Miami ushers in Gino DiMare era with first opening-series baseball sweep since 2016
New University of Miami baseball head coach Gino DiMare wanted to start strong.
He got perfection.
The Miami Hurricanes ushered in the DiMare era with their first opening-series sweep since 2016, defeating Rutgers 9-3 on Sunday at Alex Rodriguez Park at Mark Light Field.
With Baseball America’s preseason No. 4 Florida (3-0 this season and 49-21 in 2018) on tap in Gainesville next weekend and FAU (3-0, 43-19-1) at Mark Light on Wednesday, the Canes’ challenge will only get greater.
“They beat us three times last year,’’ DiMare said of UM’s next opponent from Boca Raton. “I kind of put that in their heads, that these mid-week games last year is what kept us out of the NCAA tournament.’’
Sunday’s finale, however, punctuated the high-powered type of weekend the Canes lacked the past couple of years. They scored a combined 35 runs on 39 hits — 10 hits Sunday, nine Saturday and 20 Friday.
Miami was led by freshman Adrian Del Castillo’s 2-for-4 day that included three RBI and a two-run, bases-loaded double in the eighth, and by freshman Anthony Vilar’s 4-for-4 performance to bring his batting average to .733. Vilar now has seven hits in 11 at-bats, with four doubles.
“It’s so hard to gauge,’’ DiMare said of his offense this early in the season. “I have confidence in our guys, but until you really get out there and start doing it... I’m starting to see some guys [and] going, ‘Ooh, this could be special.’ Del Castillo has been special since Day One, so we all knew that. I was really, really impressed and certainly happy to see Vilar swing the bat.’’
Right-handed redshirt junior Brian Van Belle, a Broward College transfer who played at Southwest Ranches Archbishop McCarthy, kept Rutgers scoreless for his first Division I victory in his Hurricanes debut. Van Belle allowed five hits and one walk in six innings, striking out five.
“It feels great that I finally got it under my belt,’’ Van Belle said. “I’m hungry for more.”
The Canes got on the scoreboard in the third inning on a two-out double to right-center by Tony Jenkins, followed by an RBI-double to left-center by Vilar to make it 1-0. Freddy Zamora then reached on an error by the third baseman, and Vilar scored the unearned run for a 2-0 Canes lead.
UM struck again in the fifth on a two-out single by Vilar, who advanced to second on a wild pitch. Zamora walked and cleanup batter Castillo was hit in the back, loading the bases. The Scarlet Knights sent in right-handed freshman reliever Garrett French to face Alex Toral, and a wild pitch by French scored Vilar for a 3-0 UM lead before Toral went down swinging for the third out.
Miami added a run in the sixth on a single and stolen base by Jordan Lala and sky-high infield chopper to the shortstop by freshman Chet Moore, who legged out the single and precipitated a play at the plate. Lala slid home safely to make it 4-0 Canes.
Rutgers scored one in the seventh and twice in the eighth off right-handed sophomore reliever Daniel Federman, and suddenly it was 5-3. But UM’s four runs in the eighth cemented the victory.
This story was originally published February 17, 2019 at 3:28 PM.
