Miami Baseball Program At A Crossroads

The above picture was snapped three years back. Florida State was headed to town to take on Miami.

The Noles were ranked eighth, the Canes fourteenth and as always when these two go at it, something was going to give. One Sunshine State program would be better off come Sunday and the other left with questions to answer.

Miami lost a game one heartbreaker, falling 6-5, giving up one in the ninth after scrapping to score a game-tying run in eighth. The Canes had eight hits to the Noles’ seven, but UM’s seven errors did the home team in and set the tone for an 0-2 loss in game two.

Miami responded with a 5-1 win on Sunday to avoid the sweep, but the damage had been done and the Canes’ season unraveled with a 5-0 loss to Hofstra a week later, losing the series at Virginia the following week, falling to Florida Atlantic at home the Tuesday after and dropping one to Duke in the regular season series finale.

The Canes went 2-1 in the ACC Tournament, wound up in the Gainesville Regional, gave game one away to the hosting Gators, 5-4 before getting stomped in a season-ending, 11-4 loss on Sunday, courtesy of Florida.

Miami went 38-23 on the year and while most were hoping that was the bottoming-out moment for this Hurricanes baseball program, a 36-23 run a year later proved even worse.

UM did earn a home regional, but was bounced after losing two straight as the top seed – an embarrassing 10-2 loss to Stony Brook and 12-2 season-ending beating at the hands of Missouri State, as yes, while the aforementioned fourth-seeded Seawolves made it all the way to Omaha, getting swept at home as a one-seed was a new low for Miami.

Another disastrous season came to a close and again, the belief that things had bottomed out with things taking a turn for the better this season.

Not so much.

It’s been a tale of two seasons for Miami in 2013. There were a 10-0 start out the gate, albeit against nobodies. Rutgers, Florida Atlantic, St. Thomas and Barry helped the Canes stay undefeated in February, though there were a few scares and five one-run wins – including game one at Florida, where Miami snapped an eleven-game losing streak to the rival Gators.

Just when some felt the corner had been turned, a slumping UF squad bested UM the next two games – 6-4 and 6-3 – taking the series and sending Miami home with more questions than answers.

Mid-week patsies Maine and Central Florida went down without a fight, but ACC play kicked off the following weekend and Duke inexplicable took two from Miami – including a lopsided 6-2 win in game two.

A few days later Illinois State rolled south for a two-game stint, throttling Miami 16-7 in game one before the Canes responded with a 9-2 win the following night.

Miami showed life in a 4-1 win over top-ranked North Carolina mid-March, but reality came in the form of back-to-back weekend loses, 14-2 and 4-1.

Columbia went down fairly easily a few days later at Mark Light and after winning two against Virginia Tech the following weekend, the wheels absolutely came off for the Canes.

An 8-5 extra innings Sunday loss to the Hokies was preceded by a 4-1 loss to Florida Atlantic and two straight losses to Virginia – 15-4 and 8-1 – before getting a 4-3 Sunday win to avoid the sweep, but just for good measure, the Canes fell to Bethune-Cookman, 5-3 this past Wednesday.

Now Florida State looms and the Seminoles will head to Coral Gables smelling blood. Miami sits at 20-12 overall (10-12 since starting 10-0) and the Canes are 5-7 in conference play, while FSU is 25-4 overall and 8-4 in the ACC. The Noles have also taken the last three regular season series from the Canes.

As far as a series and overall rivalry, this is one of the better ones in the sport. Two programs that have forever had a presence in Omaha, always see the post-season and that pump out quality talent non-stop.

There are also two legendary head coaches who both rank in the top ten among NCAA Winningest Active Division-I coaches regarding winning percentage and victories.

Of course Mike Martin has never brought a national championship to Tallahassee and while Jim Morris has brought two, the Hurricanes program has been a shell of itself since it’s last trip to Omaha in 2008.

Regardless of what this series brings, come next week it’s time for some ‘real talk’ regarding the state of this Miami program. Thought about going there this week, but felt it made sense to let this weekend’s series play out.

Florida State rolls in having lost two-of-three at Virginia Tech last weekend – it’s lone win, an 11-10 affair in game two on Saturday. Miami has lost five of it’s past six.

First pitch is 7:30pm ET on Friday night, with a 7:00pm ET start on Saturday and 12:00pm showdown on Sunday.

Get out to The Light and root the Canes on and head back to allCanesBlog.com so we can really get into the current state of this beloved program. We’re also welcoming your input for a future piece on UM baseball so if you’d like us to use your quote in an upcoming piece, shoot us an email and if it’s a great take, you could wind up in the op-ed.

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