A good season ends badly. No. 6 national seed UM sits home again for College World Series
The quest for a fifth national championship at the 2022 College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska, ended for the Hurricanes just before midnight Sunday at Mark Light Field on San Amaro Drive in Coral Gables — 1,657 miles from college baseball’s holy grail.
No. 6 national seed Miami, up 3-2 with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, crumbled to keep Arizona alive in the NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament to culminate a very good season that turned bad.
The Hurricanes finished 40-20 but went 3-8 in their last 11 games, including 0-2 in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament and a 1-2 showing in the Coral Gables Regional. The regional started Saturday for Miami with an 11-6 win over No. 4 regional seed Canisius College, continued Sunday with a 2-1 loss to Ole Miss and ended with the loss to Arizona.
After their 14-game win streak from March 23 through April 12, the Canes were 13-14 the rest of the way. But it likely would have been an afterthought had UM survived its regional and continued to a super regional this weekend. The Canes would have hosted again for a super regional, the final round before the College World Series.
UM has not been to a CWS since 2016 and has not won a national title since 2001.
This is the first time the Hurricanes have been eliminated from a regional in which they were named a national seed. All seven previous times they advanced to the supers.
“Extra disappointing because of the way we had both games here late,’’ UM coach Gino DiMare said after his team’s final game. “We couldn’t finish them off. Obviously, here at our ballpark, we played pretty well all year long but at the end of the day we didn’t score runs, we didn’t swing the bat.
“We didn’t get a lot of hits in the first game, and we didn’t get a lot here. Had the lead late but just couldn’t close them out. Yeah, very, very tough to swallow right now.’’
DiMare contract
Now, DiMare will regroup and look ahead to 2023, the fifth year on his five-year contract that began in 2019. When asked Monday by the Miami Herald if he could comment on the status of DiMare’s contract situation, UM athletic director Dan Radakovich made it seem likely that DiMare’s contract will be extended.
“While we are disappointed in how the season ended, taken as a whole it was a positive step forward for our baseball program,’’ Radakovich said. “We hosted an NCAA regional for the first time since 2016, led the country with 13 victories over top-25 teams during the regular season and hit our most home runs (90) in 12 years.
“I look forward to sitting with Gino in the near future to wrap up the season and one of the discussion items will be extending his contract.’’
DiMare’s overall record in his four seasons, including the COVID-shortened 12-4 2020, is 126-65 (.659). In 2019, he finished at 41-20, one win better than this year.
Sophomore third baseman Yohandy Morales, who led the team with 18 home runs, four of them at the regional, blamed UM’s recent woes on lack of hitting. The Canes, who were prolific hitters much of the season, had season lows of four hits in both tournament losses. Sunday’s finale was the only game this season UM lost when leading after eight innings.
“I mean we just couldn’t get the job done,’’ Morales said. “We didn’t hit at all these last two games. The pitchers pitched the hell out of two games there. They were pitching their behinds off and we just couldn’t get the big hits when we needed to.’’
Third-year sophomore closer Andrew Walters, who entered the regionals tied for sixth in the country with 13 saves, gave up an infield single, threw a wild pitch, hit a batter and allowed the winning 2-RBI double to Arizona in the ninth inning of the final game Sunday.
“I mean his bread and butter is his fastball,’’ DiMare said. “You know the breaking ball was something I was always concerned about because he didn’t throw it a lot because he didn’t have to. But you know, I always felt like it was something he’s going to need to throw at some time. It just got away from him.
“...The fastball that got away and hit the guy, I can’t tell you that. I mean, his ball has a lot of life to it. The ball just took off. There’s nothing to it other than...I mean he’s been great all year for us just unfortunate at that time we had that situation happen.”
This story was originally published June 6, 2022 at 5:30 PM.
