No. 20 Miami baseball easily handles business against FIU, extends winning streak to six
Last week it was raining runs for the Miami Hurricanes at FIU.
Wednesday it was more of an intermittent drizzle at Miami — until a four-run seventh inning proved ample insurance for the Canes’ sixth consecutive victory, this one 8-3 over the Panthers.
One week after Miami’s 21-1 blowout of FIU, the No. 20 Hurricanes again dominated, although with not nearly as ridiculous a result.
UM (17-8, 10-7 ACC) scattered six hits, including a pair of two-run homers in the seventh — the first by freshman shortstop Dominic Pitelli for his first collegiate home run; and the next by freshman Yohandy Morales.
The Canes used six pitchers (including winning starter Alex McFarlane) who gave up a combined six hits. Originally scheduled starter Jake Garland was unavailable for unspecified reasons, though UM coach Gino DiMare said he hoped Garland would be back by this weekend’s three-game series at Pittsburgh.
“You don’t do that very often,’’ DiMare said, “where you kind of just put a whole bunch of guys together there. It ended up working out and why it ended up working out is because they all threw well. We pitched really well, all the pitchers, played very good D — and of course great job of answering [with runs].
“Just very happy with the way we played.’’
FIU (12-15, 4-4 C-USA) opened the scoring in the top of the fourth on a 2-run blast by Luis Chavez off McFarlane to left field, driving home Adrian Figueroa (single).
The Canes pieced together three runs in a bit of a strange bottom of the fourth, using one hit-and-run single by Anthony Vilar, two balks (one apiece by two pitchers), a walk and hit-by-pitch to take the lead.
Right fielder Gabe Rivera’s perfect throw to catcher Carlos Perez nailed FIU’s Seth Cannady at home plate to preserve UM’s lead in the fifth. The Rivera-Perez duo came right back to combine for Miami’s fourth run, with Rivera’s single followed by Perez’s RBI-double.
FIU freshman Dante Girardi hit his first career homer to left field to cut UM’s lead to 8-3 in the seventh.
Jermaine Vanheyningen (0-2) allowed three runs on one hit, a walk, balk and hit batter to take the loss.
This story was originally published April 7, 2021 at 9:41 PM.
