It’s been a while since talking Miami Hurricanes baseball around these parts. A detailed piece was written in the wake of dropping 2-of-3 to Florida State weeks back, but since then the focus at allCanesBlog.com shift back to spring football, as well as some post-season men’s basketball pieces, with the NCAA Tournament still on the brain.
Talking baseball still proves difficult as Miami remains erratic. The Canes responded from the dropped series against the Noles with a mid-week win over Stetson before road-tripping it to Maryland to take on the Terrapins in a three-game stand.
Miami earned a hard-fought 1-0 extra innings victory on Friday night and clinched the series with a 5-3 on Saturday, but was thunked 7-2 in game three when faced with an opportunity to get its first ACC sweep of the season, and first undefeated weekend since taking out Milwaukee at home in late February.
Miami took out Bethune-Cookman last Wednesday before welcoming No. 12 Clemson to Mark Light this past weekend, where the Canes dropped game one, 1-0, but took the next two – 2-1 and 7-0 – for the series.
Next up, another look at Florida Atlantic at home this Wednesday before a road trip to Boston College this coming weekend. From there, three more three-game stands – St. John’s at home, Wake Forest on the road and Georgia Tech in Coral Gables for the season finale.
Miami currently sits at 27-16 (10-11 in ACC play) an with thirteen games remaining, something resembling a 36-20 finish on the year doesn’t seem too far off, the prediction based on recent play. Last year the Canes wrapped the regular season 34-19 overall and 16-14 in conference.
The ACC Tournament gets underway the final week of May, where Miami will look to improve its post-season status, but the road between now and then remains cloudy, with UM expected to play “good enough” baseball against lesser talent, but without the feeling that these Canes are truly coming together or jelling as another season comes to a close.
Unranked this late in the year, under .500 in conference and finding a way to lose winnable games seems to be setting up for another road trip come regional time and that dark cloud that is an early exit seemingly looming.
Until then, one series at a time. Win the games that should be won, try to take the ones that could go either way, improve positioning for Greensboro and home there can be some post-season magic, leading to a decent seed when it’s NCAA Tournament time – which in itself still isn’t even a gimmie right now, which is a true rarity for UM this last in the season.