The Miami Hurricanes jumped out to a 3-0 first inning lead against the Ole Miss Rebels and never looked back, en route to an 11-2 victory Sunday afternoon.
Ole Miss limped in to their showdown with Miami after battling Missouri earlier in the day. The Rebels escaped with a 9-6 victory behind the bat of Logan Power and a late-game grand slam. By 4:30pm ET, a fresh-legged Canes bunch was more than ready for a Rebels squad who just played nine innings in the mid-afternoon Florida heat.
Blake Tekotte put the Rebels to the test, bunting and reaching first on the game’s first pitch. A batter late Jemile Weeks doubled down the left field line and drove Tekotte home for the 1-0 lead. Yonder Alonso flied out, moving Weeks to third and Mark Sobolewski got Weeks home on a ground out to second. Ryan Jackson sent his shot over the left field wall and after five batters, it was 3-0 Miami.
Weeks picked up his second RBI of the day, bringing home Tekotte in the second inning. After recent struggles at the plate, Weeks found his groove today – as did Dennis Raben, who went 2-for-4 with a home run, 2 RBI, 3 runs a double and a walk. Raben’s slump appears to be a distant memory as the Canes gear up for the Super Regional.
Ole Miss scored two in the bottom of the first off of Eric Erickson, making his first start since his outing against Georgia Tech in the ACC Tourney. Erickson started out shaky, giving up two runs on two hits in the first inning, but quickly calmed down and became a menace to the Rebels.
Erickson wound up surrendering 6 hits and 2 runs over seven innings, while striking out 5. Kyle Bellamy came in for one inning of relief, struck out one and gave up no hits, while the dependable Carlos Gutierrez closed it out in the ninth, giving up a lone hit over five batters faced.
Miami’s offense racked up four insurance runs in the final two innings, making it 11-2 and squashing out any notion of a comeback from a depleted Ole Miss bunch who shot their load against Missouri.
Credit to the Canes for pouring it on in this one as the men in blue certainly weren’t helping the cause. As if yesterday’s bad call by Steve Corvi wasn’t enough, Miami was the victim of a handful of equally as frustrating calls today – be it an inconsistent strike zone, calling a Rebel runner safe when Yonder Alonso clearly beat him to the bag or calling Ryan Jackson out on what should’ve been a double, to start a third inning rally.
The Canes certainly weren’t going to get any breaks as the top-ranked teams in the land – be it from the NCAA selection committee who lumped Miami in this bracket or an umpire crew who seemed to have it in for Jim Morris and his squad.
Neither an NCAA bias or a slew of poor calls from this officiating crew was going to stop a driven Miami bunch from achieving a 3-0 record at home this weekend. The Canes advance and the Super Regionals are next, with the site determined (Coral Gables) and the opponent to be announced. Miami will face the winner of the Ann Arbor regional, which will be the victor of the Kentucky/Arizona series.
One step closer. Omaha is within reach and based on this gritty demeanor of this team all weekend, you can tell these kids smell it. The Canes are 50-8 (the first 50-win season since 2004) and this was The U’s 25th Regional Championship in school’s history.
Miami is two wins from a return to the College World Series. Tune in next weekend to watch the drama unfold.
I could not believe the blatant bias of those umps. Let’s hope that pisses off this squad and they get that infamous “us against the world” tude going.
I was at the Rays game Saturday night in my Canes cowboy hat. Walking down to get on the field for Trace Adkins after the game, some schmuck in a Gators shirt goes, “how bout them gaytors??!!!”
My daughter, God bless her says, “WHO???,,, never heard of em??”
I told the guy that “them gaytors just got their asses waxed by the Noles, 17 to 11. You better get TEEEEEbow to pitch for you,,,,,,,,,, NEXT YEAR.
One of the many things that made me laugh when the regional seedings and team placement began, was who some of the other #1 seeded teams had to play.
(1) Cal St. Fullerton (37-19) vs (4) Rider (29-26)
(1) Nebraska (40-14) vs (4) E. Illinois (27-28)
(1) Coastal Carolina (47-12) vs (4) Columbia (22-28)
(1) Arizona (38-17) vs (4) E. Michigan (25-32)
(1) North Carolina (46-12) vs (4) Mount St. Mary’s (21-32)
*(1) LSU (43-16) vs (4) TEXAS SOUTHERN ??? (16-32)
The * is next to the game that makes me abso-f*ckin-lutely sick to my stomach. Yes, LSU is on a 23 game win streak – you cannot deny them that, but my God, pairing them up against Texas Southern and their almighty 16 wins and 32 LOSSES? If you notice the records of all the #(4) seeds, only one team has a winning record. All the others are below .500 – some of them are way under the .500 clip.
Obviously, everyone knows that The “U” drew arguably the toughest bracket of anyone – how the hell does that happen being the #1 seed overall with the best record of any team in baseball? As you mentioned in one of your earlier blogs Chris – The “U” (47-8) had to go against the (4) Bethune Cookman (36-20) with Hiram Burgos and his nation leading 1.20 ERA. Earlier in the year, Burgos held the USC Trojans to ZERO runs over 7 innings and allowed only 3 hits. USC weren’t their usual selves this year, they played .500 ball … but they still were above the back-to-back defending National Champion Oregon St. team in the categories of: Batting Average, Slugging Pct., Hits, Home Runs, Total Bases, Stolen Bases – and had the least amount of strikeouts of any team in the Pac-10. USC took 2 of 3 games during the regular season from UCLA (a #2 seed in the Fullerton Regional) and they swept the #5 overall seed Cal St. Fullerton team (#1 seed and host of the Fullerton Regional) during the regular season also. So if Hiram Burgos can hold USC to 0 runs and only 3 hits over 7 innings – the kid is legit – and that’s who The “U” had to face their first game? Any other #1 seeds have to face someone like that? I’m sure the guys that E.Michigan, Rider, E.Illinois, Mount St. Mary’s, Columbia and FREAKING TEXAS SOUTHERN were on the mound in their first game were of Burgos’s and BCC’s quality. The other teams in the Coral Gables regional, Ole Miss and Mizzou – they weren’t exactly scrub teams with scrub pitchers.
Ole Miss with Lance Lynn (2nd Team All-SEC), Scott Bittle (2nd Team All-SEC) and Drew Pomeranz (All-SEC Frosh Team). Pomeranz held LSU to only 1 run on 4 hits in 8 innings of work this past April, for a 7-1 win. Mizzou with Aaron Crow – who almost every publication/writer/analyst will tell you has the best college arm in the entire MLB Draft. He led the nation in wins and was Big 12 Pitcher of the Year. Yea, he’s not bad, in fact, you could venture to say he’s anti-bad all day and night.
So that’s who The “U” had in their regional. Nice job NCAA selection boys. You set The “U” up with the toughest bracket to try and take them out – but you do nothing but get them even more pissed off and determined. Kind of reminds me of a movie where the good guy is set up to be killed by someone he knows .. is presumed to be dead .. but actually survives and makes his way back with an enormous chip on his shoulder and is a “mushroom cloud laying motherf*cker” (to quote Samuel L. Jackson in Pulp Fiction).
I actually don’t mind how the NCAA set The “U” up to try and fail – look at the result of it .. a clean 3 game sweep. I think Yonder Alonso said it best .. “Why not? We’re Miami,” ‘UM first baseman Yonder Alonso said regarding UM’s draw.’ “Nothing is easy, and if I want a ring, I want it the hard way. I want to earn everything I get here at UM, and so does the team.” Gotta love that. He’d probably get released from his scholarship if he played for LSU and said that.
I like also how the SEC jackasses came out bumping their gums, saying that they fielded 9 teams in the regionals as opposed to the ACC’s 6. Of those 9 teams the SEC put in, an overly impressive 2 made it past their regional. That’s pretty f*ckin outstanding SEC – wow. The ACC fielded 6 teams and 4 of those teams made it to Super Regionals.
Arizona and former Croc coach Andy Lopez now come to Coral Gables for the Super Regional. I know a lot of bad memories will resurface for coach Lopez once he crosses into the 305 and steps foot onto the hallowed ground at The Light. I remember Arizona being ranked #1 in the nation for a couple of weeks earlier in the year – they have a decent squad, esp. their pitching. They led the Pac-10 in ERA and K’s – but their fielding % was next to last with 75 errors. They did lead the Pac-10 in least amount of Walks allowed and least Runs allowed but were first in wild pitches. They were 2nd to last in Home Runs allowed and 3rd to last in opposing batting average. It will be an interesting match up … Arizona’s pitching against The “U” and their hitting. I still want revenge on Arizona for that debacle in the desert in 1994. Morris and the boys will take care of business.
Different topic… but finally some credit where credit is due…
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/columns/story?columnist=schlabach_mark&id=3406050
The Anonymous comments by “a die hard “CANES” fan living in Tampa, were, logical, organized, well stated and hit the frick’in nail on the head. I attended all the Regional games at the “Light” (soon to be Alex R. Field)and witnesses the highest ranked Regional match-ups of all Regional pairings. The Canes have always had to earn its success and have become stronger and more successful as a result.
During the ACC Tourney a TV announcer refered to the Hurricanes as, “a minor league team”, playing against college teams. Thanks for the compliment, we earned it.
. . . and so time moves on but nothing changes. Not since a TIME Magizine cover story in the early 1990’s calling for the Canes to drop football has it been so obvious what the Hurricanes are up against in getting fair treatment in scheduling, treatment by the press and fair treatment by umpires and referees on the field of play.
In an elimination game this past weekend in the NCAA Regionals, an opposing outfielder dove and made a spectacular attempt to catch a fly ball in short left field, but could not control the ball. It clearly bounced out of the the glove, hit the gound and rolled up his arm into his bare hand. It was obvious from where I sat in the stands it was not a catch. The player showed the ball to the 3rd base umpire who had run out into the field and had a perfect view, yet called it a catch. TV replay confirmmed the non catch. It was another of those blantent errors in judgment, that always seem to go against the CANES. However, an inning or so later, the same umpire called an opposing player out attempting to steal 3rd. The throw was late, the player was clearly safe, but he was punched out. It was a “Pay Back” call. So the beat go’s on, and on.
After all things are considered, the umpires tried and did their best to get it right. They are simply human, and are going to make questionable calls. When its against Miami, every Canes Fan I know jumps to judgment and screams conspieracy. It’s a “U” thing and just adds to the claim, as it has always been, its the MIAMI Hurricances against the World. It is a part of the mojo of the CANES and hopefully will continue to stregthen the Canes. GO CANES !!! JUST WIN BABY, JUST WIN!!!