Miami baseball pounds FAU and rises to 4-0. Now, it’s off to Gainesville to face Gators
Miami baseball coach Gino DiMare didn’t want his Hurricanes this past Sunday looking ahead to the weekend series against the No. 4 Florida Gators that begins Friday in Gainesville.
“FAU first,’’ DiMare told a couple of Hurricanes standouts who spoke to reporters after UM swept Rutgers.
Now, no more holding back.
Behind the debut victory of 6-4, 212-pound former heralded high school All-American pitcher Slade Cecconi, the Hurricanes stayed undefeated Wednesday with an 11-4 victory over FAU at Mark Light Field.
Onward to Gainesville, home of the team that has beaten Miami (4-0) six of the past seven games and 10 of the past 12, dating to 2015. UM leaves by bus Thursday morning.
But the Gators are not feeling nearly as good as the Hurricanes. After sweeping their opening weekend series against Long Beach State, the Gators (3-2) proved vulnerable with a 6-1 loss Tuesday at USF and a 7-1 loss at home Wednesday to UNF. Miami and Florida first met in 1940, then got together again post-World War II in 1947. Except for a couple early years, the programs have met multiple times annually ever since. UM leads the series 129-121-1.
“It’s going to be a great atmosphere, but I feel like we’re ready for it,’’ Brian Van Belle, the redshirt junior pitcher who earned his first Division I win last Sunday against Rutgers, said this past weekend. “We’ve grinded a lot all fall and spring. We’re hungry.’’
On Wednesday, the right-handed freshman Cecconi (2.57 ERA), out of Oviedo Trinity Prep as the No. 39 overall 2018 draft prospect by Perfect Game, allowed four hits and three runs (two earned) in five innings. He didn’t allow a walk, hit one batter and struck out five. Last week he pitched two scoreless innings of relief.
Cecconi, whose fastball against the Owls was clocked at 95 miles an hour, came to UM after being drafted in the 38th round by the Baltimore Orioles.
“It felt great being out there on the bump, the defense making plays behind me, the offense scoring runs for me,’’ Ceccone said. “It made it easy.’’
Said DiMare: “Slade’s first outing, he’s probably our most talented, top recruit on the pitching side. Certainly his fastball is very live. He’s got good velocity. He needs to work on his offspeed pitches. He has a tendency to not throw them the way he needs to — he just kind of babies them at times. ...He’s a guy I think that’s going to be a real force for a couple years here.’’
UM continued its hitting spree Wednesday, with 12 hits, including two solo homers by Alex Toral, doubles by Freddy Zamora and Adrian Del Castilla and a three-hit night by leadoff batter Tony Jenkins.
The Canes opened the scoring in the third inning on back-to-back singles by Jordan Lala and Jenkins. Lala scored when Zamora reached on an error by third baseman Joe Montes, and cleanup hitter Del Castillo doubled in Jenkins and Zamora to make it 3-0. Toral’s single to right-center drove in Del Castillo for the 4-0 UM lead.
The Owls came back in the fourth with two of their own. A ground-rule double by Montes drove home Pedro Pages (reached on error) and sent Andru Summerall (single) to third. Summerall scored on a groundout to second. The inning ended when Cecconi’s pitch got past catcher Michael Amditis, who retrieved the ball and threw it back to Cecconi at the plate. After the umpire’s dramatic “Out!’’ call of Montes, Cecconi skipped joyfully to the dugout while repeatedly pumping his fist.
“Got me fired up,’’ Cecconi said. “As soon as I tagged him I got really excited. It got us out of the inning. That would have been the tying run at the plate if he would have scored there.’’
FAU challenged the call, but the umpire upheld it and UM still led 4-2. The Owls scored again in the fifth and seventh innings, but they couldn’t keep up with the Canes, who added two runs in the fourth, three in the fifth, and one apiece in the sixth and eighth.
Miami took the final game of last year’s three-game Florida series at Mark Light, the Canes’ first victory against the Gators since February 2016. In that game, 2019 UM ace Evan McKendry, now a junior, struck out eight en route to the 2-0 victory. McKendry will start again at 6:30 p.m. Friday at McKethan Stadium.
“Gotta have tunnel vision, just be focused,’’ Toral said of playing in Gainesville. “I’ve heard the atmosphere is hostile. They don’t like us. We don’t like them. Both teams want to win and are very competitive. Hopefully we come out on top.’’
Added DiMare: “When they play us, it seems like they always play their best baseball. The past is the past. We’re going to go up there and we’re looking forward to the challenge.’’
This story was originally published February 20, 2019 at 9:22 PM.
