The Miami Hurricanes baseball team momentarily righted the ship with their 14-2 win over the local St. Thomas Bobcats Wednesday at Mark Light Field at Alex Rodriguez Park in Coral Gables, Fla.
The ‘Canes are struggling of late on the diamond. They’re currently three games under .500 at 13-16 and lost five of their last seven games heading in to last nights contest. In fact, Miami has lost their last three series of at least two games, dropping two of three games to Wake Forest, North Carolina, and North Carolina State.
The state of North Carolina hasn’t treated our ‘Canes very nicely.
Wednesday provided an opportunity to buck the losing trend as St. Thomas made the cross-town drive from Miami Gardens, Fla. down to The Light. And make the most of the opportunity the ‘Canes did.
After ‘Canes starting pitcher Gregory Veliz (3-2) let St. Thomas take the lead with a run in the top of the second inning, it was smooth sailing for Miami from there on out.
St. Thomas’ 1-0 lead lasted until the bottom of the fourth inning when the ‘Canes exploded for five runs.
Second baseman Edgar Michaelangeli started the scoring for Miami by singling home left-fielder Michael Burns, who doubled off the pink Hialeah Park sign in right-center to get in scoring position. The second run came when right-fielder James Davison drew a bases-loaded walk.
Shortstop Brandon Gali proceeded to break the game open with his bases-loaded single. All three base-runners scored after a throwing error on St. Thomas. The timing was right for Gali’s only hit of the night as he failed to get on base in each of his next five at-bats.
All five runs in the fourth inning came with two outs.
Overall, Miami’s hitting struggles paused momentarily on Wednesday night. Even though they scored 14 runs, they had some help from St. Thomas along the way. Two runs came by the way of St. Thomas errors, while three of their 14 totals runs went down as unearned to their respective pitchers.
On the season, no Miami hitter with at least 40 at-bats is hitting over .275. Third-baseman Romy Gonzalez, who hit the games only home-run Wednesday, is closest with a .271 average. The only ‘Cane with an average over .300 is Michael Amditis who has five hits in his 14 at-bats (good for an average of .357).
For comparison, Miami starting first-baseman Christopher Barr is hitting a lowly .125 with just seven hits in his 56 trips to the plate.
The bats have yet to really wake up for Miami this season.
Closing out the win against St. Thomas for the ‘Canes was Daniel Rivero. The closer struck out five over the course of his two-inning save.
Speaking of pitching, St. Thomas used 10 pitchers in all by the end of the night. Half of them only lasted 1/3 inning, while a sixth failed to record an out. What a bore that must’ve been for the home-crowd.
Miami’s next opponent is the Duke Blue Devils (16-15). They play a three-game series starting Saturday night at Mark Light Field at Alex Rodriguez Park in Coral Gables, Fla.
Alex Goldman is a senior majoring in journalism with a minor in political science. He is currently the Sports Editor of distractionmagazine.com. He’s a Northern California native and loves snowboarding, writing, and above all the Green Bay Packers.
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