Hurricanes baseball wins slugfest of a finale against Louisville to take series
It was a rematch of last season’s NCAA Super Regional, a three-game set ended the Miami Hurricanes’ 2025 season one win shy of their first trip to the College World Series in nearly a decade.
And in the eyes of coach J.D. Arteaga, it was a must-win series — which made Saturday’s series finale a must-win game.
The stakes weren’t as high this time around — the matchup this time merely Miami’s final home series of the regular season, not a bout in the second round of the NCAA tournament — but the pressure was still on as the Hurricanes are still fighting to secure their bid into the postseason.
And fight is apt, considering how the finale unfolded.
Miami and the Louisville Cardinals found themselves in a slugfest on Saturday to wrap up the three-game series at Mark Light Field.
And the Hurricanes ended on top with a 10-8 win to take the series.
Miami (35-15, 15-12 Atlantic Coast Conference) won the series opener 13-8 on Thursday and dropped the middle game 16-9 in 11 innings on Friday. The Hurricanes have won six of their past seven ACC series to secure at least a .500 record in league play. The Cardinals fall to 27-25 and 11-16 in conference play.
“The weight that this game carried — personally, we had to win this,” Arteaga said.
Alex Sosa, Miami’s primary catcher this season who started at first base on Saturday after five consecutive games as the Hurricanes’ designated hitter while nursing a shoulder injury, went 4 for 5 at the plate with a pair of two-run home runs and five RBI to pace the Hurricanes in the finale.
Sosa now has a team-leading 15 home runs on the season, the most by a Hurricanes catcher since Zack Collins hit 16 in 2016. Darren Mandel has the UM record for the position with 22, done in 1984. His 62 RBI are second on the team to outfielder Derek Williams (65).
“Just staying within myself and trusting the approach,” Sosa said. “I’ve been talking about a lot of approaches with Mingo [assistant coach Chris Dominguez], our hitting guy. He’s been doing a good job with making sure everybody’s kind of locked in.”
Freshman designated hitter Dylan Dubovik and junior shortstop Vance Sheahan each hit two-run homers of their own.
The offensive outburst was needed. Starting pitcher AJ Ciscar gave up six runs (five earned) in 2 2/3 innings to put Miami in an early 6-3 hole.
But the bullpen, which has been one of the Hurricanes’ weak points all season, came up clutch. Sebastian Santos-Olson settled things down with 2 1/3 shutout innings as the first man out of the bullpen to get Miami through the fifth. TJ Coats followed with two innings, giving up just a two-run home run to Louisville’s slugging first baseman Tague Davis (who leads the NCAA with 33 home runs). Jack Durso pitched a scoreless eighth and Lyndon Glidewell earned the save with a shutout ninth inning.
“The bullpen was great,” Arteaga said. “That’s something obviously, for us — everybody knows it hasn’t been a strong suit of ours.”
The Hurricanes finish their regular season at FSU next week, with the series in Tallahassee starting on Thursday. The ACC tournament follows.
This story was originally published May 9, 2026 at 5:11 PM.
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