Miami baseball’s steadiest ‘Yoyo’ and rivals’ brotherly love among NCAA storylines
University of Miami baseball (32-19), which opens the NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament as the No. 2 seed against the No. 3 South Alabama Jaguars (33-20) at 5 p.m. Friday in the Gainesville Regional, had the nation’s top-ranked recruiting class by multiple outlets before the 2021 season began.
One Hurricanes true freshman has clearly stood out among the rest: third baseman Yohandy ‘Yoyo’ Morales, a 2019 Under Armour and Perfect Game All-American who was selected to the 2019 18-under USA National Team — and leads all Canes freshmen this season with a .277 batting average and team-leading 43 RBI, 10 home runs, three triples and 13 doubles.
Morales, who hit .500 with two doubles, four homers and 14 RBI in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season as a senior for Braddock High, spoke this week about playing in his first NCAA regional this weekend.
“Feels good,’’ Morales, 6-3 and 199 pounds, said Monday after the NCAA announced the field of 64 for the tournament. “First year here and basically created a brotherhood with these guys. Being able to compete for something big is going to be fun. We’ve got a lot of work to do before getting there.’’
Morales was asked what the older players told him about what it’s like to play in a regional.
“They said it’s a big experience and fun experience and that playing for something big is going to be fun. It’s going to be a lot of hard work making it out of there, but that’s our goal and we’re going to see where it takes us.’’
Saving grace
The Canes don’t have many national leaders in statistical categories, but one who stands out is 6-4, 190-pound, second-year freshman closer Carson Palmquist.
The left-handed Palmquist, from Fort Myers, is the nation’s No. 2 saves leader, with 13 saves in 23 appearances after 41.1 innings pitched. He is tied for total saves with NCAA standouts Mulholland of Oregon State, Taylor Broadway of Ole Miss and Zach Grech of Stanford. But Mulholland, Broadway and Grech are all seniors and Palmquist will be back next season.
Unfortunately for the Canes, Palmquist’s last two outings have not been his best. He gave up a walk-off home run to Duke in UM’s Atlantic Coast Conference tournament opener and a home run to Florida State in the ninth inning of Miami’s last ACC tourney game (and loss).
Palmquist, whose fastball can be deadly, is now 1-1 with a 1.74 ERA.
Regarding starters, neither the Canes nor the Jaguars as of Tuesday night had named them for the regional opener.
Brotherly love
UM right-handed sophomore relief pitcher Anthony Arguelles is brothers with Jaguars left-handed senior Andy Arguelles. Both graduated from Christopher Columbus High School in Miami.
Andy had only one start this year in South Alabama’s season opener against Southeast Missouri State. The Jaguars lost 4-2 and Arguelles spent the rest of the season in the bullpen. In 10 appearances and 15 1/2 innings pitched, he is 0-2 with a 7.63 ERA. His lone save came in the second week of the season.
Anthony, a transfer from Santa Fe College, went 4-0 with a 1.38 ERA and 54 strikeouts over 39 innings pitched at Santa Fe before the 2020 season was cut short. This season he is 4-1 with a 4.08 ERA in 17 appearances and 17 2/3 innings pitched.
UM designated hitter Raymond Gil, also from Miami, said he played youth travel baseball with Andy from age 10 to 12, when Andy pitched and Gil played third base.
“Anthony is my roommate on the road,’’Gil said. “We found out we were playing each other and he FaceTimed my brother and friend and we were just making jokes. We’re excited to compete with each other. It’s exciting, but once the game starts we all know no one is friends and we’re competing against each other.’’
▪ The Jaguars’ top pitchers are senior Miles Smith (6-1, 2.23 ERA) and JoJo Booker (7-0, 3.66).
The right-handed Booker was named the Sun Belt Conference Pitcher of the Week after earning his first career complete game in the final regular-season outing May 22 at Appalachian State. He allowed three runs on four hits with nine strikeouts without issuing a walk in seven innings to record his seventh win of the season.
The Jaguars went 1-2 against App State, which Miami also faced and swept in a three-game series at home May 7-9. App State has been the only common opponent for both teams.
▪ South Alabama, which got into the NCAA tournament automatically by winning the Sun Belt Conference, is led in hitting by junior left fielder Ethan Wilson, who is batting .319 with 61 hits, 12 doubles, four triples, eight home runs, 32 RBI and a .550 slugging percentage.
This story was originally published June 2, 2021 at 8:00 AM.
