Miami sweeps Louisville to end regular season, will face FSU in ACC tournament pool
In the past three weeks, Miami Hurricanes baseball has gone from a team fighting for its life to one in the thick of the Coastal Division title race of the Atlantic Coast Conference.
The unranked Hurricanes won their third consecutive game Saturday by sweeping No. 19 Louisville on the road with a 3-2 victory in the final regular-season game of 2021. With the win, the Canes (32-17, 20-15 ACC) became the second team ever to sweep Louisville at Jim Patterson Stadium, and the first team to do it since East Carolina in the first three games played there in 2005.
When the game, which began at noon, ended, UM was awaiting the result of the 1 p.m. North Carolina at Georgia Tech regular-season finale. If UNC had won, the Hurricanes would have captured their first Coastal Division crown since 2016 — the last time the Hurricanes played in the College World Series. But the Yellow Jackets beat UNC to take the Coastal crown and the Canes will enter the 12-team ACC Baseball Championship, which begins Tuesday at Truist Field in Charlotte, as the No. 4 seed.
Atlantic Division champion Notre Dame (29-10, 25-10) is the ACC tournament’s No. 1 seed.
The other two teams in UM’s Pool D in the round-robin ACC tournament: No. 5 seed Florida State (29-21, 20-16) and No. 9 seed Duke (28-20, 16-17). UM lost all three games to FSU this season but swept Duke.
Miami, which has all but officially locked a spot in the NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament, has won eight of its past 10 games, and its past three weekend series. UM already knows it will be on the road for the NCAA tournament, which begins the first weekend of June.
Louisville fell to 27-21 and 16-16.
The Canes, held hitless through three innings, went ahead 3-1 Saturday on three hits in the top of the fourth. Those were the only hits Miami managed all game.
Louisville starter Tate Kuehner hit Anthony Vilar with a pitch. Yohandy Morales followed with a single to center, and Adrian Del Castillo drove home Vilar with another single to center. After Raymond Gil walked on a one-out full count to load the bases, Alex Toral struck out for the second out, but Jordan Lala’s 2-RBI single to right field brought home Del Castillo and Morales to give the Hurricanes the lead.
Louisville got on the scoreboard in the third when UM starter Jake Garland hit Luke Brown with a pitch and Alex Binelas’s RBI-double down the right-field line sent Brown to the plate.
The Cardinals got their second run in a controversial sixth when Binelas reached first on a strikeout/wild pitch, advanced to second on a walk, and scored on a bases-loaded fielder’s choice to the shortstop.
The controversy ensued after right-handed UM freshman Andrew Walters came in to pitch for reliever Alex McFarlane with runners on first and second. UM second baseman Vilar just got a Cooper Bowman fly ball at the tip of his glove. The umpire called it an out, but after the play was reviewed, umpires reversed the decision after it appeared Vilar didn’t have control of the ball and dropped it during the transfer from his glove to his right hand. Suddenly, the bases were loaded for Louisville to enable the fielder’s choice and Cardinals’ run.
Right-handed Garland (6-2, 5.02 ERA), one of four Canes pitchers, allowed 1 earned run on three hits and three walks in five innings for the victory.
UM’s Daniel Federman pitched the final 2 2/3 innings for his first save of the season.
ACC Tournament
The ACC tournament encompasses four three-team pods. Each team plays a minimum of two games, starting with the two other teams in its pod. There are three tournament games a day during pool play Tuesday through Friday. The winner of each pod advances to the semifinal on Saturday, May 29. The winners of each semifinal advance to the championship game May 30.
The ACC on Sunday will announce the tournament schedule/bracket.
The NCAA will announce the field of 64 for the regionals on May 31.
This story was originally published May 22, 2021 at 3:11 PM.
