No. 17 Canes Drops Series Finale to Rutgers

CORAL GABLES, Fla. – No. 17 Miami dropped its series finale to Rutgers Sunday at Alex Rodriguez Park at Mark Light Field, falling in the afternoon affair by a final score of 17-6.

Looking for a series sweep on their opening weekend, the Hurricanes staged two separate rallies but were unable to overcome a sizable early deficit.

The loss snapped a 16-game winning streak against the Scarlet Knights that dated to 2011.

“We got beat pretty good. We got our money’s worth. It wasn’t a close one. We didn’t play well. Everything we could do wrong, I felt like we did today,” head coach Jim Morris said.

After a quiet start Sunday, the two teams combined for 16 runs in the middle innings, as Rutgers took command of the game.

Eight runs were scored by the two teams across a 50-minute fourth inning where Rutgers’ offense was aided by some poor fielding by the Hurricanes.

Miami (2-1) made five errors in the inning that helped result in five Rutgers runs.

With Rutgers already leading 1-0, a bad throw from freshman catcher Michael Amditis on a swinging third strike from Christian Campbell opened the frame.

Back-to back walks issued by junior lefthander Michael Mediavilla loaded the bases, and a Mediavilla error on a groundball from Luke Bowerbank resulted in the first run of the inning for Rutgers.

A two-RBI single from Gaby Rosa and another throwing error with a runner on third saw Rutgers take a 6-0 lead by the end of the frame.

Three of the six runs allowed by Mediavilla (0-1) were earned. He surrendered four hits and walked two with two strikeouts before being relieved by freshman Evan McKendry with one out in the fourth.

“I felt good. I thought I was controlling well, but then some things didn’t go the way [I wanted] and I got a little erratic,” Mediavilla said. “We just got beat in every aspect of the game – we got outpitched, outhit, and they played much better defense than we did.”

Miami halved the deficit with three runs of its own in the home half of the inning.

Senior Edgar Michelangeli was hit by a pitch to start the inning and took second on a walk drawn by fellow senior Christopher Barr. An RBI single to left by Amditis scored Michelangeli to make it 6-1, and a two-RBI single from junior Carl Chester with the bases loaded made it 6-3.

Rutgers regained a five-run advantage with a two-run home run by Chris Folinusz off McKendry.

Miami would not quit however, and facing another six-run deficit – this one 9-3 – rallied for three more runs in the bottom of the fifth to make it a three-run ballgame in front of 2,614 fans.

With the bases loaded after a double from Romy Gonzalez and a pair of walks from Michelangeli and Barr, Amditis lined a two-RBI double down the left field line to make it 9-5.

The first career hit from junior James Davison – a single off the glove of Rutgers reliever Eric Reardon – scored another run.

Miami chased Scarlet Knights starter James Torres after 3.2 innings. Torres surrendered four hits, three runs (all earned), three walks and struck out four in a 79-pitch outing.

Miami tagged Reardon (1-0) for three runs, but a pair scored by the visitors in the sixth inning off Miami reliever Michael Perez helped the Scarlet Knights pull away.

Freshman Nico Baldor recorded his first hit as a Hurricane on a pinch-hit infield single in the eighth.

Freshman Daniel Rivero made his Miami debut in the ninth.

Davison reached base three times on two singles and a walk, while Amditis finished 3-for-4 with three RBI.

“It’s just a learning lesson, honestly. You can’t take anything lightly. I think it was all a big lesson to us today. We didn’t really get after them as much as we wanted to,” Amditis said.

The Hurricanes left 12 runners on base compared to six by the Scarlet Knights.

“It’s still early in the season, the first series. You just have to learn from it,” Mediavilla said.

The Hurricanes will make the short trip to FIU on Wed., Feb. 22 for the first regular season meeting between the two schools since 2008. First pitch for the matchup, slated for broadcast on WVUM 90.5 FM from FIU Baseball Stadium, is set for 7 p.m.