ESPN Network: ESPN | NBA.com | NHL.com | ABC | Radio | EXPN | Insider | Shop | Fantasy

NCAA Index Schedule History

Keyword
COLLEGE SPORTS
Rankings
Transactions
Teams
Recruiting
Championships
Almanac
OTHER SPORTS
Football
M College BB
W College BB
Other
SPORT SECTIONS
MLB
   Scores | GameCast
NFL
   Scores
Col. Football
   Scores
NBA
   Scores
Golf
   Scores
Tennis
   Scores
Motorsports
Soccer
Boxing
NHL
M Col. BB
W Col. BB
WNBA
Horse Racing
Recruiting
Sports Business
College Sports
Olympic Sports
Action Sports
ESPNdeportes
ProRodeo
More Sports
Saturday, June 9
Updated: June 10, 12:48 PM ET
 
Matienzo helps 'Canes cap record day

Associated Press

OMAHA, Neb. -- Miami coach Jim Morris was exhausted, relieved and speechless after the Hurricanes outlasted Tennessee in the College World Series.

Danny Matienzo
Danny Matienzo, right, gets a warm welcome after hitting one of his two-run homers.
Miami beat Tennessee 21-13 Saturday night in a record-setting game that completed the first round of the CWS.

The teams combined to set CWS records for hits (41), wild pitches (7), and the time of play.

"That's one of the wildest games that I've ever been involved in," Morris said.

A few thousand of the game-time crowd of 23,994 stuck around to see Charlton Jimerson catch Justin Parker's fly ball in center field to end the 4-hour, 21-minute game, which broke the day-old record set by Stanford and Tulane by three minutes.

"Never did I feel safe until that last fly ball to center," Morris said.

Danny Matienzo led Miami with a pair of two-run homers and drove in six runs. Matienzo, who struck out in his first at-bat, didn't have a multiple-homer game before Saturday.

"After the first strikeout, I just told myself that we're here for a reason and I just went out there the rest of the game and tried to focus," Matienzo said. "It's just amazing that it happened at Omaha."

The Hurricanes (50-12) will play Southern California on Monday night in a matchup of two of the last three national champions. Southern Cal won the title in 1998. Miami won in 1999.

"It's hard to talk about that right now," Morris said. "I'm so pumped up about the game we just played it's hard to think about."

Earlier Saturday, the Trojans beat Georgia 11-5.

Jimerson and Kevin Brown also homered for Miami, which had never scored more than 17 runs in a CWS game in 18 previous trips to Omaha.

Jeff Christensen, Kris Bennett and Brandon Hopkins homered for the Volunteers, who will play Georgia in Monday's early game.

"It was never say die, no matter how big the lead was because this place, the ball flies here," said Chris Burke, who was 3-for-5. "It's just unfortunate it wasn't enough. Hopefully on Monday we can keep swinging like we did today."

Wyatt Allen (9-3) didn't make it out of the second inning and took the loss.

Miami starter Tom Farmer (14-2) lasted five innings. But the Hurricanes' bullpen nearly blew the game after cruising into the sixth inning with a 12-4 lead.

"I really just think it's one of those games. ... It seemed like even when we made a good pitch something happened and I'm sure they feel the same way," Morris said.

Tennessee (46-19) scored six runs in the sixth. Kris Bennett highlighted the surge with a three-run homer that made it 12-8. It could have been a grand slam, but on the play before Bennett's homer, Burke was thrown out at home by right fielder Kevin Mannix.

Bennett followed with a homer to left, his first since April 11, and the Vols got a bonus when Christensen struck out, but reached on a wild pitch.

Christensen, who scored Tennessee's first run with a solo homer in the fourth, advanced to third on Javi Herrera's single and scored on an error to make it 12-9. Adam Smith singled to score Herrera.

Miami countered in the bottom of the inning with its own six-run rally. The Hurricanes scored two runs on a two-out single to center by Matienzo for a 17-10 lead.

"We were hoping to throw up zeros defensively. We kept saying that every time we came out of the dugout ... and unfortunately we were only able to do that a couple of times," Burke said.

Matienzo, who hit a two-run homer during the Hurricanes' seven-run second, also had an RBI sacrifice fly in Miami's three-run fifth.

Tennessee got two more runs in the seventh on Hopkins' homer, and one more in the eighth to close within 18-13. Miami added three runs in the eighth, including two on Matienzo's second two-run homer.

The Hurricanes scored seven runs in the second on just four hits, including Matienzo's homer. Allen threw two wild pitches, walked two and hit a batter as Miami sent 11 to the plate.

Allen allowed eight runs, all earned, on seven hits in 1 2/3 innings.

Long Beach State and Arizona State held the previous mark of six wild pitches in a 1998 game. That mark fell in the sixth when Tennessee's Matt Samuels threw one in the dirt and Mike DiRosa went to third -- for the third time on a wild pitch.

The previous record for hits in a game was 39, set by USC and Arizona State in the 1998 title game. The 34 runs were one shy of the record Arizona State and Oklahoma State set in 1984.

A total of 12 pitchers were used in the game, tying the record set by Miami and Southern California in 1995.

"We'd like to be setting some records here, but standing out on the field for four hours and 21 minutes is not a record I'd like to break," Tennessee coach Rod Delmonico said.






 More from ESPN...
Prior's strong outing leads USC to opening win at CWS

College World Series results


AUDIO/VIDEO
Video
 Tennessee vs. Miami
Miami's Danny Matienzo explodes for 4 hits and 6 RBI in a rout of Tennessee.
Standard | Cable Modem

 ESPN Tools
Email story
 
Most sent
 
Print story
 



ESPN.com: Help | PR Media Kit | Sales Media Kit | Contact Us | Tools | Jobs at ESPN.com | Supplier Information | Copyright ©2007 ESPN Internet Ventures. Terms of Use and Privacy Policy and Safety Information/Your California Privacy Rights are applicable to this site. Employment opportunities at ESPN.