Mike Kaffee
Hurricanes Baseball Reporter
[email protected]
Miami ends the season on a down note with Texas putting up a 9-run third inning which was capped off with a Grand Slam home run that Miami was unable to recover from. Going into the game Miami knew it had to rely on its BP to take them to Championship Monday which would fall flat along with the offense that could only come up with 6 hits. In the second inning, Miami took advantage of two HP(Blake,Zach) with Miami’s first hit of the day giving the Canes an early lead on a Dominic Pitelli three-run homer. The Canes were looking good with Rolando Gallo through the first two innings of 3up/3down innings. The hope was he would be able to do as well as Rosario did the night before. He opened the third with a strikeout and then the world collapsed and the hopes of Miami seeing Monday faded forever. Between Gallo and Lequerica 9 runs and seven hits later Miami’s lead of 3-0 turned into a 9-3 deficit. Between the opening strikeout and the second out 9 batters reached base with a hit or walk. Jalin Flores who opened the inning with a strikeout got a second opportunity and knocked it out of the park with the grand slam.
The 3rd totally drain the energy from the offense and they were unable to respond playing flat through the 7th. The dugout was lifeless and no sense of urgency was generated from the offense. They were only able to come up with just 3 hits and never caused any type of threat of getting back into the ball game. The 6th, Texas added another run to their already 9 on BL (E1,2Ws) hit by pitch extending the lead 10-3. Miami finally in the 7th had the fans a chance to celebrate with a 383′ three-run homer by Yoyo, his 20th of the season. Too little, too late.
Yoyo’s third HR in two games was all the celebration the remaining fans had to remember until the start of the next season. What they would like to forget were the 5 strikeouts that were to follow, three of which came in the 9th. That and Carlos Perez bunt in the 8th back to the pitcher with two outs. What he was thinking is unimaginable along with his now 0-28 performance in postseason play.
Other than the two HRs by Pitelli and Morales accounting for all our runs, there was nothing left in the tank from the rest of the offense. The same can be said from starter Ronaldo Gallo who has been for most of the season unable to get beyond the third along with no support coming from the BP. We knew going into the Regionals that the BP was going to be the Achilles Heel, but we thought the offense would not collapse as they did in the end. This is the second Regional where the team forgot to show up and not fulfilling their dream of Omaha.
We bid farewell to CJ Kayfus, Yoyo Morales, Dominic Pitelli, and Zach Levenson who gave us a great season, and wish them the best in the upcoming draft. The left side of our infield of Pitelli and Morales, one of the best in college ball, will be deeply missed and hard to replace at their level of excellence.
It has been a most interesting year where we were treated with HRs, HRs, and more Hrs but with periods of ineffective offense to go along with it a BP with limited capability having only one real starter. It was a year of uncertainty and hopefully next year we will have a stronger BP and more consistency in hitting with runners in scoring position. We must be able to move the line which for the most part were unable to do.
Making the All-Tournament team were Rafe Schlesinger, Blake Cyr, and of course, Yoyo Morales who has given us the most exciting three years of baseball that we have seen in a long time.
We bid farewell until the fall preseason starting in Oct where we once again preview what the year will bring once again striving for the ultimate prize: Omaha.
