Below is a guest piece from columnist Scott Salomon, breaking down this weekend’s Super Regional between the Miami Hurricanes and the VCU Rams. Look for more work here at allCanesBlog.com from Scott in the future.
When the University of Miami takes the field at noon on Friday, they will have the chance to do something that they have not done since 2008. They will have the opportunity to go back to Omaha, the site of the College World Series, and compete for a national title. The Canes and their fans have been starving for a winner, in all sports, for the better part of a decade, and the baseball team was the squad to take success on a national stage.
For Miami to get back to Omaha, they are going to have to turn back a pesky Virginia Commonwealth team that comes into Mark Light Field as winners of 15 of their last 16 contests and they defeated Dallas Baptist, twice, on their own home field, to win the Dallas Regional from the fourth seed. Virginia Commonwealth was 3-4 against the ACC this season, the second-ranked conference in all of the NCAA, and lost two games by a single run. They also took two games from Maryland who will travel to Virginia in another Super Regional this weekend.
“We just never got on a streak like this. Obviously the old saying is you’d rather play well at the end of the year and we’re obviously an example of that,” VCU coach Shawn Stiffler said Thursday afternoon at the introductory press conference. “We have some great senior leadership, some guys who have been pretty battle-tested for us before. We have some really good senior, upperclassmen pitchers who have kind of carried a lot of that workload for us. Then, the pitchers got hot, which has allowed for the offense to relax a little bit and not put so much pressure on themselves. The hits became very timely. That was the biggest difference. We started getting the big hits and driving in several runs.”
Miami’s offense will be an interesting test for the Rams’ outstanding pitching staff which is ranked 12th nationally with an ERA of 2.86.
“Their reputation kind of does speak for itself. We know the numbers down there. We know they were a one-seed, hosting a regional,” said lefty pitcher Heath Dwyer, who is 10-2 on the season and sports a 2.85 ERA. “But, we have been an underdog through this whole tournament and we beat the No.1 seed [in our region] Dallas Baptist. We beat them twice, and we really feel like we can beat anybody. We are ready to play Miami. We’re not scared. We’re just as competitive of a team, and I think we’re ready to embrace the challenge.”
Catcher Walker Haymaker, who grew up in Orlando, realizes that his team is two games away from the College World Series. He cannot think about Omaha, however, all that he is thinking about is beating Miami.
“We’re worried about beating Miami and only Miami. That’s the only thing that’s in my mind. I dream about it and I wake up thinking about it, that’s all that’s in my head right now. It’s exciting. I had a lot of friends who committed to Miami early in high school. They didn’t all wind up going there, but the name has always been around growing up, so it’s definitely exciting to finally kind of be here, you know, a place you saw on TV growing up your whole life. They’re always in the College World Series, so it’s definitely exciting to be here.”
During the Rams recent run, they have not allowed more than three runs in any game. Miami, by contrast, averages over eight runs a game and recently scored 21 against Columbia to put them in the Super Regionals. When it comes to offense, the Hurricanes are no slouches.
“Obviously their pitching is better than the other teams’ because they haven’t given up many runs in this streak that they’re going through. They’ve played very, very well,” Miami skipper Jim Morris said. “They say good pitching beats good hitting. They’re pitching with confidence, but our guys are, too. We can talk about the runs, but let’s look at our ERA and our stats and what our pitchers have done, too. Our pitchers have been equally as good so hopefully we can score a few runs early and do the things we’ve been doing lately.”
Dick Howser Award finalist, third baseman, David Thompson is ready to stop talking about the game. He just wants to suit up and play the series now. He wants them to throw their best at him and he wants to let the chips fall where they may.
“We’re just trying to not do too much and play within our game,” Thompson said. “We’ve been swinging at good pitches; taking walks a lot, and hitting with guys on base. We just have to stay with what we’re doing and not try to do too much.”
Thompson said that the Hurricanes are relaxed, they are confident and they just want to get it on and play ball.
“I think that’s one of the reasons we have been so successful this year. We work hard, but at the same time we are having fun with what we’re doing and playing relaxed,” Thompson said. “You know when you’re uptight you can’t play as well. So we’re just trying to have fun, stay relaxed, and be confident in what we can do.”
Miami will alter its pitching staff. Miami will throw Andrew Suarez on Friday, he is the normal Saturday starter. Thomas Woodrey, the Friday night starter, will pitch on Saturday. If there is a Sunday game, it looks like Danny Garcia will get the call, especially after the gem that he threw against Columbia on Monday night. Enrique Sosa is coming off of two subpar starts and he might not be fully healed from an arm injury that he sustained during the season.
“We’re pitching [Andy] Suarez tomorrow. It will be [Thomas] Woodrey Saturday. Our rotation has been really good with those two guys at the top, especially since Suarez came back after he got hurt early.” Morris said.
All three games, if the series lasts that long, will start at noon and will be played at Mark Light Field.