The Noles had the Canes’ number in the regular season, taking two-of-three in Tallahassee weeks back, both in the bottom of the ninth.
There would be no late game heroics today.
Miami jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the opening round of the ACC Championship and held on, beating Florida State when it counted most, 9-3.
FSU narrowed it to 3-2 after three, but UM responded with five runs over the next two innings, pushing it to 8-2 and never looking back.
Eric Whaley stepped up with five solid innings on the mound. With Eric Erickson sidelined, coach Jim Morris called on someone to step up and Whaley hung tough when thrust into the spotlight. E.J. Encinosa, Sam Robinson and Daniel Miranda closed it out from there.
Nathan Melendres picked up two hits and drove in Miami’s first two runs with a home run to right field in the bottom of the second. A batter later Michael Broad sent a solo shot over the right field wall, pushing the Canes’ lead to 3-0. Melendres and Broad combined for five of UM’s nine hits.
Miami pushed it to 5-2 in the bottom of the fourth and Florida State looked ready to rally after a triple and walk to start the fifth.
One batter later, Canes shortstop Stephen Perez snagged a one-hopper and turned a double player. The Noles scored one, but with the bases cleared, UM averted danger and snagged some much-needed momentum.
In the bottom of the fifth Harold Martinez put the game completely out of reach with a three-run shot, his 18th home run of the season.
Next up for the Canes, a 12pm ET showdown with Boston College. Tune in.
Do you know why your RSS feed isn't updating anymore? The last article it has is "Rest In Peace, Luke DeBold…" from 4/29.
We crush FSU, then blow a 5 run lead in the bottom of the 9th to BC and end up losing in extra innings. WTF??? I shouldn't be surprised…this has been the story of the entire season…inconsistency!
Chris – I'm listening to the UM-UVa game. It's the bottom 8 and UM is down 12-7. They were up 6-2 going in to the bottom 3 when (as usual) the wheels came off. This is coming on the heels of being up 10-5 on BC going in to the 9th and losing in extra innings, 12-10.
I have to say that this team has deteriorated over the last couple seasons. Ever since entering the CWS as the top seeded team, they have not shown the ability to beat any above-average team on a consistent basis. They have a knack for losing leads, committing errors or letting the bats go silent when they are needed most. If you go back and look at their record, the vast majority of their wins has come against lesser opposition.
A while back, you posted "Time to get excited about Canes baseball?" I had followed the team – albeit not closely – but reached the conclusion back on Feb 28 that this team was not an improvement over last year's sub-par effort. On Feb 28, UM lost to MANHATTAN (yes, Manhattan). The following weekend, they dropped 2 of 3 to UFlorida at home. Looking over their schedule, UM has not beaten a significant team, and lost a series to mediocre VaTech. They lost the regular season series to FSU, UF, VaTech, GaTech and UVA. All the talk about "better chemistry" and this being a better team seemed very premature to me.
I don't know why UM cannot get the talent they used to. The common excuse is that high school kids are tempted by the Major League dollars. Since Miami's 2001 CWS title, they have been to the Series 4 times (unlikely this year) and come away empty. Cal State has been 6 times since 2001, LSU 4 (won it all in 2009 – did win the CWS in 2000), Rice has been 5 times, winning in 2003, Texas has been 5 times since 2001, winning it all in 2002 and 2005. Maybe there is more parity the same way that there is in college football – after all, Oregon State went three straight years, 2005-2007, winning 2 back to back in 06 and 07.
Call it perception or instinct, but I don't see this team competing at an elite level soon. I'm going to predict (reluctantly and with a heavy heart) that this team will NOT make it to the CWS for the SECOND STRAIGHT YEAR. That has not happened since they failed to reach the CWS in 1990 and 1991.
I'm not trying to pile on, or call for Jim Morris to be fired or any such silliness. But I do sense that the program has taken a definite step backward and a lot of work needs to be done to get the ship righted again. Just like football, it all starts with recruiting followed by conditioning and finally coaching. I don't think UM is getting the quality athletes they used to, especially at the pitcher position, which is the most important in college baseball. Until they get MUCH better pitching, CWS appearances will be much fewer and far between.
Hopefully I'm wrong, and if the Canes are selected to go to the NCAA regionals, I hope they make it back to Omaha. But past performance suggests otherwise.
Just my 2 cents, which is about all my opinions are worth 🙂
Jake
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we still lost to BC and UVA…. Same ol' story, different day, no pitching and errors again. I hate to say it, but I seriously doubt we can make a run in Omaha with that play….
Jake and Mike, good points.
I'm a fan of Miami Baseball, though it pales in my affinity to the football program. (It's simply become too hard to truly college UM baseball from the left coast. Too many games, not on TV, etc.)
Truth be told, this program hasn't recovered from losing Turtle Thomas and Lazer Collazo. The recruiting hasn't been there and things shouldn't go to hell in a handbag because you lose one pitcher.
The fact UVA took UM three of four games, with the lone win in extra innings – that's frustrating – as was the blown ninth inning again BC. Never should've happened and you wonder if the team was still dealing with that hangover two days later.
I still believe Jim Morris is a hell of a coach, but something needs to be done regarding getting hungrier assistants who can bring in and develop more talent.
This team has about a 20% chance of making Omaha, depending how it all plays out seedings-wise.