Wake Forest Baseball Rolls Drops Rubber Game Of Series With No. 6 Miami, 12-4
Demon Deacons fall to 10-12 on the season and 4-5 in the ACC.

March 20, 2005

Box Score

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. --- Miami sophomore pitcher Ricky Orta settled down after early control problems and limited Wake Forest to a single run over 7.0 innings as the #6 Hurricanes captured the rubber game of the three-game series with the Demon Deacons, 12-4, Sunday afternoon at Hooks Stadium.

Orta (5-1) retired sophomore Matt Antonelli and senior Ben Ingold to lead off the first inning, but then walked senior J.B. Tucker and senior Ryder Mathias followed with a single. Redshirt sophomore Brendan Enick followed with an RBI single. Senior Matt Miller walked to load the bases with two outs, but Orta was able to induce a ground ball to shortstop and Roger Tomas barely beat Miller to the second base bag to end the inning.

Orta was in complete control from that point forward. Orta would retire 15 of the next 19 Demon Deacon batters. The right-handed hurler allowed just six hits and one earned run. Orta struckout six and walked a pair en route to his fifth victory of the season.

Five Miami (20-5, 7-2 ACC) players registered two hits and Eddy Rodriguez added three. The Hurricanes had 16 hits on the afternoon. Danny Valencia went 2-for-5 with a two-run double, two-run home run and a run scored. Ryan Braun went 2-for-5 with a run scored and two run home run, while Rodriguez went 3-for-4 with two runs scored and three RBI, including a home run -- his second of the season and series.

Wake Forest starter Charlie Mellies (2-2) tossed 6.0 innings and allowed five earned runs on 10 hits. The sophomore struckout a pair and walked one. Freshman reliever Eric Niesen went just 0.2 innings and allowed five earned runs on four hits before senior Brian Bach tossed the final 2.1 innings scoreless. Bach allowed a couple hits and struckout one.

Antonelli went 2-for-5 with an RBI and Enick went 2-for-3 with an RBI. Antonelli continued his torrid streak over the last two weeks. Since moving into the top spot in the batting order, the sophomore is hitting .467 with two home runs, nine RBI and 18 runs scored in his career-high 11 game hitting streak. Enick had his 10th multiple hit game of the season. He raised his batting average to .453.

Freshman Mike Causey made his second appearance in a Demon Deacon uniform. The outfielder picked up his first career hit, a pinch hit RBI single in the bottom of the eighth inning.

Wake Forest returns to action Tuesday afternoon at Hooks Stadium against Coastal Carolina. First-pitch is scheduled for 3:00 pm.