Mike Kaffee
Hurricanes Baseball Reporter
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After a disappointing performance Saturday night, Miami had hoped to rebound with a more positive effort in all areas of play. Instead, what they got was a reality check in that they are nowhere where they thought they were with regard to facing off against a quality team. Going into this weekend, there were high expectations with a strong rotation, a BP that would shut the door down, and balls that would be singing off the bats. Saturday and Sunday Miami woke up. All aspects of their game went from a dream with a happy ending to a total nightmare. Today, where everything was on the line, Miami’s starter, Jake Garland, floundered from the opening batter lasting not even 3 innings. Then it became pitching by committee with no one able to stop the surging flood of runs that Florida brought to the game. Miami went through 10 pitchers in an effort to stem the tide but all they were able to do is walk after walk (14) as the runs kept on mounting interspersed with a string of hits and no one was able to stop it. Florida’s secret was that they worked the pitch count and as for our offensive punch to answer their scoring just was not to be found. The only semblance of life came in the 9th trailing 11-1 and we were able to put a couple of runs on the board but even that ended on a sour note with bases loaded one out with Yoyo and Max striking out. Hardly anyone was around to see this because the Miami fateful had already left the stadium in a disappointing realization that this is not the team that was hyped as Omaha ready with a strong BP and power with the bats.
Only lineup changes came as expected with Carrier being benched and the OF once again being reshuffled. Edgardo Villegas replaced Gaby Gutierrez in left batting 7th and Zach Levenson replaced Lorenzo in right batting 8th. Dominic moved to batting 9th. One through six remained unchanged. Jake Garland, ERA 0.00, coming off a brilliant performance last week against Harvard on the rubber.
It was a weekend that needs to be put behind us. Must move forward where the bats come to play and the BP come across as they are supposed to. The team definitely did not show it this weekend and for all the hype this game generated, our offense just did not show up to play and our pitchers failed to pitch. As Gino commented after the game, “It is time to turn the page”. It better be done quickly because we travel to FIU on Tuesday who want very much to hold the 305 Bragging Rights and Boston coming on Friday to start ACC play
