When the Miami Hurricanes “played“the Clemson Tigers in football this past season, a man lost his job because the end result was so bad. That man was former-head coach Al Golden. The score was 58-0 Clemson, a historic defeat for the Hurricanes football program.
The Miami basketball team fared if only slightly better when they faced the Tigers. The ‘Canes went in to the game ranked no. 8 in the country, their highest ranking of the season up to that point (they would go as high as no. 7). Miami came out of the game with a ten-point defeat, one of several bad losses on the year, while seeing their ranking slip to no. 15.
The No. 4 Miami Hurricanes baseball team made sure a similar outcome wasn’t in store for them, sweeping the kryptonite Tigers in a three-game weekend series at Mark Light Field in Coral Gables, Fla.
Friday’s game one went the way of the ‘Canes when right-fielder Willie Abreu sent a two-run walk-off homer over the left field wall with Miami down by one. It was the Abreu’s second consecutive Friday night walk-off homer.
Miami went down by two runs early in the game before putting up five runs in the bottom of the fourth. The inning was aided by a dropped fly ball and two close-calls – one at first and another at second on a steal – that went Miami’s way.
Starting pitcher Thomas Woodrey went five and a third innings with one earned run before he was replaced by Andrew Cabezas.
Closer Bryan Garcia (2-0) entered the game with a 7-5 lead to protect but allowed three runs bridging the eighth and ninth innings, surrendering the lead to the Tigers.
Enter Abreu, and the rest is history. ‘Canes win, 9-8.
Game two went into the 11th inning before Miami won in walk-off fashion for the second night in a row. ‘Canes skipper Jim Morris earned his 1000th win in the process. Morris has been at the helm of the Miami program since 1994 (were you even born then?).
A 4-4 tie was settled by Miami third-baseman Edgar Michelangeli, who supplied half of Miami’s eight hits on the night. Preceding Michelangeli’s at-bat were walks to second-baseman Johnny Ruiz and Abreu (intentionally).
For the second time in as many nights Abreu scored the winning run, this time on Michelangeli’s single to left field.
‘Canes win, 5-4.
By the time Sunday’s game came around Miami had clinched the series. The ‘Canes made the afternoon game their victory lap with an anticlimactic 10-5 win over the Tigers.
Starting pitcher Danny Garcia (4-2) went seven innings strong and allowed three earned runs.
Miami recorded 14 hits on the day but none of them left the park as a home run.
Clemson had three errors in the game, raising their series error total to 10. The Tigers had four errors in game one before “improving” to three errors in game two. There would be no such “improvement” in game three.
The win, Miami’s ninth in their last 10 games and the 15th in their last 17, moved the Hurricanes into first place in the ACC Coastal division.
As always, the Mark Light Shakes were on point.
Miami (20-4) takes the 95 north to Boca Raton to face FAU (18-4) Wednesday before returning home for a weekend series with North Carolina (19-4) at Mark Light Field. North Carolina is currently in second place in the ACC Coastal division.
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.
words_ alexander goldman.