Miami Sweeps St. John’s, As It Should

The good news? The Miami Hurricanes earned a sweep this past weekend at home. The bad? The fact it came against lowly St. John’s, as well as the fact it was UM’s first victorious three-game home-stand since topping Milwaukee in late February.

In the wake of three straight wins, you hate to be critical of this squad, but it’s hard to forget dropping 2-of-3 to a garbage Boston College squad last week, as well as the overall state of the program.

Six games remain and instead of talking Omaha or hosting a regional, there’s chatter about Miami needing to win some games in effort to reach the post-season, which is in jeopardy for the first time in almost four decades.

To its credit, Miami, who entered the weekend, 29-18, got after it in game win, in route to a, 12-3 victory. The Canes racked up twelve hits, while only allowing five, while jumping on St. John’s early, picking up two in the second and one in the third.

Chris Diaz threw six shutout innings, allowing just one hit and sitting down fourteen of sixteen batters. He was relieved by Adam Sargent, who went one inning, giving up a hit and run. Jace Herrera and Eric Whaley each went an inning, with Herrera giving up two hits and two runs, while Whaley surrendered just one hit.

The Canes’ offense blew things up in the fifth, picking up four and sending all nine batters to the plate. Miami hit five singles and RBI came fro Brad Feiger, Brandon Lopez and Ricky Eusebio, while David Thompson earned his via a sacrifice fly.

Up 7-1 entering the bottom of the seventh, the Canes put together a five-run inning, holding a 12-1 lead with two to play. St. John’s picked up two more, but could get no closer.

Unfortunately for Miami, games two and three weren’t as smooth, earning a 4-2 victory on Saturday and 6-4 on Sunday, for the sweep.

Bryan Radziewski threw for the Canes on Saturday, going eight innings, striking out eight and giving up six hits with two runs. Eric Nedeljkovic took over, going one and giving up two hits.

Miami had nine hits to St. John’s eight, with the Red Storm getting on the board first with one in the third.

The Canes took the lead with two in the bottom of the fourth, but things were tied 2-2 entering the bottom of the fifth, when Chantz Mack, 3-for-3 on the night, came up with an RBI triple.

A double by Brad Feiger brought Mack home, pushing the lead to 4-2, where it’d stay as both teams played scoreless baseball the final four innings.

The squads met one final time Sunday at noon, opening this time with four scoreless innings before Miami got one in the bottom of the fifth. St. John’s got two in the top of the sixth, for their first lead of the series, but the Canes retook the lead with two of their own.

A one-run top of the seventh tied things up again, but Miami picked up three in the bottom of the frame, pushing ahead for good.

Andrew Suarez went just under seven innings for UM, giving up six hits and three runs, while striking out three. He was relieved Whaley, who went one inning, giving up a hit and a run before Nedeljkovic closed things out.

Despite twelve Miami hits to seven by St. John’s, the Canes stranded fourteen runners and had three errors on the afternoon, making for a much closer game than should’ve been.

Mid-week games are done, so Miami will next be in action this Friday for a three-game series at Wake Forest. From there, a final home-stand of the season against Georgia Tech.

At 32-18 with six ACC showdowns remaining, every game counts with the conference tourney and post-season around the corner.

First pitch Friday night is 6:00pm ET from Winston-Salem.