Toral’s Walk-Off Blasts Canes Past Pitt
By David Villavicencio
HurricaneSports.com
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – One swing of the bat by the reigning ACC home run king sent the Miami Hurricanes home winners in their ACC opener on Friday afternoon.
Alex Toral hit a rocket off of Pitt right-hander C.J. McKennitt that got out of Mark Light Field in a hurry, giving the Canes (9-4, 1-0 ACC) an 11-inning 5-4 walk-off win over Pittsburgh (10-3, 0-1 ACC).
“It’s huge,” Miami head coach Gino DiMare said. “Even though we didn’t play a really clean game and we didn’t, we made a lot of mistakes. A lot. At the end of the day, we’re playing to win games, and you’ve got to take that positive and build from it. And it’s fortunate that we win the game and then we can take that and move forward and hopefully play some clean baseball, feel good about ourselves and play tomorrow well and moving forward. So it’s big and after the tough loss that we had just a couple nights ago, this is something that the team needed.”
Toral was a beast for the Hurricanes on Friday, going 3-for-5 with two homers and four RBI. The junior first baseman also homered in the bottom of the fourth, recording his fourth multi-homer game of his career.
“They pitched me pretty tough,” Toral said. “They were mixing it up pretty well, throwing a lot of different pitches. But I feel comfortable right now I feel great. I talked to Gaby Sanchez before the game and he asked me, ‘Hey, what are you feeling?’ I’m like, ‘Dude, I feel comfortable. I know the numbers don’t show too much, but I feel good right now.’ And I like the way I feel.”
Friday’s ACC opener looked like a pitcher’s duel early, with Miami ace Brian Van Belle and Pitt’s Billy Corcoran holding each team to just a single hit over the first three innings. But the Hurricanes got their bats going in the bottom of the fourth.
Anthony Vilar crushed a 2-1 pitch from Corcoran deep to right for a solo homer to lead off the bottom of the fourth. Two batters later, Toral belted his fourth homer of the season to double the Canes’ lead.
Vilar and Toral’s fourth-inning homers gave the Hurricanes their second multi-homer inning of the year. Miami hit two home runs in the bottom of the seventh inning of the second game against Rutgers, but that came with a unique twist. Gabe Rivera crushed a grand slam during a downpour on Feb. 15 and the game was halted. Two pitches into the continuation the following morning, JP Gates smashed a solo homer to left field that wrapped up Miami’s 8-2 win over the Scarlet Knights.
Toral came up with another big hit in the bottom of the sixth, ripping a bases-loaded, two-run single to left-center that drove home Jordan Lala and Adrian Del Castillo. Toral’s line drive put Miami ahead by four runs and ended Corcoran’s afternoon.
But the Panthers did not quit despite Miami’s four-run advantage after six innings.
Pitt put together a rally in the top of the seventh, getting two base runners on to open the frame and taking advantage of some Miami defensive miscues. Vilar dropped a throw in from center fielder Tony Jenkins, allowing Samuel Frontino to advance to second. Riley Wash followed with a two-run, ground-rule double and Gil committed a throwing error after fielding a bunt by Jordan Anderson that put runners at the corners with one out.
“We did a little bit of everything to try to not pull out the W, but we did pull out the W,” DiMare said. “And we got a big hit there at the end. The home run was our best buddy today.”
DiMare called for Carson Palmquist to replace Van Belle on the mound and the freshman lefty squashed the rally and kept Miami ahead, 4-2.
For Van Belle, the two runs were the first earned runs the redshirt senior allowed all season, snapping a streak of 26.1 innings without allowing an earned run. Van Belle finished the game allowing just two runs on five hits over 6.1 innings, striking out five and walking two Panthers.
“I see him as a very, first of all, mature kid that he’s our leader,” DiMare said of Van Belle. “He’s a captain of our team, probably the leading guy in our team, in terms of just how he handles himself, how he carries himself practice, off the field, on the field, his work ethic. He’s a gut that I know a lot of guys respect and look up to, that’s why they voted in the captain. And then, of course, being a Friday night guy when we had to make that decision because we have we arguably three Friday guys. We feel very confident in Brian because he’s just a very composed kid. He never gets very rattled. He’s very under control and he’s extremely competitive. So he’s got all the great qualities to be a great, great pitcher.”
Pitt struck again in the eighth, stringing together three hits off reliever Tyler Keysor to tie the game at 4. Kyle Hess started the rally with a one-out single and scored on Frontino’s RBI double. Bryce Hulett followed with an RBI single to left that evened the score between the two conference foes.
Daniel Federman, who replaced Keysor with runners on first and third and two outs in the eighth, was outstanding in relief for Miami. The junior right-hander struck out Sky Duff to end the Pitt rally and keep the game tied. Federman tossed 2.1 shutout innings, allowing just one hit and striking out four.
“I thought our bullpen did an excellent job, especially Palmquist and Federman and [JP] Gates to hold it there,” DiMare said. “But we’ve got to play better, there’s no doubt. But we’re going to take this as a positive because we need something positive right now with our team.”
Gates retired the side in the top of the 11th, needing just nine pitches to get through the inning and set the table for Toral’s heroic swing.
“Definitely, this one was big,” Toral said. “First ACC game and it’s a season within a season and to start off 1-0 is huge.”
Miami and Pitt are back in action Saturday for the second game of this ACC series. Junior right-hander Chris McMahon will toe the rubber for the Hurricanes, while the Panthers will start junior right-hander Mitch Myers. First pitch is set for 7 p.m.
