Hurricanes baseball ends regular season at FSU with a lot at stake. What to know
The rivalry itself always increases the magnitude of the matchup.
But the Miami Hurricanes baseball team isn’t focusing on the fact that it’s closing its regular season with a road series at the Florida State Seminoles, a three-game set that starts Thursday at Tallahassee’s Dick Howser Stadium. Game times are 6 p.m. Thursday, 6 p.m. Friday and 2 p.m. Saturday, with all games streaming on ACC Network Xtra.
There’s too much on the line to make that the priority.
“Regardless [of the opponent], we want to win,” catcher Alex Sosa said. “I mean, it’ll be a rivalry game, but at the end of the day, we want to go in there and we want to win, so let’s play it like every other game.”
Except these games aren’t going to be like every other game.
There’s a little more to that.
First, on the rivalry: Miami (35-15, 15-12 Atlantic Coast Conference) hasn’t won a regular-season road series at FSU (36-15, 17-10) since 2016, coincidentally the last time UM reached the College World Series.
But in the scheme of this season, two things stand out about the series.
1). It will be Miami’s first — and only — series against a ranked opponent on the road. FSU is ranked No. 8 by Perfect Game and No. 11 by D1Baseball and Baseball America.
In fact, the Hurricanes have only faced two teams all season that are currently ranked in the top 25 by any of the three main outlets, and those matchups happened in back-to-back weeks. Miami was swept in an abbreviated two-game series against the Florida Gators (the third game was canceled due to rain) and dropped two of three in its first ACC series of the year to Boston College, which was unranked at the time but is currently ranked by two of the three polls (No. 22 by Perfect Game and No. 23 by D1Baseball).
So while Miami has responded since those two series — and a disappointing series loss at underwhelming Duke that followed — by winning seven of the past eight series, UM is not ranked.
Winning the series at FSU, against a team that is 25-3 on its home field, will do wonders toward establishing the Hurricanes as postseason contenders.
“I feel that we haven’t gotten the credit we deserve,” Hurricanes coach J.D. Arteaga said. “We went on a run and won a lot of games and won a lot of series. We didn’t sweep anybody, but it’s hard to sweep guys, especially in this league, and I feel like we got no credit for it. So we’ve got to go into Tallahassee now and beat a top-10 team, whatever they are [in the ranking], and I guess prove our worth.”
2). Seeding in the ACC tournament is still in play.
The Hurricanes enter the series at FSU ranked fifth in the league standings, two games behind Boston College and Florida State.
The top four seeds get a double bye in the ACC tournament, which takes place next week in Charlotte, North Carolina, and won’t play a first game until the quarterfinals on either May 21 or 22.
Miami can clinch that top-four conference tournament seed with a sweep at FSU.
There’s a possibility for a three-way tie at the No. 4 spot among Miami, Virginia and Boston College if Miami wins two of three against FSU, Boston College gets swept by Georgia Tech (the top team in the conference) and Wake Forest (No. 6 seed) sweeps Duke (last place in the conference).
The NCAA tournament follows after the conference tournament. Miami enters this week projected to be safely in the 64-team field but teetering between being a No. 2 and No. 3 seed in another team’s regional. There is an extremely unlikely path toward hosting a regional at Mark Light Field, but that would most likely require them sweeping FSU and winning the conference tournament.
Sosa honored
Sosa on Monday was named the ACC Player of the Week after a dominant performance in Miami’s series win over Louisville.
The catcher and NC State transfer hit .692 (9 for 13) with two doubles, three home runs, nine RBI and five runs scored in the series. He went 4 for 5 with two home runs and five RBI in the series-clinching 10-8 win on Saturday.
Cuvet still out
The Hurricanes are still without star third baseman Daniel Cuvet, who has missed the past nine games with a stress fracture in his back.
Arteaga still does not have a timetable for Cuvet’s return.
“He’s still seeing doctors, and we’re still trying to find out when we can get back into baseball activity,” Arteaga said after practice Monday. “It’s been a couple weeks now, maybe three weeks where it’s been no activity at all. So with the type of injury he has, it’s just rest first. There’s not much you can do other than that. And it’s just a matter of when we can start moving forward to baseball activity, rotational, strength training, things like that. So the longer he’s out, the longer it’s going to take him to get back once he starts those activities, so your guess is as good as mine.”
While Cuvet is out, first baseman Brylan West is expected to return for the series after sitting out Saturday’s finale against Louisville with a swollen ankle.
.JPG)