Evans, Alvarez lead Hurricanes to blowout win over Stanford to start ACC tournament
Rob Evans more often than not has been a steadying presence on the mound this season for the Miami Hurricanes.
Alonzo Alvarez has seen his role increase over the past month and has taken full advantage of the opportunity.
Evans and Alvarez, senior and freshmen, served as catalysts for the Hurricanes on Wednesday as Miami opened play in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament.
Evans threw seven strong innings while Alvarez belted out two home runs and had four hits as the No. 5 seed Hurricanes beat the No. 12 seed Stanford Cardinal 11-2 at Truist Field in Charlotte, North Carolina.
After being one-and-done in the conference tournament last season, Miami (37-17) now advances to the quarterfinals on Thursday. The Hurricanes will play No. 4 seed Boston College (39-22) at 3 p.m. Thursday. Miami dropped two of three to Boston College in the regular season.
And while Miami’s offense has carried the team the majority of the season, the team’s battery the tone in Charlotte on Wednesday.
Let’s start with Evans, who went from not opening the season in Miami’s weekend rotation to being the team’s most reliable starter and one of the top pitchers in the ACC. Evans entered the ACC tournament ranked among the top 10 in the ACC in wins (nine, tied for fourth), strikeouts (88, tied for fifth), batting average against (.205, fifth) and ERA (3.21, eighth). He threw six quality starts, defined as pitching at least six innings while allowing no more than three earned runs, in league play. That included throwing a career-high 7 2/3 innings at Stanford on April 17.
On Wednesday, Evans needed just 90 pitches to record 21 outs. He held Stanford to two runs on four hits and two walks while striking out six. Jake Dorn and Packy Bradley-Cooney threw the final two innings out of the bullpen.
“Rob’s been as consistent as you can hopefully ask for,” Hurricanes coach J.D. Arteaga said ahead of the ACC tournament. “I feel like he was probably our best pitcher all fall and all spring. We went with [AJ] Ciscar [as the Friday night starter to open the season] ... but Rob’s been our No. 1 guy from Day 1 basically. He’s been very consistent. It’s just been a great season for him.”
Alvarez, meanwhile, went from starting behind the plate during midweek games and getting occasional starts at designated hitter to being Miami’s primary catcher the past three-plus weeks while usual starter Alex Sosa has dealt with shoulder soreness. Wednesday was his first multi-homer game and first four-hit game with the Hurricanes. Overall, Alvarez is hitting .343 (12 for 35) with three home runs, three doubles and eight RBI over the past 10 games.
“He’s done an awesome job,” Sosa said. “He stepped up.”
Stanford (28-26), which beat No. 13 seed California 11-4 in the first round of the tournament on Tuesday, opened scoring in the second inning on a JJ Moran double to right-center field that drove in Charlie Bates, who led off the inning with a single. Evans got three quick outs after that to minimize the damage.
It was essentially all Hurricanes after that. Alvarez tied the game with a home run to left field to kickstart a three-run second inning. Fellow freshmen designated hitter Dylan Dubovik and third baseman Gabriel Milano followed Alonzo with walks to put runners on first and second. Center fielder Fabio Peralta then flared a ball into shallow right-center field over Stanford second baseman Eric Jeon’s head for RBI single and a fielding error by shortstop Bates scored another Hurricanes run for a 3-1 lead.
Stanford cut its deficit to 3-2 on a leadoff home run from Teddy Tokheim in the third inning.
Miami then scored seven unanswered runs to pull away.
A two-run single from left fielder Max Galvin in the fourth scored shortstop Vance Sheahan and Peralta to extend Miami’s lead to 5-2.
The Hurricanes then took advantage of erratic Cardinal pitching in the fifth to score two more runs. Dubovik led off the inning with a single and then moved to third base on a pair of wild pitches. Sheahan drove him home with an RBI infield single. A four-pitch walk to Peralta then moved Sheahan to second. Sheahan then scored after two more wild pitches to push Miami’s lead up to 7-2.
Alvarez belted out his second home run, this time a two-run shot to right field, in the sixth inning to make it 9-2.
Miami pushed the lead to 10-2 in the seventh when second baseman Jake Ogden hit a one-out single, moved to second on a Galvin groundout and scored on a Stanford fielding error. A Dubovik sacrifice fly in the eighth capped scoring for Miami.
Lazaro Collera (3-3, 5.05 ERA) will start on the mound for Miami in the quarterfinal against Boston College.
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