Time to get excited about Canes Baseball?

Thirty-six games in and the Miami Hurricanes are sitting at 27-9 and ranked No. 13, having picked up four straight wins. UM swept No. 21 North Carolina this past weekend after whooping Florida Gulf Coast, 9-0 last week, days after dropping the series at Virginia Tech.

At a distance, Miami has been good/not great in 2010. Swept Rutgers out the gate, but suffered an uncharacteristic loss a week later with a chance to close out Manhattan. After winning the first two games by a combined score of 25-4, the Canes were thumped 12-7 in the series finale.

A midweek 15-2 pounding of South Florida was followed by a 1-2 run against Florida the following weekend. The following week, a 19-2 beat down of Central Florida, followed by a 2-2 run the next four games, losing the opener to Boston College and the dropping one the following weekend against Fordham. Fourteen home games in just over a month and Miami had already dropped five at Mark Light.

A recent Manny Navarro blog was of the opinion that the ’10 Canes are in much better shape than last year’s squad. He wrote the article nine games ago when both teams had matching 20-7 records.

The current Canes were coming off a sweep of Wake Forest, in what would become a seven-game win streak, before dropping the series in Blacksburg and losing their then No. 9 ranking. The ’09 Canes were ranked No. 2 last season when 20-7.

Navarro cites improved team chemistry, a deeper/healthier/consistent starting rotation and a stronger offensive attack as reasons for a deeper run this post-season.

As Miami runs towards the regionals, the schedule toughens up. The Canes got the lesser ACC foes out the gate, but closes strong with this year’s heavy hitters – No. 6 Florida State, No. 4 Georgia Tech and No. 2 Virginia. After winning the ACC in 2008, Miami was run out after three games last spring and the March towards Omaha ended in the Gainesville regional where the Gators marched on.

After an early exit from Rosenblatt as the top seed two years back, and a punking at the hands of an arch-rival last season, this Miami squad should have chemistry and better be hungry. The window for the upperclassmen is closing.

Sunday’s win over the Tar Heels could prove to be one of those season-defining moments (or at worst, a hell of an ending to an exciting game).

Cut short due to curfew, Miami entered the bottom of the eight down 7-5, knowing it was the final inning.

Zeke DeVoss cut it to 7-6 with a lead off home run and back-to-back walks put Frankie Ratcliff and Scott Lawson on first and second. Yasmani Grandal singled up the middle, loading the bases – but the Canes suffered a setback when Harold Martinez grounded into a double play. Lawson move to third and Ratcliff scored, tying the game with two outs. One pitch later Lawson scored on a walk-off wild pitch; Miami’s second this year.

Lawson emphatically slapped home plate, later saying emotions got the better of him, knowing how bad his team needed this sweep. On paper that might not mean much, but for a team looking to bring it together during a tough stretch, the emotion showed could go a long way. The post-game, home plate pile up looked like something out of a Super Regional – not a mid-April conference game.

If you haven’t tuned into UM baseball this year, now might be the time to start paying attention as there’s a good chance this team has turned the corner. With the remaining meat on this schedule, Miami will be Omaha-tested before conference championship week. Three top six teams down the stretch – that’s as close to a simulate College World Series experiment as you’ll get during the regular season.

Bethune-Cookman on Tuesday night and then it’s off to Tallahassee this weekend for a three-game stretch against Florida State. Tune in at 6pm ET.

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