Mike Kaffee
Hurricanes Baseball Reporter
[email protected]
A crowd of 3,055 sat on the edge of their seats as this nail-biter went down to the final pitch for tonight, the fate of this game would come down to pitching. Multiple opportunities were blown where the offense would have blown the game wide open, but for the second night, the bats failed to provide the hit when most needed. Four times we had the bases loaded in the first five innings and were unable to score a single run leaving 10 players stranded with no place to go. Last night, the pitching staff was unable to provide a lifeline but tonight was a whole different story. Carson Palmquist provided another brilliant performance striking out a personal high of 9 strikeouts. The BP, unlike last night, didn’t allow for a run or hit and allowed only one runner to reach base for the 3.2 innings they came in for relief. Andrew Walter, Closer, was brought in to start the 8th with Miami leading 2-1. Throwing consistently at 96 MPH just needed 27 pitches to hold off a determined Crimson team striking out 3 of the six batters faced. It was pitching that took us to tie the series at one apiece. It will be up to Jake Garland to ensure we take the series from a very hard-fighting Harvard team. It would be nice if the offense decides to contribute with timely hits which they have not been able to do the entire series. With RISP they were just 1-11 (.091) and batted just above the Mendoza line at .207 with 10 strikeouts tonight. This has to be a total team effort and tomorrow we need to bring both to the table if we expect to not only win the series from Harvard but move forward in a positive direction for the rest of the year. We can’t afford another performance as we showed Friday night.
Tonight’s lineup saw what I pretty much expected in moving Pitelli to the 8th position. If it wasn’t for what he provides the team in his fielding ability, Gino might seriously consider benching him for a while. Tonight, he continued his hitless ways going 0-4 dropping his average to .214. Gino again shuffled the OF around which is to be expected depending on if the opposition is throwing a RH or LH. This is one area where we have an overabundance of talent. With Pitelli batting 8th, Mike Rosario was moved up to bat in the 2nd position playing RF. The only other change to the batting order was Jacoby Long replacing Edgardo Villegas in CF batting 9th. On the mound Carson Palmquist ERA 1.80.
As earlier mentioned, Miami has numerous opportunities to blow this game wide open in the first five innings. In the first, it looked like the offense came to play starting with CJ Kayfus taking the first pitch deep to CF for a lead-off triple. Mike Rosario, also taking the first pitch grounded out to first but scored CJ from third for the first run. Yoyo started the reload with a single followed by a pair of walks to load the bases. Opportunity lost: Dorian Gonzalez striking out followed by Lorenza Carrier doing likewise.
Opportunity continued to be missed in the second with a one-out double by Jacoby Long left stranded with the top of our order (CJ,Rosario) failed to drive him home.
We move on to the third, once again we get the bases loaded and again get nothing in return. Dominic flies out to right leaving 3 on base.
While our offense continue in the struggling ways, the Harvard offense was having issues of their own. They faced a different type of pitcher tonight and could not duplicate the explosiveness they entertained against Rosario and company. Through the first two innings, they went down in order striking out 3 times. In the 3rd, they recorded their first hit (double), after an initial strikeout, but Carson atoned from this minor hiccup striking out the next two.
The 4th, Harvard got on the scoreboard. Chris Snopeck takes a 1-2 count and takes it long over the LF fence. This was the 2nd HR Carson has given up this year. That tied the score at one.
Miami could not provide an answer until the 5th, but the answer could have been a whole lot more. Opportunity lost. Yoyo opens the inning with a triple to CF. Did not get a chance to stay long on third when Max batting next brings him home with a double. Unlike Yoyo, Max’s stay would only get him to 3rd with Burke popping up to second and Dorian striking out. Walks to Carrier and Pitelli load the bases for the third time in 5 innings. Like the previous times, the hit which could have opened the flood gates instead left the runners stranded with Long striking out. The opening hits Miami was fortunate to get the run across which turned out to not only provide the go-ahead run but the winning run.
Carson going into uncharted waters coming out in the 6th, showed definite signs of tiring. Two hits from the first three batters had Gino coming out of the dugout. Holding onto a slim one-run lead where the offense had been shooting blanks, the call to the BP was made. Gage Ziehl was brought in to squelch the fire. After striking the first batter he faced, a ground ball to Dominic is mismanaged (E6) trying to get the force out at second and instead has the BL. Takes it to a full count gets out of the inning with an unassisted ground out to first.
Ziehl was relieved by Rafe Schlesinger to pitch the 7 who opened with a walk which was put to rest with a 5-4-3 DP.
That set it up for Andrew Walters to shut everything down holding on to the barest of leads. 6up/6down for the save.
After the 5th, the offense for Miami totally shut down striking out 5 more times with just one walk to Jacob Burke in the 7th who was caught stealing second.
Another not-so-good night for the offense only able to come up with 6 hits but not being able to get a hit when the opportunity presented itself to break this game wide open. Of the 6 hits, 4 were for extra bases. Pair of doubles: Maxwell Romero and Jacoby Long and likewise for triples: CJ Kayfus and Yoyo Morales. Yoyo has his best game of the season going 3-4(Triple).
Game time tomorrow at 1PM to decide the series. Jake Garland is on the mound who had an excellent outing last weekend going 6 innings. The offense needs to step up tomorrow. We can’t continue to roll the dice hoping the BP will bail the team out. Yesterday they didn’t, today they did. Can’t afford to have another day of missed opportunity.
