David Bartelt with one out in the inning and runners on first and second. Danny Matienzo hit a three-run home over the wall in right center field with two outs to take the five run lead. Aaron Sobieraj hit a solo homer in the top of the eighth to shorten Miami's lead to only four runs at 6-2. With two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning, Kevin Howard hit his school-record tying 65th career double. He scored on the following base hit by Matienzo for the 7-2 Miami lead. Florida starter Alex Hart took the loss. His record is now 13-3. Miami starter Kiki Bengochea pitched eight innings in the win. His record improves to 6-6. Miami will play the winner of tonight's Florida vs. Bethune-Cookman matchup at 1 p.m. on Sunday. The Florida vs. Bethune-Cookman game will begin at 7:05 p.m. this evening.