Miami Hurricanes outlast FIU Panthers in a four-hour baseball marathon
The Hurricanes’ baseball program came into Wednesday’s game at FIU leading the 46-year-old series 93-29 — with losses in six of the past eight games.
But Miami’s seven combined runs in the third and fourth innings helped turn an initially shaky pitching performance by right-handed Canes freshman Slade Cecconi into a 10-8 UM victory in front of a standing-room-only crowd of 1,923 — the largest FIU crowd since 2006 against Miami.
FIU made UM sweat by chipping away a 10-2 UM lead into the final two-run deficit. The Panthers scored two in the ninth on four hits off closer Daniel Federman, who finally got Logan Allen to fly out to center field to end the game.
The 6-4, 212-pound Cecconi struggled with his command and walked his fourth batter by the second inning, but he managed to get out of two bases-loaded situations, giving way to 6-5, 225-pound right-handed reliever and eventual winner Tyler Keysor in the fifth.
Freddy Zamora’s two-run single scored Tony Jenkins and Jordan Lala, and Alex Toral doubled home Zamora, sending right-handed Panthers freshman starter Franco Aleman into the dugout with one out in the third and UM leading 3-0. The Canes (6-2) scored another in the third on reliever Will Saxton’s wild pitch, three more in the fourth, one in the sixth and two in the seventh on back-to-back home runs by Toral and Raymond Gil en route to the victory.
The Panthers (3-4) scored four runs in the seventh on a two-run double by Javier Valdes and two-run homer by pinch-hitter Seth Cannady.
FIU had solo home-run blasts by Austin Shenton to right field in the third inning and by Valdez to left field in the fourth, then left bases loaded in the fourth when Jose Garcia watched Cecconi’s third strike with two outs.
The Panthers also loaded the bases with one out in the second on two walks by Cecconi and John Rodriguez’s infield single. But Derek Cartaya and Allen followed with pop outs to quietly end the threat.
Valdez ended the night with three hits and four RBI.
Keysor (1-0) earned the victory by allowing three earned runs on three hits and one walks in 2 2/3 innings. He struck out three.
Cecconi threw 84 pitches in his four innings, allowing two earned runs on five hits and four walks. He struck out four.
This story was originally published February 27, 2019 at 11:19 PM.
