The Miami Hurricanes are headed to their forty-first straight post-season, earning a two-seed in the Louisville Regional. UM will face three-seed Oklahoma State at 2:00pm ET on Friday. The host Louisville Cardinals are the top-seed, taking on the fourth-seeded Bowling Green Falcons later in the evening.
The winner of the Louisville Regional will face the winner of the Nashville Regional, which should be the Commodores as they’re the overall two-seed. Vanderbilt finished the season 51-9 and will face East Tennessee State in the opening round, while Georgia Tech and Illinois round out the foursome.
Miami brings a 36-23 record into the post-season as well as a 14-16 conference regular season record, prior to a 1-2 showing at the recent ACC Tournament.
The conference as a whole proved on fire this year, as the ACC makes up five of the sixteen regional host sites this weekend as Florida State, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Virginia and Virginia Tech all earned bids. Eight ACC squads made the final sixty-four, the second-most in any conference nationwide.
Congrats to the Canes for reaching the post-season and keeping the streak alive. This hasn’t been a memorable year for Miami baseball, but pride is still on the line and reaching the NCAA Tournament is something that deserves credit.
Furthermore, the Louisville regional isn’t as daunting as some recent Miami post-season road trips. If Hurricane bats can get hot, there’s no reason UM can’t make some noise this weekend.
Miami doesn’t have the make-up of a College World Series squad this year, but based on playing in a tough conference and facing some of the nation’s best teams all season, getting to a Super Regional shouldn’t be out of the cards.
It all comes down to pitching. If B-Rad can pitch another game like last Saturday, and a little good offense and defense, who knows. It’s not always the best team who wins the CWS. Remember FSU = FRESNO State University a couple of years ago? I was surprised Florida made it in with their very weak 29-28 record….at least we were 36-23.
I don’t think this Miami team has the consistency to do anything great this post-season, but when you’re talking about getting a few weeks in the Louisville Regional … that’s not as daunting as some trips to Gainesville in years passed. Oklahoma State is beatable and Louisville is good, but aren’t in a power baseball conference. Miami faced some great teams this year and while the record is less than we’d like to see, it at least shows a battle-tested squad.
One game at a time. Focus on the Cowboys this Friday and see what happens. Winner of this bracket winds up playing at Vanderbilt for the Super Regional, so odds are the journey ends there for anyone in this bracket, but getting there would sure be good for these kids. Baby steps if Miami is ever going to reach Omaha again.
I agree it all comes down to pitching as well. But I do not believe freshman should be the ones run out there during this regional. You put your vets on the hill Whaley and B-Rad. That should be your one two to start things why Whaley didn’t get more starts this year I don’t know other than I know he got dinged up. But once they knew he was ready he should have been out there. B-Rad is legit there is no doubt in my mind about that and hopefully he’ll continue to dominate. Now offensively I think the best way to take a regional is putting the pressure on which means you steal bases hit and run and bunt more than you ever have. I think the canes can take this regional but vandy will be waiting at the super it’s press much a lock the only way they fall is if gt knocks them off. I think Miami could win the super as well because baseball is a game where anything can happen. Lets go Canes and may the gods be on your side during this run