Alex Sosa home run sparks No. 22 Miami Hurricanes baseball to season-opening win
Alex Sosa grew up watching the Miami Hurricanes. His family had season tickets, and he was a regular in the stands at Mark Light Field. He remembers once telling Zack Collins to hit a home run when he was in the on-deck circle, and the Hurricanes’ star catcher slugged one to the parking garage in right field.
Fast-forward to Friday, with Sosa now making his debut with his childhood team after starting his college career at NC State. In his second at-bat, Sosa slugged a home run of his own to right field — a three-run shot on a full count toward the very same parking garage he saw Collins hit one more than a decade ago.
“For me to get that out of the way on the first one, that’s definitely super cool,” Sosa said. “I’ll remember it forever.”
Sosa’s home run was part of a six-run onslaught in the third inning that erased an early deficit and lifted the No. 22 Hurricanes to a 13-2 win over the Lehigh Mountain Hawks at Mark Light Stadium to begin the 2026 season, a campaign Miami (1-0) hopes will finally see their return to Omaha and the College World Series for the first time since 2016.
“Still undefeated,” Hurricanes coach J.D. Arteaga said. “It’s a good way to start the season.”
The scoring in that massive third inning began when Max Galvin ripped a two-RBI double to the gap in left-center field to drive in Michael Torres and Jake Ogden, who drew back-to-back walks to begin the inning. A Daniel Cuvet hit by pitch then set up Sosa’s home run. A Fabio Peralta RBI single plated Derek Williams, who walked and reached second on a wild pitch, to cap scoring in the inning.
Miami added seven more runs in the eighth. Ogden hit an RBI triple. Galvin, Sosa and Williams then followed RBI singles before Arteaga began to empty his bench. Cian Copeland ripped a pinch-hit, two-run double. Dylan Dubovik was then hit by a pitch and Brandon DeGoti drew a walk to load the bases. Jailen Watkins then ended scoring with a pinch-hit RBI single.
Even with that, Miami left 11 runners on base.
“Scoring that many runs is good,” Arteaga said. “I still think we left a lot of runs out there. Situational hitting has to be part of your game because you’re not going to out-hit good pitching. You’ve got to be able to move runners over, get productive outs and get guys in.”
It was more than enough to back up starting pitcher AJ Ciscar, who had to maneuver through traffic all night but held Lehigh (0-1) to just one run over five innings.
Ciscar, a former standout at Fort Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas, worked around a leadoff catcher’s interference in the first inning by striking out two and fielding a groundball and taking it to the first base bag for the final out of the frame.
In the second, he gave up a pair of two-out singles before stranding both runners with an inning-ending strikeout.
Lehigh struck in the top of the third. They loaded the bases with two outs on a pair of infield singles and a hit by pitch before Daniel Cuvet bobbled Trystan Crawford’s ground ball down the third-base line that allowed Robbie Carvelli to score to give the Mountain Hawks an early 1-0 lead.
Miami responded by giving its starter run support, and Ciscar settled back in for the rest of his outing. He gave up just the one run on five hits and a hit batter while striking out seven and not issuing a walk before giving way to the bullpen.
“Just continued to trust myself,” Ciscar said. “I think I gave up two hits that reached the outfield, and all of them were ground balls. ... It’s understanding one pitch at a time and that I can get out of this.”
Four Hurricanes relievers combined to hold Lehigh to one run over the final four innings.
Brixton Lofgren gave up a two-out RBI single to Dom Patrizi in the sixth to plate Raffaele Rogers, who led off the inning with a walk.
Jake Dorn tossed a perfect seventh with two strikeouts before running into trouble in the eighth. The lefty issued a leadoff walk and a single to put two runners on with no outs. He followed with a strikeout and a groundout before being relieved for Ryan Bilka, who stranded both runners by striking out Patrizi.
Lyndon Glidewell sealed the game with a scoreless ninth.
This story was originally published February 13, 2026 at 10:26 PM.
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