The University of Florida baseball team had their offense stalled as the Gators fell 3-1 to host Miami in game two of Super Regional play. The loss closed out the 2004 season for the Gators who finished 43-22 on the season while Miami moved on to Omaha, Neb. and the College World Series. Florida was playing in their first ever-Super Regional after winning the Oklahoma City Regional.

Florida would score their lone run in the first inning but could not muster any more runs against Miami’s Cesar Carrillo who improved to 11-0 with the victory on the hill. Carrillo would not allow a base hit after the fourth inning in leading Miami to its 49^th victory of the season.

Florida starter Connor Falkenbach was the hard luck loser as Carrillo out dueled the junior right hander. Making his fifth start of the season Falkenbach would go 7 and 2/3 innings and gave up eight hits and three runs with a walk and five strikeouts. Falkenbach would throw 119 pitches including 74 for strikes in dropping to 10-7 in 2004.

He was removed with two outs in the eighth when Miami had a runner on first with two outs. Gator reliever Darren O’Day would pickoff the Hurricane runner and the two teams would go to the bottom of the eighth.

Florida would never threaten though as the final 11 Gators were retired in order. Carrillo would give up four base hits with three walks and a career best nine strikeouts.

Florida took a 1-0 lead early and that advantage would hold until the fifth when the Hurricanes struck. In the Florida first, Adam Davis singled up the middle before C.J. Smith drew a walk putting two Gators aboard for Ben Harrison. Harrison hit a seeing-eye single through the left side of the infield driving home Davis with the first run of the contest in the first inning. With just one out the Gators had two more chances to score more in the first but a pair of groundouts ended the inning.

Falkenbach would retire 11 of the first 12 batters he faced as just two Miami batters reached second in the first four innings. He would keep the Hurricanes scoreless for the first four innings before Miami took the lead 2-1 in the fifth.

Roger Tomas hit a one out single to center before Richard Giannotti provided the go ahead runs. Falkenbach fell behind in the count to Giannotti 3-0 before the number nine hitter took advantage of being ahead in the count and took a 3-1 Falkenbach pitch out of park in left center field.

After the two fifth inning runs he would keep Miami off the board until the eighth when Miami got a two run lead after a sacrifice fly. Adam Ricks led off the eighth with a single and was sacrificed to second. Ricks them moved to third on a costly wild pitch before Jim Burt delivered the fly ball to right field that easily plated Ricks with the third Miami run.

Florida was one of six teams from the SEC playing in Super Regional action. Three league teams (Georgia, South Carolina, Arkansas) have already advanced to the College World Series while a fourth (LSU) needs one more victory against Texas A&M to clinch a berth in the event.

• By turning a 5-4-3 double play to end the first inning Florida turned their 75^th double play of the season which broke the school record … The previous school record was 74 which was set in 2001.
• With a single to center in the second inning Brian Leclerc ran his hit streak to a career best 10 games … He became the sixth different Florida player this season with a hit streak of 10 or more games.
• Ben Harrison ran his hit streak to a career best 16 games with his RBI single in the first inning … That is the longest hit streak for a Florida player this season and the longest in the past two seasons.
• Florida’s Ben Harrison finished his career with 209 games played and 190 starts … Both marks are tied for seventh all-time in the Florida career record books … Harrison also ranks in eight more categories including: 194 runs scored (5^th), 247 hits (9^th), 44 doubles (9^th), 40 home runs (2^nd), 427 total bases (3^rd), 193 RBI (2^nd), .592 slugging percentage (9^th), and with his 25 hit by pitches (t-3rd).
• Harrison finishes the season with 71 RBI becoming only the seventh player in the history of the program to have 70 or more RBI in a single year.
• Justin Tordi finished the season with 235 assists which is the third most ever by a Florida player in a single season … Adam Davis also reached the 200 assist mark with exactly 200 in 2004 … The two players are just the second duo ever to have 200 or more assists in a single year (David Eckstein-243 and John Tamargo-220, 1996).
• Florida’s 819 total team assists is the second most ever in a single season behind the 1996 club, which had 832 assists in 68 games.
• The Florida team ERA of 3.96 in 2004 was the lowest since 1992 when Florida held a 3.34 ERA … Over the last 12 games and 108 and 2/3 innings pitched the Florida staff held a 2.65 ERA and had four complete games.
• The Gators finished 5-4 in nine post-season contests … Florida outscored opponents during those nine games 52-28 as the pitching staff held a 2.27 ERA and held opponents to a .246 batting average.
• Florida finishes the season with 29 games decided by two runs or less as the Gators went 17-12 in those type of contests … UF also finished 11-10 against ranked opponents in 2004.
• UF fell to 56-46 all-time in postseason action while head coach Pat McMahon dropped to 23-20 all-time in nine appearances in NCAA play.

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