Hurricanes rally but fall in finale to Boston College, drop first ACC series
The trouble for the No. 24 Miami Hurricanes on Sunday started in the second inning, when freshman left fielder Dylan Dubovik lost a routine fly ball in the sun that resulted in a double on the way to a two-run inning.
It continued in the fourth when Boston College catcher Cesar Gonzalez, who had just three hits all season entering the day, ripped a three-run home run off the scoreboard in left field to end Miami starting pitcher Tate DeRias’ day early.
And while Miami attempted a comeback bid, it ultimately ended with an 9-5 Hurricanes loss to the Eagles at Mark Light Field to give Boston College the weekend series — the first set of Atlantic Coast Conference games this season for both teams.
The teams had split the first two games of the series, with Boston College winning 8-7 in 11 innings on Friday and Miami winning 5-3 on Saturday.
Miami (12-4, 1-2 ACC) used a four-run bottom of the fourth to tie the game at 5-5 after its early-game struggles.
Derek Williams, whose infield single in the first inning gave Miami a brief 1-0 lead, started the rally with a solo home run to left field — his team-high-tying sixth home run of the season. After a Brylan West strikeout, Dubovik drew a walk and Vance Sheahan doubled to left-center to put runners on second and third. Fabio Peralta, making a rare start in right field, drove both home with a single to left to cut the deficit to 5-4. After a Jake Ogden strikeout, Michael Torres reached on a throwing error to set up Daniel Cuvet’s game-tying RBI single to right-center field.
The effort was short-lived, though. Boston College (9-6, 2-1 ACC) retook the lead in the fifth on a two-RBI single from Luke Gallo against TJ Coats.
The Eagles then padded their lead with a Nick Wang home run off Coats in the seventh and a Garcia sacrifice fly in the ninth against Brixton Lofgren, who inherited a bases-loaded, one-out jam from Lazaro Collera.
DeRias, making his fourth start of the season for Miami, lasted just 3 1/3 innings, giving up five runs on four hits, a walk and three hit batters while striking out three.
It left Miami’s bullpen, which has still been relatively unproven through the first three weeks of the season, left to cover 5 2/3 innings.
Jack Durso got through the rest of the fourth unscathed before the Hurricanes’ offense rallied in the bottom half of the frame to tie it.
But the freshman walked three consecutive batters to start the fifth — one of whom was picked off — before giving way to Coats, who gave up the two-run single in that frame and eventually the home run in the seventh to once again put Miami in a deficit.
There would be no comeback this time despite their chances.
Miami had runners on first and second in the bottom of the fifth, but they were stranded when Sheahan struck out swinging.
Alex Sosa reached with one out in the seventh when he was hit by a pitch but went nowhere after Williams struck out and Brylan West grounded out.
And then Miami loaded the bases with two outs in the eighth on a Peralta walk, Ogden single and Torres walk. But Cuvet, Miami’s preseason All-American who ran into two outs on the basepaths earlier in the game, hit a groundball softly back to the pitcher’s mound to let the Eagles get out of the threat.
Up next
The Hurricanes play their next five games on the road. It starts with a midweek at UCF in Orlando on Wednesday (6 p.m. first pitch), continues with a weekend series at Duke (6 p.m. Friday, 4 p.m. Saturday, 1 p.m. Sunday) and ends at FIU on March 18.
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