Andrew Suarez made his season debut and struck out three batters over five scoreless innings to lead host University of Miami to a 7-0 victory and a series sweep over Rutgers on a chilly Sunday afternoon.

Suarez (Miami Columbus) missed nearly his entire freshman season because of shoulder surgery.

After a rocky start the 6-0, 205-pound left-hander adjusted to the chill, struck out three batters and gave up no runs through five innings.

“It felt really good to be back,” said Suarez, who totaled only 21/3 innings in 2012. “It was hard to grip the ball because of the cold, so I really had to trust my defense.”

And the Canes defense was solid. The team turned four double plays, committed only two errors and held the Scarlet Knights (0-3) to two earned runs through the three-game series.

“I thought our fielding the whole weekend was good,” UM coach Jim Morris said. “We had a few errors, but other than that we played outstanding. We had great communication, and I was pleased overall on the entire effort physically and mentally on how we played the game.”

The Hurricanes (3-0) jumped on the board in the third inning, scoring two runs on back-to-back RBI from Chantz Mack and David Thompson.

After scoring a run each in the fourth and the fifth innings, Dale Carey hit an RBI single and Brad Fieger knocked in two runs on a double in the seventh to give UM its final margin.

“It was great seeing a lot of our rookies getting good hits this weekend,” Morris said. “It is going to be a team effort, and this weekend they did that together.”

UM finished the series with a total of 28 hits and 16 runs scored. The Canes are back in action Wednesday night at FAU.