Future is bright for UM baseball despite loss in NCAA regionals

Gino DiMare was overcome with emotion.

DiMare’s first season as coach of the Miami Hurricanes baseball team ended late Sunday night with a 5-2 loss to the fifth-ranked, top-seeded and host Mississippi State Bulldogs, who will be making their fourth consecutive trip to the super regionals, the longest active streak in the nation.

Miami (41-20) has won four College World Series titles — four more than Mississippi State by the way — but the Hurricanes haven’t left Omaha victorious since 2001. Miami didn’t even make the postseason the past two years.

“To say I’m proud of our guys is an understatement,” said DiMare, fighting off tears after Miami’s bounce-back season had been completed. “But we’re not a ‘bubble’ program. We were this year. But that’s not what I aspire to be as the head coach.

“I want to make sure that, like the old days, we know we are hosting [a regional] and [teams] have to come play us at our place [in future years].”

The Hurricanes nearly hosted this year. Their No. 17 RPI was the second best in the nation among teams that did not get one of the 16 sites. A loss to North Carolina in the ACC tournament cost the Hurricanes, who led 5-0 in that game.

Here in Starkville, the second-seeded Canes blew another lead, this time 4-0 against third-seeded Central Michigan, losing 6-5 on Friday with a ninth-inning RBI single doing the final damage for the Chippewas.

The Canes battled back through the losers’ bracket of the double-elimination tournament, defeating Southern 12-2 on Saturday and avenging its loss to Central Michigan with an 18-3 demolition on Sunday afternoon. Miami hit six homers against Central Michigan, including two by Alex Toral.

“Miami is really, really good,” Central Michigan coach Jordan Bischel said. “They are really dangerous.”

The Canes looked dangerous early against Mississippi State, leading 1-0 after Raymond Gil’s impressive home run to dead center.

Miami freshman Slade Cecconi was unhittable through those first three innings, retiring all nine batters in order.

However, in the fourth, Bulldogs center fielder Jake Mangum — the SEC’s all-time hits leader who had been stuck in a 0-for-19 slump – hit a chopper that didn’t travel any farther than a short putt. Hungry for a hit of any kind, Mangum raced to first and ended his drought when Cecconi slipped while trying to throw him out.

That hit was emotional for Mangum and the crowd of 9,014. Jordan Westburg followed with a double — the only hard-hit ball of the inning — and the Bulldogs cashed in with an RBI infield single, a sacrifice fly and a ground-ball single, giving the Bulldogs a 3-1 lead they held the rest of the way.

Miami had two major chances to take the lead. In the sixth, Miami loaded the bases with none out, but Freddy Zamora — after narrowly stepping away from what would’ve been an easy RBI hit by pitch — grounded into a double play, and Adrian Del Castillo flied out to end the threat with just one run.

The Hurricanes loaded the bases again in the eighth, this time with one out, but Del Castillo grounded into a double play that ended Miami’s last big chance.

“They did a good job of keeping the ball down, and they had good sink on their pitches,” DiMare said of the Bulldogs. “We hit the ball into the ground at the worst times.”

Mississippi State added two runs in the eighth. Miami was forced to play the infield in when the Bulldogs put runners on second and third, and Westburg lined a two-run single that likely gets caught had the Canes played normal defense.

Five Hurricanes made the all-tournament team, including Brian Van Belle, who beat Central Michigan on Sunday afternoon with eight strong innings. He led the team in wins (10-2) and the starters in ERA (3.30).

Del Castillo, Toral, Gil and DH J.P. Gates also made the all-tournament team.

Del Castillo, who led Miami this season in doubles (22), RBI (72) and batting average (.331), knocked in 10 runs in 17 Starkville at-bats.

Toral finished the season with 24 homers — one more than the entire Miami team hit in 2018. Toral hit just .161 with one homer as a freshman but made massive improvement as a sophomore, hitting .293 with 67 RBI, a .400 on-base percentage and a team-high .656 slugging percentage. Only two Hurricanes have hit that many homers in one season: Yonder Alonso (24) and Phil Lane (25).

Gil hit .318 with four homers, and Gates hit .340 with four homers.

But it wasn’t just about stats. The fight in this Canes squad was typified by catcher Michael Amditis, who waged an 11-pitch war with Bulldogs reliever Colby White in the seventh inning. White was throwing 95 mph, but Amditis managed to foul off six two-strike throws before flying out.

With no seniors on this roster, Miami is expected to return its core players in 2020, and a deep postseason run is certainly possible.

“This season was a step in the right direction,” Gil said. “We are going to remember this feeling and be back next year, better.”

This story was originally published June 3, 2019 at 12:13 PM.