Boom! Boom! Boom! No. 8 Miami conquers No. 3 Virginia for 11th consecutive victory
The third-ranked Virginia Cavaliers came into Friday night’s baseball game at Mark Light Field with the nation’s No. 1 scoring offense, No. 1 batting average and No. 1 on-base percentage.
But the eighth-ranked Hurricanes came away with the top prize.
Hurricanes ace Carson Palmquist held Virginia to two hits in six innings, his four relievers allowed no hits, and the rising Canes supported them with 10 of their own — including three home runs — to defeat the Cavaliers 6-2 in the opener of a three-game weekend series. The win was Miami’s 11th in a row, tying its longest streak since 2018 and approaching the 12-game streak the Canes mounted in 2016, the last time the four-time national champions made it to the College World Series.
Miami (24-6) now leads the Atlantic Coast Conference’s Coastal Division with an 11-2 league record. The Cavaliers dropped to 26-4 and 9-4.
UM’s first home run came from catcher Maxwell Romero, a line-drive laser over the right-field fence, on the first pitch of the bottom of the second inning. Romero had previously taken a hard shot to his right collarbone area when the ball caromed off a Cavalier’s bat.
“I’m all good, just a little dinged up,’’ he said. “Nothing crazy.’’
Romero said UM is “doing a really good job of worrying about the little things’’ during the streak “and doing our best to get on base. That’s our goal right now.’’
The Canes’ second homer, a two-run shot to right-center, came from Yohandy Morales, who drove home CJ Kayfus (single) to make it 3-2 UM.
“It was just an amazing moment,’’ said Morales, who added that “hitting is always contagious. Once you get one guy going, everybody behind is going to keep following. We’re doing great as a team hitting the ball and we’ve just got to continue doing that throughout the weekend.’’
Not to be outdone, Miami freshman Gaby Gutierrez hit his first collegiate career home run to open UM’s half of the fifth inning and put the Canes up 4-2.
Miami added two runs in the sixth on an RBI-double by Jacob Burke and subsequent ground-out double play.
“Anytime you get double-digit hits it’s good,’’ UM coach Gino DiMare said. “That should be your goal of a hitting team. If you can strive to get 10 hits every game it usually means you’re going to have a pretty good batting average as a team.
“I’d still like to improve. We walked only one time and struck out eight times. That’s not a good ratio. But at the end of the day we outhit them 10-2 and outscored them 6-2. And we outpitched them. I’m happy with that.’’
DiMare made sure he mentioned, however, that he wasn’t happy with his team’s three errors.
Palmquist (6-1, 2.42) pitched a masterful game, allowing only the two hits and two unearned runs. He walked three and struck out eight.
The Canes used four relievers: Alex McFarlane, Rafe Schlesinger, Gage Ziehl and Andrew Walters.
Nick Savino (4-2, 4.59) allowed all six earned runs on the 10 hits. He struck out six.
Game two of the weekend series begins at 7 p.m. Saturday at The Light.
This story was originally published April 8, 2022 at 9:51 PM.
