Canes Stay Hot, Defeat Florida Gulf Coast, 11-7

 March 31, 2022  Leave a comment

Mike Kaffee

Hurricanes Baseball Reporter
[email protected]

Slugfest by both sides for a total of 29 hits, 17 of which came off of the Miami bats, of which 10 came in the third inning which saw 7 consecutive hits. Fifteen batters came to the plate in what was to be the most explosive inning yet this season. As on fire as the bats were, they fizzled not seeing another hit until the 7th when Jacob Burke opened with a double and scored on two consecutive WPs. While Miami was idling content sitting on their 10 run third, the Eagles wouldn’t wave the white flag scoring in the next three innings and tacking on a pair in the 8th. Miami almost blew an 8 run lead but held in the 9th to exit Ft Meyers with an 11-7 victory.

The lineup 1-6 is unchanged. Zach moved up a spot batting 7th (DH), swapping with Dominic who batted 8th, and Gaby Gutierrez, rewarded for his timely hit on Sunday to force the game into extra innings, batting 9th playing RF. Jake Garland on the hill
It appeared Jake was on his way to a quick exit from his shaky start in the first inning.

Three hits, two runs, and 22 pitches was not an opening Gino was looking for in his midweek starter. Gino was a lot less concerned after the 3rd when the Canes put on a batting clinic with a season-high 10 runs. Eight batters came to the plate before the first out was recorded. the inning was highlighted with a moon shot of a HR by Maxwell claiming 3 of the 10 runs put up on the board.
From the opening inning, Miami was playing very aggressively starting with CJ leading off with an opening double, being called out trying to stretch it into a triple. Next was Edgardo walking and then getting picked off at first. Yoyo continued aggressive play getting thrown out trying to steal second after walking. The over-aggressiveness proved very costly. The Eagles pitcher never recorded an out for the inning and if Miami had cranked it down a notch we would have had BL with no one out. The only positive to come out of the inning was that we put the Eagles on notice that we were not holding back on taking every advantage of their pitching. It paid dividends in the third.

With a 10-2 lead at the end of three, Miami for the next 3 innings was in a complete meltdown not being able to find a hit, and the only baserunner to see first base was Jacob Burke and he was hit by pitch. While Miami was struggling to find their way back to a semblance of the third, the Eagles were inching their way back into the game. In the 4th back-to-back doubles before Jake found his groove with a trio of strikeouts. The 5th a solo HR. With 87 pitches Jake came out to start the 6th but after giving up a double and single put runners on the corners, Gino couldn’t afford to see the now 6 run margin getting any less. SF to right took it down to 5. 
Miami after 3 unanswered runs were able to get one back, unearned, on a lead off double by Jacob. Taking advantage of back-to-back WPs, Jacob trots home to give a much-needed boost on a slumping offense that seemed to have put it all into one inning. 

Florida Gulf was yet to yell uncle with a pair of runs in the 8th. Fortunate for Miami after the Eagles put up their initial run on a lead-off single and a double and Yoyo recording an error, that a DP slowed the push to further narrow the once 8 run margin. A WP cleared the bases and set up the 9th with Miami holding onto a 4 round lead.

Jordan Dubberly came in to pitch the 9th and try to hold back the surge that the Eagles were trying to make. A worthy effort was put to rest on 11 pitches and Miami held on to an 11-7 victory.

Every player in the starting 9 had at least one hit with three having multiple hits. CJ Kayfus 4-5(double,3RBIs); Jacob Burke 3-3(double); Dominic Pitelli 3-5 (double). The other extra-base hit: Maxwell Romero 1-5 (HR,3RBIs)(4th of the season).

After not recording a single strikeout last week, Jake was impressive with a season-best of 8. Last week he managed to go 6 innings and could have gone for more, but tonight at 94 pitches for 5 innings he ran out of steam in the 6th with a pair of hits to lead off the inning. The BP held off the attack from the Eagles with just 3 hits and a pair of runs. Only recorded a single strikeout, but including Jake, not one batter reached first base with a walk.

Important mid-week win. They will get a chance at revenge next week when they pay us a visit at the Light on Tuesday at 6PM for game 2 in the series. Canes can’t be looking at that game at the moment. A bigger series looms ahead with Duke at Durham. First pitch 6PM. Will be on the ACC network thankfully.

Tonight’s game was televised on Youtube and the coverage was the worse I have seen. It was more like amateur hour. Mostly used a fixed lens and couldn’t see any coverage in the outfield. ACC, being part of ESPN gives a much more professional viewing, and looking forward after tonight’s presentation. Can’t complain too much with a victory under our wings.

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