Canes Extend Season to Face Florida Gators

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The University of Miami looked to be heading home early Sunday afternoon, but a late rally overcame a three-run deficit to defeat Jacksonville, 6-3, at McKethan Stadium in the Gainesville [Fla.] Regional of the NCAA Baseball Tournament.

The win setup a rematch with No. 1 seed and No. 2 national seed Florida later in the day, and eliminated Jacksonville (37-24) from the regional.

Down 3-0 in the eighth inning, the Hurricanes (38-22) appeared to be headed towards elimination but the momentum switched over to the orange and green when Rony Rodriguez hit a long home run to left field to get the Canes on the board. It was the team-leading 13th homer of the season for the junior.

With one out in the inning, Brad Fieger worked a walk and Stephen Perez singled to left. Dale Carey then hit into a fielder’s choice for the second out of the inning. Jacksonville looked like they were going to escape the jam when JU pitcher Chris Kaminski got ahead of the count, 0-2, to Chris Pelaez, but the senior came through with an RBI single to score Perez, prolonging the rally.

The Canes tied the score at three on a wild pitch one batter later to bring home Carey. After Shane Rowland and Zeke DeVoss reached base via a walk and hit by pitch, respectively, Nathan Melendres worked a bases-loaded walk to bring home Pelaez for the fourth run of the game.

The Canes added two more runs in the ninth to extend the lead on RBI singles by Carey and Pelaez.

Jacksonville loaded the bases in the bottom of the ninth with two outs, but closer Daniel Miranda ended the Dolphins’ season with a one pitch save, his 15th of the season.

Adam Sargent (2-2) earned the win in relief for the Hurricanes, allowing one hit and zero runs in 1 1/3 innings of work.

Kaminski (2-3) took the loss for the Dolphins, who used six pitchers in the game.

Miami fell behind early when Jacksonville scored two runs in the bottom of the first inning off starter Bryan Radziewski. The freshman allowed a walk, a double and a single to start the game, and made an errant pickoff throw to third to let the second run score for the Dolphins.

The freshman settled down from there, not allowing another run until a sacrifice fly in the seventh inning. Radziewski totaled 6 2/3 innings, surrendering seven hits and two earned runs. He also struck out seven hitters and walked five.

Pelaez, who entered as a pinch-hitter in the sixth inning, led the Canes offensively, going 2-for-3 with two RBIs. Perez also collected two knocks for the victorious Hurricanes.

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