Box Score

CORAL GABLES, Fla. - The University of North Florida baseball team proved it could hang with the best college baseball has to offer on Tuesday night.

UNF (27-25) took the first lead of the game at 1-0 in the fourth before No. 1 Miami (42-6) put up two in the bottom of the fifth to take the lead for good. The Hurricanes got three more runs in the seventh to solidify what eventually became a 5-2 win.

Senior Chad Knight led UNF at the plate, going 2-for-4 with a double. He now stands just three hits away from joining the UNF Top 10 career hits list. Senior Travis Martin and freshman Sam Perry both tallied an RBI.

Sophomore starting RHP Jonathan Turner pitched a solid six innings, allowing just two runs on five hits, but it took just one pitch in the bottom of the fifth to UM's powerful first baseman Yonder Alonso to change the outlook of the game.

With UM's Jemile Weeks standing on second after a leadoff double, Alonso launched Turner's first pitch well over the right field wall to give the Hurricanes a 2- 1 lead. Turner picked up the loss to drop to 0-5.

The Ospreys stood toe-to-toe with the Hurricanes for six innings, with UNF getting the better of UM first in the top of the fourth. Knight led off the inning with a double down the left field line and advanced to third on the next play when sophomore Preston Hale laid down a sacrifice bunt.

Martin completed the rally when he hit a sacrifice fly into left field that allowed Knight to score, giving the Ospreys a 1-0 lead. The play at the plate was close with a laser throw from UM left fielder Adan Severino, but Knight was able to avoid the tag by UM catcher Yasmani Grandal with a textbook slide.

UM got three more runs on three hits in the bottom of the seventh off junior RHP Spencer Jones. The Ospreys were able to get the wheels rolling the top of the ninth and stayed alive when Martin led off the inning with a double to left field. With two outs, sophomore T.J. Thompson hit a ball up the middle that Weeks couldn't reach and dug out an infield single.

Perry followed it up with a hot shot to third that crashed into the base and straight up into the air, which allowed Martin to cross the plate and cut the Hurricanes' lead. But after an exciting six-pitch at-bat by sophomore Michael Gropper, UM's Carlos Gutierrez was finally able to get Gropper to ground out to second and end the game.

The win by Miami was its largest margin of victory over UNF in the all-time series. Three of the series' previous games were decided by one run. It was the Ospreys' second loss to a top-ranked team this season, with UNF falling 10-2 to then-No. 1 Florida State on April 16.

UNF will close out its season with a three-game series against Atlantic Sun Conference foe Gardner- Webb in Boiling Springs, N.C., beginning at 3 p.m. on Thursday. The series will end with a 1 p.m. doubleheader on Friday. Live stats will be available on UNFOspreys.com.