Mike Kaffee
Hurricanes Baseball Reporter
[email protected]
Behind the star-studded performances of pitcher Gage Ziehl and hitting sensation Dominic Pitelli Miami cruises to a 13-4 “Hosing” of the Blue Hose of Presbyterian College. Gage in another brilliant performance on the mound had to be at his very best through the first five innings as the Miami offense was only able to come up with one run on the homer of Lorenzo Carrier in the 2nd inning to give Miami a 1-0 lead which they held until the 6th. Then it became the Dominic Pitelli Circus belting out 3 home runs over the course of the next 3 innings to put the game on ice.
Gage Ziehl proved once again that he is one of the premier pitchers in the ACC. Eight scoreless innings, striking out a career-high 12 batters, allowing just 4 hits and one walk. Retired 20 of the 23 batters he faced. While Gage was hosing the visitors from Clinton, SC on their inaugural visit to the Light, the offense appeared rusting through the first half of the game with just 4 of 5 scattered hits not being able to mount any type of offense except for the only way we seem to score; that being via Long Ball. It came in the second inning off the bat of Lorenzo Carrier traveling 358′ to right for his 4th homer of the year and gave Miami the early lead of 1-0, which they had to hold onto until the 6th before the bats started sizzling..In the next 3 innings,6-8, Miami made up for all the idle innings prior batting around in all three innings putting up a 4 spot for each. The 6th, 4 runs on 4 hits spotlighted by the 3 RBI 422′ HR to center by Dominic Pitelli. One inning later, the 7th, 4 runs on 4 hits starting with Lorenzo Carrier RBI triple to right center, scoring 2 and finishing next by Dominic with his second homer, 356′ to right adding two more runs.
Keeping the carousel moving, one inning later, the 8th, another inning of 4 runs on 4 hits highlighted with the third homer in as many innings by King Pitelli this time 347′ to left with the Grand Salami.After 8 innings of near-perfect pitching, Miami switched directions and went from the top of their pitching charts to the very bottom bringing in Gunther Braendel to close out the game. When I say the bottom of the charts, I mean the very bottom. For the 11.1 innings, he has pitched this season, he has given up 17 runs, 6 coming by HRs, and has an ERA of 12.71.
Tonight, not only did he lose the shutout, but did so with 4 runs on 5 hits, four of which came with 2 outs and one of those being a 3 run homer. Despite this one blemish, it was an overall exciting 3 innings of Miami batting at its very best.Offensively, the team batted an overall .436, and only struck out twice, which had to be a record for a team that consistently is in double digits in this category. While the team struggled through the first 5 innings not being able to do much of anything except for Zo’s homer, the second half of the ballgame was a whole different game in being able to move the runners around the bases. Four tonight with multiple numbers: Gaby Gutierrez 2-4; Jason Torres, filling in for Yoyo given the night off made the most of it with a 2-4 evening; Lorenzo Carrier 3-5(triple,HR,3RBI) short of the cycle (double); and the Player of the Game with his best performance ever with a bat Dominic Pitelli 5-5 (3HRs,9RBIs). It doesn’t get any better than this. Presbyterian Blue Hose definitely got “Hosed” tonight, but will be determined to bounce back tomorrow facing Alejandro Rosario. This is spin-the-wheel time, anytime Alejandro takes to the mound. He is always one pitch away from disaster and hopefully, this won’t be the case for tomorrow. First pitch 7PM.
