Mike Kaffee
Hurricanes Baseball Reporter
[email protected]
Trailing for the 9th time this season, Miami went to its number one weapon to climb back out of a major deficit to start the game. All season, The Canes have relied upon the long ball to bail them out of predicaments our pitching staff has placed them in. Saturday it was 6 runs and tonight three HRs in the first by the Owls and the Canes were looking at a 4 run deficit before they even came to bat. For three innings they only managed a lone single as they struggled to get back into the game. The struggle ended in the 4th. A pair of HRs accounting for 6 runs placed us in the fast lane, which the Owls were unable to respond back from. Miami would pick up an additional 2 runs before the Owls could answer with one of their own. Unfortunately for the Owls, not nearly enough to respond to the HR power of the 4th coupled with the 3 extra-base hits to rally the Canes to a 10-5 victory.
The evening could not have started worse. Carlos Lequerica ran into a Buzzsaw in his first inning and possibly his last as a starter. As a relief pitcher he has put in very commendable outings, but tonight in his first start was not one of them. After just 7 pitches and two outs, Carlos’s world turned into a nightmare. Four batters and three HRs later Miami found itself trailing 4-0.
Like so many before him, his stay on the mound was extremely brief, 1.1 innings, before the BP got the call to attempt to stop the bleeding. Rafe Schlesinger, Chris Scinta, and Alejandro Torres provided the necessary surgery allowing our offense to bounce back holding the Owls to 4 hits and one additional run. Andrew Walters sitting on a comfortable 5-run lead only needs 8 pitches to finalize the W.
Trailing 4-0 into the 4th, the Canes with only one hit to show sent 12 players to the plate, coming away with 7 runs on 6 hits. Six of the 7 runs were accounted for by two HRs( Blake Cyr(383′), CJ Kayfus(373′)). FAU would utilize unsuccessfully 4 pitchers in the inning to try to stop the floodgates Miami had opened. Edgardo started leading off with Miami’s second hit. A bad bounce on a grounder to second that had DP written all over instead had runners on 1st and 2nd no-outs. With errors come consequences. Blake Cyr made sure they paid for it going yard and narrowing the lead to one. A pair of singles by Dominic Pitelli and Dorian Gonzalez opened the door to a game-tying double by Carlos Perez. Back to the top of the order CJ Kayfus showed us why he was not only ACC player of the week, but collegiate baseball and Perfect Game/Rawlings to boot, taking a 2-1 count to the promised land, 373′ to give the Canes the lead. All runs were UNearned due to the earlier error.
Miami added to their lead in the 6th. BL, compliments of 3 walks, Blake SF to right scored one and Dominic’s double added one more extending the lead to 9-4.
Nine unanswered runs going into the 8th. Since the departure of Lequerica in the second, the Owls had only managed two hits, both singles, with no runs to show for it. Alejandro Torres in relief of Chris Scinta who held the Owls hitless for three innings ran into the Owls last attempt to get back into the game. Pair of hits accounting for only a run was not nearly enough to stir the waters. The Canes answered with a run of their own in the bottom half of the inning on Dominic’s second double of the game putting the lid on the scoring and securing a 10-5 victory.
Offensively, if not for the Long Ball, the outcome could have been a whole lot different. Another multi-night HR celebration not only got us back into the game but provided the spark giving us our 15th win of the season. FAU had three of their own accounting for 4 of their 5 runs but the difference is there not able to capitalize with runners in scoring position going 0-4 to our 5-12. We still had 10 left stranded on base. Two players with multiple hits: Edgardo Villegas 2-3 and the player of the game Dominic Pitelli 4-5 (2 doubles,2RBIs). CJ Kayfus and Blake Cyr added to our HR tally which gave them 3 and 4 RBIs respectively.
Looks like Miami is still on the hunt for a mid-week and soon to be a Sunday starter. Still think based on his relief work, Carlos deserves another shot, especially after all that Rosario has had. As for Alejandro, it is time to pull the plug. Possibly move him to mid-week to see if that might help and as for Sunday, take the big leap and reward freshman Chris Scinta for his quality of work. Facing Wake Forest is the next major hurdle. Ranked 2nd in the nation, it is expected to be a HR Derby of massive proportion. Only NC has more HRs. Expect a lot of balls leaving the ballpark this weekend starting Friday at 6PM.
