Below is a piece from allCanesBlog.com guest columnist Scott Salomon, breaking down Saturday’s match-up between the Miami Hurricanes and the Florida Gators in the opening round of the 2015 College World Series at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha. UM and UF tangled earlier this season, with the home team taking 2-of-3 at McKethan Stadium in Gainesville.
Saturday’s game against the Florida Gators will showcase two of the top starting pitchers in the state, if not the country, with Andrew Suarez on the mound for Miami, while Logan Shore takes the ball for Florida.
Suarez (9-1, 2.96 ERA) will look to show the country what he is made of when No. 4 national seed Florida (49-16) faces No. 5 national seed Miami (Fla.) (49-15) on Saturday at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN in the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska.
Shore (9-6, 2.50 ERA) was supposed to go heads up with Suarez in Gainesville earlier this season in a highly anticipated matchup between the two superstars. Shore, a sophomore with the ability to go deep into games, has only surrendered five home runs in 101 innings pitched this season.
However, Suarez was injured before the game and Shore injured himself after nine pitches. Suarez did not even make it into the game as he strained his oblique in the bullpen warming up during the pregame. The matchup never materialized, but it will on Saturday.
Miami lost two of three to Florida earlier this season, but this was a Miami team that was still getting used to playing with one another. This was also a pitching staff that was just coming together and a bullpen that was not as strong and as confident as they are today.
The Canes lost two heartbreakers to the Gators 4-3 and 1-0 and the games could have gone either way. Miami’s offense was lackluster that weekend and is not the same high-power, high-octane offense that it is today. Miami is capable of hitting the ball out at any point in its lineup. Miami also did not have Suarez in that first game against Florida.
UM has ended the Gators’ season on eight different occasions: 1981 South Regional, 1985 Atlantic Regional, 1989 East Regional, 1994 Atlantic I Regional, 1997 Atlantic Regional, 2002 Gainesville Regional, 2003 Coral Gables Regional and the 2004 Coral Gables Super Regional.
Like he has for all 14 of Suarez’s starts season, Miami coach Jim Morris said he will have sophomore Zack Collins behind the plate. Collins, who shares the catching duties with Garrett Kennedy, recently drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers, said he hopes he and Suarez don’t have to talk much.
“When he has his stuff, I try not to say anything to him, and it usually works,” said Collins, to the Miami Herald, who said he tries to let Suarez get into his own little world. “Every time he goes out there Andy gives us a great outing and a chance to win.”
As for the rest of the Series, aside from Suarez, Miami has two bona fide superstars in Thomas Woodrey and new third starter Danny Garcia. Garcia will take over the third spot from Enrique Sosa who has been battling injuries late in the season and has not pitched well of late.
Pitching coach J.D. Arteaga told the Miami Herald that right-hander Sosa, UM’s No. 3 starter most of the season, had his shoulder stiffen up on him after his last start, a 3-0 loss to Columbia on May 30.
“It is a concern,” Arteaga said. “But with the timetable of the games, with the days off in between games, it allows us to have Danny Garcia possibly live in those first two games and come back in Game 3, if we had to. But Sosa is feeling good, much better.”
Miami’s bullpen is a real strength for the Hurricanes, but closer Bryan Garcia has been a bit shaky at times this year and blew a couple of saves in the ACC tournament. It depends on which Garcia shows up.
Is it the one that folded like a cheap suit against NC State, or the one that nailed the door shut in the Super Regionals. He has good stuff and perfect makeup for a closer, and the Hurricanes have a strong supporting cast in sidewinder Cooper Hammond, quality lefty and freshman All-American Michael Mediavilla and success story Daniel Briggi.
The Canes will also rely on “Superman” Sam Abrams, the man who saved Miami’s season against VCU in the Super Regional victory last Sunday.
As for the Hurricanes, the player with the lowest batting average in the Miami starting lineup is Ricky Eusebio. Eusebio is hitting .297, a solid average for a leadoff hitter on any team in the country. The Canes’ entire roster has just five players hitting below .300.
George Iskenderian also leads the Canes in steals with 23. The Miami lineup has four legitimate base stealers with Iskenderian, Eusebio, Carl Chester and Jacob Heyward, who stands a perfect 13-of-13 on stolen base attempts this season.
This can present a problem to Florida with J.J. Schwarz behind the plate for the Gators. Schwarz has thrown out only four of 19 would-be base stealers and all CWS teams will likely be aggressive on the base paths in Omaha, given the over-arching theme of an expected dip in power numbers.
You can expect Morris to run on Schwarz in the early going and test the freshman’s arm and his patience.
Although Schwarz is far from being a liability at catcher, he presents the most dangerous bat in the Florida lineup. Schwarz’ four home runs in the regional and Super Regional bring him to within one of Thompson and Benintendi’s NCAA-leading 19.
The Gators had to fight back from complacency to get to where they are today. There were some trying times in Gatorland and there were times that people thought that they might not live up to their hype.
After an opening round loss to Arkansas in the Southeastern Conference Tournament, the Gators breezed through their next nine opponents, scoring 83 runs against the opposition’s 18.
Their pitchers dominated, their offense produced, and the freshmen facilitated a forceful postseason run. And Schwarz got back to form. He was named both the SEC tournament and regional round MVP.
“He’s just a special player,” UF coach Kevin O’Sullivan said after UF clinched its ninth Omaha appearance on Saturday in the post-game news conference. “Special hitter, special catcher.”
Schwarz is leading UF on a special run. He, however, was just 2-of-10 with one home run against Miami in the three games earlier this season. Let’s hope that trend continues.
From a player standpoint, no one knows more about postseason runs, or lack thereof, than senior Bobby Poyner, who endured two years of Regional exits after advancing to the CWS his freshman year.
Saturday, when asked to put Florida’s complicated and arduous season into words, Poyner simply stated the truth.
“We just got hot at the right time.”
The Gators — whose postseason schedule has consisted of five games against four different schools from the state of Florida — are also one of the most polished defensive teams in the NCAA. The Gators are the best defensive team in the nation with their .985 fielding percentage. No one is better than third baseman Josh Tobias, who has committed one error in 131 chances.
“I honestly think this could be their most talented team since I’ve been here at Miami,” coach Morris to the Miami Herald said Monday after practice.
Eight errors by shortstop Richie Martin are the most on the team but only enough to bring Martin’s fielding percentage to a .974. Third baseman Tobias has just one error in 131 chances, good enough for a .992 fielding percentage. At the plate, Tobias leads the Gators with a .373 batting average.
Martin was also a first-round draft choice on Monday night. He went to the Oakland Athletics with the 20th selection.