No. 11 Miami Dominates FIU, 17-3
MIAMI, Fla. — No. 11 Miami took care of business.
In their final midweek of the season, the Hurricanes handled the FIU Panthers, 17-3, Tuesday evening at FIU Baseball Stadium.
“I’m very proud of the guys,” head coach Gino DiMare said. “We talked about going 1-0 today. I want to be 1-0 going in the weekend, bottom line. We did what we were supposed to do.”
Miami (35-17) tallied runs in six of the final nine frames against the Panthers (20-32), including a pair of five spots in both the sixth and ninth.
Junior shortstop Dominic Pitelli led the offensive outburst with three hits and seven RBI, highlighted by his fourth career grand slam to cap off the crooked number in the middle innings.
Freshman second baseman Blake Cyr crushed his team-leading 14th homer and reached safely four times in the victory. Meanwhile, junior center fielder Jacoby Long launched a solo shot as part of a multi-hit performance.
“He’s a dynamic player,” DiMare said about Long. “He can do a lot of things. He has a little bit of pop. He can run, he can bunt. We all know he can play defense and steal bases. He’s an exciting player and if he can do the thing to stay in the lineup, which is basically get on base, all the other stuff is gravy. If he does that, he’ll continue to play. He’ll play.”
Sophomore left-handed pitcher Rafe Schlesinger (2-1) earned the win in relief, tossing 2 1/3 scoreless. Schlesinger retired seven of the eight batters he faced, recording three strikeouts along the way.
With the sweep over FIU, Miami finished with a 10-3 mark in midweek matchups.
“I might say more because a midweek game than I do an ACC game or a big weekend series game because the crowds are smaller, they’re normally in class and I just want to make sure they’re motivated and ready,” DiMare said. “If you were to tell me we’d go 10-3 in midweeks, I’d take that. We’ve done a really good job in midweek games the five years I’ve been the head coach. It’s a good mindset going into the weekend.”
The Hurricanes conclude their regular season slate with a three-game set against No. 16 Duke. The series opener is scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday at Mark Light Field.
To keep up with the University of Miami baseball team on social media, follow @CanesBaseball on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
