Miami baseball battles, but ultimately collapses to lose first ACC series at The Light
No. 1? No. 3? No. 6? Take your pick. Miami Hurricanes baseball owns all three national rankings, depending on the poll.
But this fact won’t be debated: the Canes (3-3, 1-2) dropped their first home series of the season to Virginia Tech on Sunday, and their rankings will also plummet come Monday.
The Hokies (5-1, 2-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) scored seven runs in the sixth-through-eighth innings to take the lead and eventual 9-6 victory. The series loss came one week after the Canes rebounded from an opening day loss to consensus No. 1 Florida to roar back with two consecutive wins.
“Very disappointing,’’ UM coach Gino DiMare said. “It seems like every time we scored runs we’d let them right back in the game. We scored two, they scored one. We scored two, they scored two. We scored two, they scored three. Every time. Not good on our part. Very good on theirs. We’re still a team trying to find itself.’’
UM’s Adrian Del Castillo singled in the bottom of the ninth before pinch-hitter Adam Frank hit into a double play. Adrian’s older brother Christian then gave the Canes hope with an infield single to third base. But the game ended when Raymond Gil grounded out to third.
“Since we got out [on top] early we thought we had the game under control, but little by little it started getting out of hand,’’ said UM second baseman Anthony Vilar. “We need to have energy the entire game.
“We just have to keep grinding out at-bats.”
The game went back and forth until the Hokies’ late rallies. UM took a 2-0 lead in the first on Yohandy Morales’ first collegiate home run after Anthony Vilar singled. The Hokies then scored a run apiece in the second and third and the Canes answered with a two-out, two-run rally in the fifth to make it 4-2 UM.
The Hokies and Hurricanes each scored a pair of runs in the sixth for a 6-4 Canes lead, but the Hokies faced three UM relievers — JP Gates, Ben Wanger and Jordan Dubberly — for three runs in the seventh to go ahead 7-6. Virginia Tech made it 9-6 in the top of the eighth after Jack Hurley was hit by a pitch and Dubberly gave up a home run to right by Gavin Cross.
Wanger, who allowed one earned run on two hits and a walk in a third of an inning, took the loss.
Right-handed Hokies’ reliever Jaison Heard allowed no runs in two innings for the victory. He struck out five.
Each team had 11 hits, and the Canes left 10 stranded. Morales went 2 for 4 with 3 RBI and a walk, but his homer was the only extra-base hit for Miami. Christian Del Castillo was 3 for 4 with 2 RBI and Adrian added two singles.
UM, which is batting a meager .227 as a team, travels to Raleigh, North Carolina to face NC State (2-4, 0-3) next weekend. The Wolfpack was swept by No. 15 Georgia Tech in Raleigh, losing 8-4 on Sunday.
“Our veteran guys have got to play better,’’ DiMare said. “We’re only six games in, but some of our veteran guys are not hitting very good. We need those guys to get going... You’d like to have a consistent lineup — at least consistent against lefties and consistent against righties. Right now we don’t have any of that.
“...We scored six runs, yes, but we’re hitting .227 as a team. That’s frustrating for me. We shouldn’t be hitting .227 after six games.’’
This story was originally published February 28, 2021 at 4:42 PM.
