The Miami Hurricanes are ACC Champs.
While most fans would prefer to hear that regarding the much-loved football program, it’s the baseball Canes who stepped up first and took a huge step forward regarding success in their new conference. Ironically enough, Miami Baseball laid the smack down on a Virginia team who owned the Canes on the gridiron last season.
After a couple nailbiters earlier in the ACC tourney, this time around Miami was in control the entire afternoon. The Canes saw all nine batters at the plate in the first inning and jumped out to an early 4-0. Miami cruised from there as David Gutierrez shut down the Cavalier batters for the majority of his five innings.
The Canes added three more in the third and sat on a 7-0 lead until the bottom of the sixth when the Cavs rallied for four of their own. Anthony Nalepa and Kyle Bellamy stifled Virginia’s comeback over the final 3.3 innings, allowing a combined 4 hits and one run, with two late strikeouts coming via Bellamy.
Miami added one more insurance run in the top of the eighth, when Mark Sobolewski drove home Jemile Weeks, who got on base with a single, found second on a pitching error and reached third on a Yonder Alonzo ground out.
Next up for the Canes, the Coral Gables regional and a bracket some feel is a bit deeper and more difficult than a top-seeded host deserves. Miami will get a feisty Bethune-Cookman bunch, with one of the nation’s best pitchers – as well as the SEC’s Ole Miss and Big XII’s Missouri. Hardly a cakewalk for the #1 team, but if Miami can’t take out these squads, then they don’t deserve a trip to Omaha.
Tune in later this week to see how the Canes do when hosting the opening round of the regionals. Miami v. Bethune-Cookman time TBA.