Poor fielding, sloppy running dooms Miami in finale against Florida State
The Miami Hurricanes did some spring cleaning this weekend.
They just didn’t finish the job.
Poor fielding and sloppy baserunning doomed the Canes from achieving what they had hoped for Sunday against the Florida State Seminoles — most significantly a victory.
Instead of what might have been UM’s first three-game sweep against FSU since 2001, the Seminoles took advantage of three UM errors to salvage the weekend series with a 6-5 victory at Mark Light Field.
“We by far and away did not play a complete game,’’ UM coach Gino DiMare said, citing pitching struggles, insufficient hitting with players in scoring position, poor bunt defense and baserunning mistakes. “But at the end of the day, we still had a chance to win the game. We made a ton of mistakes, but we still had a chance to win at the end.
“Disappointing, because we had a chance to sweep.’’
The eighth inning proved fatal for the Canes (20-12, 7-8 Atlantic Coast Conference). With bases loaded, two outs and Miami reliever Greg Veliz on the mound, shortstop Freddy Zamora flawlessly fielded a deep ground ball, then threw it against the railing of the UM dugout. FSU’s Jonathan Foster (reached on bunt-fielding error by Veliz) and Nander De Sedas (single) scored to break the tie and put FSU ahead for good.
It was Zamora’s second error of the game and 13th of the season.
Zamora hit a solo home run in the ninth, but it wasn’t enough.
Three of the six runs for FSU (19-12, 7-8) were unearned.
As for the running mishaps, UM’s Raymond Gil, who entered Sunday’s game with the ACC’s second best batting average (.383), overran third base in the fourth inning after leading off with a double and advancing on JP Gates’ single. His head down trying to score from second, Gil raced past third after coach Gino DiMare initially waved him home. But DiMare put up a late stop sign that Gil missed before realizing he needed to retreat. He stopped, slipped and was tagged out.
Mike Amditis hit the next pitch over the left-field fence, and UM led 4-3 instead of what would have been 5-3.
The other UM running mistake ended the second inning. Gates reached on a single, then was thrown out trying to advance on a wild pitch and was tagged out when he slid past the bag at second.
FSU outfielder/reliever J.C. Flowers not only earned the save, but he hit a solo home run in the fourth that tied the game at 2-2. He also ended the bottom of the third by catching a line drive to center, then throwing out Anthony Vilar trying to score from third. Foster hit FSU’s second home run in the fourth.
Conor Grady (5-3) pitched one-third of an inning to earn the victory, while Greg Veliz (1-1), who pitched one inning, took the loss.
Five Miami pitchers combined for 18 strikeouts, with only two walks.
“That’s unbelievable,’’ DiMare said of the walks to strikeouts ratio. “I don’t even recall ever seeing that — two walks to 18 strikeouts. And we didn’t come up with the W. Again, we did not play a complete game in any facet, and we still had a chance to win. I told the guys, ‘When you play a clean, good, complete game it takes care of itself. We didn’t do that. ...We did that the last couple nights.’’
The Canes meet Florida Gulf Coast at 6 p.m. Tuesday at home before traveling for a four-game road trip that ends with a weekend series at Virginia.
This story was originally published April 7, 2019 at 4:43 PM.
