Canes Baseball's Best Moments of the Decade
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The final days of 2019 are winding down and a new decade is quickly approaching.
With the start of the year 2020 nearing, we took a look back at some of the greatest moments in the past decade of Hurricanes baseball history. There were trips to Omaha, outstanding individual players, milestone victories and unforgettable memories.
Here are 10 of the greatest moments from the last 10 seasons of Miami baseball history, presented in chronological order.
Yasmani Grandal named ACC Player of the Year in 2010
A three-year star for the Hurricanes from 2008-10, Grandal was named the 2010 Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year after he led the league in batting average (.401), on-base percentage (.527) and slugging percentage (.721). That year, he was named an All-American by Collegiate Baseball, Baseball America and the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA). Awarded the Rawlings Gold Glove Award for catchers, he was a finalist for the Golden Spikes Award, the Johnny Bench Award as the nation’s top catcher, and the Dick Howser Award.
Following the 2010 season, Grandal was selected by the Cincinnati Reds with the 12th overall pick in the MLB First-Year Player Draft. He broke into the Major Leagues in 2012 with the San Diego Padres and played three seasons with them before earning his first All-Star selection in 2015, the first season of a four-year stint with the Los Angeles Dodgers. In 2019, Grandal joined the Milwaukee Brewers and was named a National League All-Star for the second time in his career. Through his first eight MLB seasons, Grandal has hit 141 home runs and tallied 416 RBI. In Sept. 2019, he was named a member of the University of Miami Sports Hall of Fame’s Class of 2020.
March 4, 2014 – Javi Salas throws perfect game vs. Villanova
Javi Salas made history at Mark Light Field on March 4, 2014, pitching just the 23rd perfect game in modern NCAA Division I baseball history in No. 16 Miami’s 17-0 shutout of visiting Villanova.
The senior right-hander and team captain retired all 27 Wildcats batters he faced, needing just 113 pitches to get through perfection.
Salas became just the second Miami Hurricane to ever throw a perfect game and the first since Kevin Sheary on March 14, 1987. He struck out Villanova pinch hitter Derrick May Jr. for the final out of the game, sending his teammates into a frenzied celebration in front of the mound.
Canes have 14-game winning streak in 2014
Winning baseball games is nothing new for the Miami Hurricanes and they sure did a lot of that in 2014, winning 14 consecutive games from March 26 to April 19. The Canes won big and they won tight, with five wins by five+ runs and eight one-run victories in the stretch.
The streak began with a midweek shutout of FGCU at The Light and featured series sweeps at NC State and at Virginia Tech, as well as a sweep of Pitt in Coral Gables. Add in a 10-1 midweek win over Bethune-Cookman and victories at UCF and over FAU at Alex Rodriguez Park and Miami won 13 in a row before taking the series opener from Notre Dame on Friday, April 19.
Miami fell to the Fighting Irish on April 20 to snap the streak, but continued it winning ways on Sunday, April 21, to take the series from Notre Dame and continue on an impressive 27-3 stretch to end the regular season.
Chris Diaz named ACC Pitcher of the Year in 2014
Miami ace Chris Diaz was named 2014 ACC Co-Pitcher of the Year after an outstanding junior season for the Hurricanes. Diaz finished the spring with a 9-1 record and a 2.41 ERA. The Hurricanes won every 2014 regular-season game started by Diaz, who became Miami’s first All-America first-team selection since Yasmani Grandal in 2010.
The Pitcher of the Year Award was the first for the Hurricanes since Cesar Carrillo earned the recognition during Miami’s first season in the ACC (2005). Diaz shared the honor with Virginia ace Nathan Kirby, who finished the season 8-1 with a 1.58 ERA.
With 101.0 innings pitched over his 16 starts, Diaz became just the 10th Hurricane to ever earn Louisville Slugger first-team All-America recognition. The Florida City, Fla., native struck out 86 batters compared to 41 walks, and held opposing hitters to a .236 average over the course of the season.
Diaz, who owns a career record of 18-7 with a dazzling 2.25 ERA, allowed two earned runs or less in 12 of his 16 starts in 2014. Dating back to 2013 – his first season as a starter in the weekend rotation – the southpaw yielded two earned runs or less in 24 of 32 starts.
Back-to-back Omaha trips in 2015 and 2016
The Canes made consecutive trips to the College World Series in the middle of the decade, reaching the College World Series in 2015 and returning in 2016. Miami went a combined 100-31 over the two years, winning 50 games in each season to turn in the two winningest seasons of the decade.
The 2015 team featured eight All-ACC selections, including national RBI leader and consensus First Team All-American David Thompson and fellow first team All-ACC players Zack Collins and George Iskenderian. Miami’s run to Omaha began in the Coral Gables Regional, beating FIU and Columbia to advance to Super Regionals against VCU. The Canes swept the Rams to punch their ticket to the World Series.
A year later, Collins and fellow junior Bryan Garcia were named First Team All-Americans and headlined eight All-ACC honorees on the 2016 roster. The Hurricanes entered the postseason as the No. 3 national seed and swept through the Coral Gables Regional, beating Stetson and then Long Beach State twice to advance to Super Regionals. Facing fellow ACC foe Boston College, the Hurricanes won a decisive third game, 9-4, to earn a trip to Omaha for the second straight year.
2016 – Jim Morris gets 1,500th win as a head coach and 1,000th win at Miami over eight day span.
Former baseball head coach Jim Morris reached two coaching milestones in 2016, as he led the program to its 25th College World Series appearance in history, its third straight ACC Coastal Division title and the program’s second ACC Regular Season Championship in a three-year span. The Hurricanes posted a 50-win season (50-14) for the second straight year, marking the first such instance for Miami since 1998 / 1999.
Morris became just the sixth coach in the history of Division I baseball to reach the 1,500-win plateau when Miami topped Louisville 8-4 in dramatic fashion on March 18, 2016. A walk-off grand slam from Willie Abreu gave Morris his 1,500th.
Eight days later, Miami topped Clemson 5-4 in 11 innings – also in walk-off fashion – to send Morris to his 1,000th win at the helm of the Hurricanes.
2016 – Edgar Michelangeli’s post-season power surge
Infielder Edgar Michelangeli had an unforgettable postseason power surge in 2016, hitting three memorable homers that helped the Hurricanes on their run to Omaha.
The first blast came on May 26 against NC State in the ACC Tournament, as the number-nine hitter’s three-run homer off reliever Tommy DeJuneas in the top of the ninth inning lifted top-seeded Miami to a dramatic 8-7 win over the fifth-seeded Wolfpack before a lively crowd of 5,692. Michelangeli’s clutch delivery followed a two-run homer by NC State’s Chance Shepard in the bottom of the eighth that snapped a 5-5 tie and appeared to have the Wolfpack on the verge of victory.
The next two homers helped Miami punch their ticket to the College World Series, as Michelangeli turned in a two-home run, seven-RBI performance in a 9-4 win over Boston College in Game 3 of the NCAA Coral Gables Super Regional at Alex Rodriguez Park at Mark Light Field on June 12. The redshirt junior, who connected on a three-run homer in the second inning and the first grand slam of his career in the seventh, powered a Miami offense that outhit the Eagles, 14-7.
2016 – Bryan Garcia sets UM saves record and wins Stopper of the Year Award
University of Miami junior Bryan Garcia was named the 2016 Stopper of the Year by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association on Saturday at TD Ameritrade Park Omaha, becoming the first Hurricane hurler to receive the award.
Garcia was named a semifinalist for the Dick Howser Trophy and earned first-team All-American honors from the NCBWA and third-team All-Atlantic Coast Conference honors while helping Miami earn the ACC regular-season championship and the No. 3 national seed in the NCAA postseason.
A sixth-round pick of the Detroit Tigers, the junior right-hander finished the season with 18 saves and a 2-0 record with a 1.89 ERA in 38 innings over 35 appearances. Garcia has allowed 25 hits and 18 walks while striking out 55 batters, holding opponents to a .180 batting average.
The Miami native established the school’s career saves record on May 26 at the ACC Championship against NC State with his 40th save and collected three more saves during the NCAA postseason.
June 30, 2016 – Zack Collins wins Johnny Bench Award
Zack Collins was announced as the recipient of the 2016 Johnny Bench Award honoring the nation’s top collegiate catcher at the 19th Annual Greater Wichita Sports Banquet.
Collins, who was selected by the Chicago White Sox with the No. 10 overall pick of the 2016 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft, is the first University of Miami representative to win the award, which was created in 2000.
The Pembroke Pines, Fla., native, who earned first-team All-America honors from Baseball America, D1Baseball, NCBWA, Perfect Game and Rawlings, delivered another dominant season swinging the bat and behind the plate in 2016.
Collins batted .363 for the season, leading Miami with 16 home runs and 59 RBI to go along with a nation-leading total of 78 walks. He reached base at a .544 clip, the second-highest in the country, and recorded a team-high .668 slugging percentage.
A back-to-back All-ACC First-Team selection, Collins started 62 of a possible 64 games, including 59 starts behind the plate. He just four errors as a key member of a Miami defense that tied for first nationally with a .983 fielding percentage.
Feb. 15, 2019 – Gino DiMare’s first win as head coach
After 25 seasons in Coral Gables, legendary head coach Jim Morris retired at the conclusion of the 2018 season and the Hurricanes entered the final year of the decade under new leadership. Gino DiMare became the ninth head baseball coach in University of Miami history prior to the 2019 season.
A four-year standout under head coach Ron Fraser and assistant under Morris for 19 season, DiMare wasted little time continuing the winning tradition of Miami baseball. The first-year head coach earned an unforgettable victory in his debut at the helm of the program, as Miami beat Rutgers on Opening Night, 19-3. The 19-run performance set a record for runs scored on opening day against a Division I opponent, surpassing a 17-3 win over FIU on Jan. 28, 2006, and foreshadowing a season in which the prolific Canes’ offense led the ACC with 85 home runs.
In DiMare’s first season, the Hurricanes won 41 games and returned to the NCAA postseason for the first time since 2016. The Canes earned the 46th postseason berth in program history and reached the Starkville Regional final before falling to No. 6 Mississippi State.
Miami went 18-12 in ACC play, winning seven conference series and turning in its best conference record since 2016. The Hurricanes closed out the decade ranked in the top 25 of every major poll and were tabbed by every major publication as a contender to return to Omaha for the College World Series in 2020.
