Cabezas Shines, But Canes Drop Finale 4-1

ATLANTA – Miami received another sparkling effort on the hill from junior righthander Andrew Cabezas, but fell to Georgia Tech in the series finale, 4-1, Sunday afternoon.

Cabezas (2-3) went a career-long 7.2 innings and struck out a career-high 11 in the defeat.

Trailing 2-1 late, the Hurricanes put the go-ahead run on in the eighth after a walk from freshman Alex Toral and an infield single from freshman Willy Escala.

But Georgia Tech reliever Andy Archer got a strikeout and a groundout to maintain his team’s lead.

Junior Romy Gonzalez connected on his second home run of the season, but Miami (12-15, 6-6 ACC) could not string together enough offense against Tech righthander Tristin English.

English (1-0) struck out seven and scattered five hits in six innings.

Cabezas allowed eight hits on the afternoon. His 11 strikeouts topped his previous career-long of 10, set against Georgia Tech at least year’s ACC Championship in a relief appearance.

His 7.2 innings bested his previous long of 6.1 – also set in that ACC Championship game in Louisville, Ky.

Aided by two fielding errors in the inning by Miami, the Yellow Jackets (17-11, 6-6 ACC) added two runs of insurance in the eighth.

With Miami behind 1-0, Gonzalez tied it up in the third with a solo home run to left-center.

After allowing three hits in the first inning, Cabezas settled down to cruise through the early part of the game.

He ran into trouble in the sixth, when Georgia Tech got a double from Wade Bailey and a single from Colin Hall to put runners on the corners with one out.

A wild pitch from Cabezas scored Bailey and put Georgia Tech back on top at 2-1.

Cabezas buckled down to strike out Baron Radclif and Austin Wilhite to hold the deficit at one run.

Escala extended his hitting streak to eight straight games with a 2-for-4 performance at the plate.

The Hurricanes return to Alex Rodriguez Park at Mark Light Field Wednesday for a midweek matchup with FAU. First pitch for the contest, slated for broadcast on ACC Network Extra, is set for 6 p.m.