No. 1 Miami baseball falls to No. 2 Florida after interference kills 10th-inning chance
The Miami Hurricanes expect a whole weekend of games like the one they played against the Florida Gators on Friday. Both teams are loaded with starting pitchers capable of taking shutouts into the late innings. Both have enough hitters to come through in big spots once those late innings arrive.
Miami is No. 1 and Florida is No. 2, and the start of a three-game series between the two needed more than just nine innings. The Gators finally broke through in the 11th inning of a pitchers’ duel in Coral Gables, knocking in the go-ahead run with a two-out double off Daniel Federman to beat the Hurricanes, 2-1, in the series opener.
The Gators and Hurricanes (4-1) both had their chances to seize the upper hand in extra innings. An interference call killed Miami’s best chance in the 10th inning. Florida (6-0) made the most of its opportunity.
“It was a well-played game from both sides,” said pitcher Brian Van Belle, who pitched seven innings without allowing an earned run. “It’s baseball. Things are going to happen. The ball’s going to fall one way or the other and it just happened to fall their way tonight.”
Federman (0-1) nearly escaped a jam of his own making before Jacob Young sent the Gators to victory. The pitcher struck out Florida outfielder Jud Fabian to start the 11th, then surrendered back-to-back singles to two-way players Ryan Langworthy and Jordan Butler. He got the brink of escape by striking out Gators infielder Cory Acton, but Young pounced on the first pitch of the next at-bat. The outfielder ripped a double down the third-base line and Fabian easily scored from third to put Florida ahead 2-1 after it went nearly six innings without scoring.
Miami’s best chance to walk off came an inning earlier. JP Gates, who started as the Hurricanes designated hitter and pitched two innings of relief to get Miami to the bottom of the 10th tied 1-1, slashed a single to left field to lead off the frame. Tony Jenkins tried to bunt pinch-runner Chet Moore over to second and the outfielder briefly even stood on third before umpires convened after the Gators’ errant throw to first.
Instead, Jenkins was out because of an interference call and Moore came all the way back to first. The throw by catcher Cal Greenfield didn’t hit Jenkins, but the outfielder ran out of the base path. The crowd of 4,046 packed into Alex Rodriguez Park at Mark Light Field showered boos upon the umpires as the Hurricanes’ next two hitters went down.
“He was not in the baseline. I don’t have an angle, but some of our coaches thought that it was the right call,” coach Gino DiMare said. “It’s obviously a big play, but I think it was the right call.”
South Florida hadn’t seen a game like this one in at least 18 years. Florida (6-0) traveled south for its annual clash with its in-state rival, and, for the first time since 1992, both the Gators and Hurricanes were in the top three. A crowd of hundreds was already lined up outside Alex Rodriguez Park to enter the stadium when it opened about 90 minutes ahead of first pitch. By Thursday, the entire three-game series was sold out.
The game lived up to its lofty expectations, too, heading to extras tied 1-1, as the two aces threw up nearly identical lines. Van Belle, who struck out a career-high 10 in Miami’s season-opening win against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights last Friday, fanned nine across seven innings, allowing just four hits, one walk and an unearned run. Florida pitcher Tommy Mace nearly matched him, striking out eight across seven innings of his own, allowing two hits, two walks and one run.
Van Belle’s only blemish came in the fifth inning, when the Gators manufactured him a bases-loaded jam with two infield hits and a walk.
Florida infielder Kris Armstrong, the next batter, ripped a line drive right at the shortstop, but infielder Anthony Vilar’s throw to try to get another runner at second base sailed. Acton came home to score, then Van Belle got out of the jam without an earned run by forcing Gators infielder Josh Rivera into a double play. Florida got just one run after loading the bases with no outs.
“Obviously, when you’re playing a tight game like this — a 1-0 ballgame, 1-1 ballgame — you do have to go after the guys correctly and make plays behind you, and obviously hit well and everything, make plays,” Van Belle said, “but, like I said, the ball just fell their way.”
Miami answered an inning later, when the top of the order came to bat for the third time.
Jordan Lala opened up with a rope down the first-base line. He legged out a double and gave the Hurricanes an immediate runner in scoring position. Vilar, the next batter, struck out and the Gators opted to walk Anthony Del Castillo rather than give the catcher a chance with a runner on third after Lala advanced on a wild pitch. Infielder Raymond Gil came through anyway, lifting a sacrifice fly to center field to bring the outfielder home and tie the game at 1-1.
The Hurricanes got just one more hit the rest of the way. They finished with just three total, going 1 of 12 with two outs and 0 of 12 with runners on base. Miami only put the leadoff runner aboard in 3 of 11 innings.
The Hurricanes have also lost 8 of 11 to Florida, dropping the season series every year since 2015. Miami will have two more chances to flip its recent history, starting with Game 2 on Saturday at 7 p.m.
“I can’t sit here and dwell on, You can’t beat Florida. I’m not dwelling on that. It was a good game, so I’m really not thinking about that,” DiMare said. “At the end of the day, we’re here to win a national championship. We’d like to beat Florida — certainly don’t want to lose to Florida — but I’ll take a national championship over everything, so losing to Florida, yeah, it stinks.”
This story was originally published February 21, 2020 at 10:25 PM.
