Canes Fall in Game Two vs. Seminoles
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The Miami Hurricanes fell to rival Florida State, 9-1, Saturday, dropping a series to the Seminoles in Coral Gables for the first time since 2015.
“Just very disappointing, played poorly in all phases,” head coach Gino DiMare said. “Pitchers fell behind a lot, too many hitters. They did a good job of competing at the plate and being taxing, as I told our team, where we did not. We fell way behind almost every hitter. It seemed like we’re always behind, trying to catch back up.”
Florida State (9-6, 6-5 ACC) got on the scoreboard in the first inning, making Miami pay for a two-out error by second baseman Anthony Vilar. After Robby Martin reached on the error, Matheu Nelson hit a two-run homer to left off UM starter Victor Mederos that gave the Noles a 2-0 lead after its first turn to bat.
“Errors, they capitalized. We made one in the first inning and the next guy comes up and we fall behind, get it to 3-2 count and he gets a ball up, which we had way too many balls up in the zone,” DiMare said. “Bad combination, falling behind and they took advantage of it. We played poor defensively, offensively, we were pretty anemic. No taxing at-bats for us and at the end of the day that’s why you get your rear end kicked and that’s what happened again today.”
Miami (9-6, 5-5 ACC) answered in the bottom of the first, loading the bases before Christian Del Castillo’s RBI single to right pushed home Jordan Lala and cut the FSU lead in half, 2-1.
“The first inning we hit some balls really hard and had the bases loaded with one out and just couldn’t put the ball in play,” DiMare said. “Both guys struck out there in that situation with [Alex] Toral and [Gabe] Rivera and that was big. We got run on the board and it was 2-1 at the time and we could have opened it up a little bit and then we were swinging the bats good there up to that point and then when went strikeout-strikeout.
“That was tough right there, but a lot of game left to play after that,” DiMare added. “But I don’t feel like we did a whole lot after that. We did bases loaded one other time but we didn’t hit balls hard other than the first inning, if we did they were scattered about. Just way too inconsistent with our lineup. It needs to be better, it needs to be more consistent.”
Florida State added a run in the top of the third, when Robby Martin doubled home Tyler Martin. But the Noles capitalized on a three-error top of the fourth by the Canes, adding a pair of unearned runs to take a 5-1 lead. Mederos had tough luck on the mound for Miami, as four of his six runs allowed were unearned over five-plus innings of work.
The Noles tacked on three more in the sixth, as Logan Lacey singled home Ryan Romano and Matheu Nelson followed with a two-run single off reliever Alex McFarlane that made it 8-1.
Left-hander Bryce Hubbart was replaced on the mound by lefty Clayton Kwiatkowski after Hubbart held the Hurricanes to one run on four hits while striking out eight over six innings.
“We’ve got to find a way to play better,” DiMare said. “We’re not going to win if we don’t play any better. We’ve got to have better at-bats as a unit, as nine guys in a lineup that have to do a much better job of giving taxing at-bats.”
The Seminoles scored again in their final turn at bat, as Romano drove in Parker Messick with a one-out single to right off McFarlane in the ninth.
The Canes and Seminoles will close out the series Sunday, beginning at 1 p.m., with right-hander Daniel Federman set to face off against right-hander Bryce Hubbart.
