Hurricanes Cruise By Clemson, 7-1, in Second Game of ACC Championship

May 21, 2008

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) - Mark Sobolewski doubled home two runs in the first inning to give starting pitcher Chris Hernandez all the run support he would need as top-seeded Miami beat Clemson, 7-1, Wednesday in the 2008 Atlantic Coast Conference Baseball Championship at the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville.

Hernandez (11-0), the ACC leader in victories and winning percentage, faced the minimum number of batters over the first five and one-thirds innings and went on to strike out 10 and allow four hits and no walks in eight scoreless innings. The ACC Freshman of the Year has a streak of 27 two-thirds innings without allowing a base on balls.

Hernandez benefited from three double plays, two which erased the only base runners Clemson managed through five innings.

The Hurricanes (44-8) will face fifth-seeded Georgia Tech in a Division A round-robin game at 5 p.m. Thursday. Clemson (30-26-1), seeded eighth in the tournament, will play No. 4 North Carolina State at 8 p.m. Tech defeated N.C. State 10-9 in the tournament opener.

Sobolewski's double in the first drove in Jemile Weeks and Yonder Alonso, who had both drawn one-out walks off Clemson starter D.J. Mitchell (6-5). Sobolewski then scored on Ryan Jackson's single.

Catcher Yasmani Grandal hit a solo homer in the second inning, his fourth of the year. After that, Mitchell settled down and struck out 11 batters in six innings, a record for the tournament since it moved to Jacksonville in 2004 and the most for a Clemson pitcher since 2003. He leads the ACC with 106 strikeouts.

However, the Hurricanes roughed him up for three more runs in his final inning, two of them on a double by designated hitter Dave DiNatale. Blake Tekotte then singled DiNatale home.

Clemson scored its only run in the top of the ninth on an RBI fielder's-choice grounder by Kyle Parker, a freshman who went to high school in the suburbs of Jacksonville. It was Parker's 50th RBI of the season.

Game 2 Notes: Miami 7, Clemson 1

• In two previous meetings in ACC Championship play, Clemson was 2-0 against the Hurricanes, and had outscored Miami by a combined score of 14-5. The Tigers defeated the Hurricanes, 9-1, in 2005 and then won by a score of 5-4 in 2007.

• Freshman catcher Yasmani Grandal, who batted .241 during the regular season, recorded his fourth home run of 2008 off of Tiger's ace and All-ACC selection D.J. Mitchell in the second inning. Grandal is now 6-for-10 with two home runs, five RBI and five runs scored in three starts against Clemson this season.

• With the win, Miami's Chris Hernandez lowered his team-leading ERA to 2.24, leapfrogging NC State's Clayton Shunick for the top ERA in the ACC.

• Hernandez, now 11-0 this year, tossed eight shutout innings against the Tigers, allowing just four hits with 10 strikeouts. In his last five starts, the ACC Freshman of the Year and first-team all-league selection has recorded 35.1 innings pitched and given up only five earned runs while striking out 37 batters.

• Miami's pitching staff combined to hold Clemson to its lowest run total in ACC Championship competition since day two of the 2005 tournament. The Hurricanes, who allowed Clemson its only run in the top of the ninth inning, were one out away from handing the Tigers their first ACC Championship shutout since the 1997 title game, in which Clemson was defeated, 10-0, by Florida State.

• Each of Miami's eight hits were recorded by a different player. Seven Hurricanes scored one run, while five different players registered at least one RBI.

• Miami is now 3-6 in ACC Championship play since making its first appearance in 2005. The Hurricanes are 3-4 over the last three years of Championship competition.

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