LOUISVILLE: GAME 1

Miami drops their 5th straight losing to the Cardinals 9-5. This makes it the 11th loss in their last 12 games. Miami imploded in the 7th after coming back from a 3-run deficit tying the game in the 6th. It is the same story every game: defense and pitching. Unlike the Cardinals, the Cane’s biggest problem is the ability to string hits together to move the line. 11 players were left stranded on base with 3 of the 4 innings, ending with a strikeout that had runners in scoring position. With the ACC Tournament a month away it seems very likely that the loser of our last series against Pitt will decide who goes and who stays home. Pitt lost tonight currently two games behind us and ND won their third game of the season moving them to within three games of us. If we end up having the same record as ND, guess who is the odd man out? Never thought we would be fighting to avoid being the cellar dwellers.

Jason Torres returned to the lineup after serving a one-game suspension resulting from his ejection from the FSU game Saturday. Edgardo Villegas had an extra one-day suspension levied by JD for his unsportsmanlike conduct which he felt was grievous enough to add an extra one day onto what the NCAA issued. Replacing Edgardo was Jake Kulikowski batting 8th and playing right field. Lucas Costello (LF) moved up in the lineup to bat second and play left.

Miami got off to a horrendous start opening with a fielding error by Daniel Cuvet. This is his 6th error of the season and I can’t count the number of untold errors he has made fielding the position. Following Daniel’s error, back-to-back singles loaded the bases. Failed 6-4-3 DP scored the initial run but the second attempt 4-6-3 DP ended the inning but you could already see the handwriting on the wall. An error with the game’s first play that resulted in a run is not a good beginning.

Miami with a two-out rally even the score at 1 in the second. A walk to Carrier followed by a pair of singles by Jake and JD Urso made it one apiece.

Into the 4th score tied at one Gage had thrown 39 pitches and looking sharper with each inning. Then came the 4th. A pair of opening singles had runners on 1st and 2nd. Gage gets the next two batters with no movement of the runners. Runs the count to 1-1 before hitting the batter to load the bases. Bases loaded count 0-2. One pitch away from getting out of the inning, but it is not to be. An 11-pitch battle of running the count to full after starting at 0-2. On the 11th pitch, Alex Alicea’s battle at the plate is rewarded with a double to right clearing the bases and giving the Cardinals a 4-1 lead. Gage’s pitch count which started at 39 pitches concluded the inning at 75 almost doubling the number of pitches.

The Canes did not respond until the 5th inning with a lead-off HR by Jacoby Long (404′) his 3rd of the year. Daniel issued a one-out walk getting thrown out 9-5 over sliding the bag at third on a single by Dorian who advanced to second on the throw. Man on second, Jason with the opportunity to come out of his slump does reach base scoring Dorian on a throwing error by the shortstop. Jason is 0-5 tonight and has only had 2 hits in his last 34 times at bat. Jack singles putting runners on the corners only to have Carrier strike out stranding two.

Miami within one run to tie does so in the 6th. Jake opens with a walk, advancing to second on a JD SAC and a WP moves him to 3rd. Lucas ties the score at 4 with an RBI single.

Miami has come from behind 11 times this season and hopefully provide the spark to take them across with a victory. This hope was shattered in the 7th by a costly error giving the Cardinals the spark with 4 runs. Myles Caba came in to start the 7th relieving Gage having thrown 97 pitches and surrendering 4 runs (3 earned), striking out 7 on 7 hits without rendering a walk. The Cardinals opened with a one-out walk and single putting runners on the corners. A single to right gets by Jake scoring both runners from first and third and the batter ends up on third. A SF made it run #3, completing the inning with a solo HR. The 4-run 7th broke the back of any hope for the Canes to respond. Louisville added an insurance run in the 9th with a solo HR extending the score to 9-4.

Trailing by 5, Miami still had one swing left in hope of making any attempt to perform a Mark Light Magical Moment. Dorian led off the bottom of the 9th driving one off the scoreboard to narrow the score to 

9-5. That was all for the Cardiac Canes stroking out with strikeouts from Torres, Scanlon, and Carrier.

The offense put up another flame-out performance of not being able to string hits together and leaving too many on base. Jacoby Long and Dorian Gonzalez had 6 of our 10 hits each going 3-5. Jacoby shy a triple for competing the cycle and Dorian with his 5th HR of the season. As earlier stated Jason has plummeted to an all-time low 2-34 at bat. In the last 4 games, Miami has struck out 42 times. With all this new equipment and the hiring of a sports scientist and two for baseball analytics why can’t they come up with some answers?

The same can be said with our pitching. Every year this is our Achilles Heel. We have to do better in recruitment or we will be repeating the same story next year. This should be our primary emphasis. You can not win a game without pitching no matter how good the hitting is. The bats can not keep up with the number of runs given up from ineffective pitching. A perfect example is this past Tuesday against Bethume-Cookman. 4 runs on one hit. All runs by walks and hit batters. We are struggling to keep out of the ACC cellar between the poor pitching, ineffective hitting, and sloppy defense.

Tomorrow at 8PM a chance to turn things around and get back on track. Edgardo will be back in the lineup and maybe tomorrow will be the day when offense, defense, and pitching sync to even the series with a decisive showdown on Sunday.