Canes Baseball Stays in Top 10
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The University of Miami baseball program is ranked in the top 10 of three college baseball polls released Monday.
The Hurricanes (8-3) are ranked highest by Baseball America, holding steady at No. 6 in their top 25. Miami also held its position at No. 7 in the D1 Baseball top 25 and at No. 11 in the Perfect Game poll. The Canes made their biggest move of the week in Collegiate Baseball’s poll, climbing up four spots to No. 9. The Hurricanes also checked in at No. 8 in the NCBWA poll and No. 9 in the USA TODAY Coaches Poll.
Miami went 4-0 last week, beating USF on Wednesday to improve to 2-0 in midweek games before sweeping Towson over the weekend.
Ninth-inning heroics from Raymond Gil gave Miami its first walk-off win of the season, beating USF, 7-5. The junior third baseman delivered in the bottom of the ninth, crushing a game-winning two-run homer off of Bulls reliever Graham Hoffman to send the Hurricanes home victorious.
Brian Van Belle continued his dominance on the mound Friday night, setting a new career-high with 14 strikeouts to help beat Towson, 2-1. The redshirt senior posted the most strikeouts by a Hurricane since Bryan Radziewski fanned 16 batters against Virginia Tech on March 23, 2013.
The Hurricanes got another brilliant performance from their starting pitcher Saturday and a pair of homers helped power No. 7 Miami past Towson, 8-2. Chris McMahon’s career day on the mound kept the Tigers’ offense in check, while the Hurricanes exploded for seven runs over the first two innings to put the game out of Towson’s reach.
The Canes completed a sweep of the visiting Tigers with a 9-3 win on Sunday. A resilient Towson ball club battled to tie the game with a three-run fifth inning, but Anthony Vilar’s two-run single punctuated a five-run sixth inning that helped the Hurricanes pull away and secure their second sweep of the season.
The Hurricanes are back in action Wednesday, hitting the road for the first time in 2020. Miami will travel to Boca Raton, Fla., for a matchup against the FAU Owls. First pitch is set for 6:30 p.m.
