Miami Edged Late by No. 13 Virginia
CORAL GABLES, Fla. — The Cardiac Canes nearly did it again.
Following one of the greatest comebacks in program history the night before, Miami erased a pair of four-run deficits Sunday afternoon.
This time, the Hurricanes came up just one swing short, dropping the series finale to the 13th-ranked Virginia Cavaliers, 14-11, at Mark Light Field.
“Tomorrow, I think we’ll look back on the week and be happy, especially taking two of three from a really good team in Virginia,” head coach J.D. Arteaga. “But right now, we’re looking at those missed opportunities we had today, and today we’re 0-1. We preach hitting the reset button every day, whether after a loss or win. Every day is a new day. We fought hard and we came up a little short.”
Miami (9-6, 2-1 ACC) put the tying run on first and brought the winning tally to the plate, but Virginia right-hander Jack O’Connor forced a groundout to salvage the weekend for the Cavaliers (13-3, 1-2 ACC).
With the game tied at 11-11 in the top of the ninth, Virginia first baseman Henry Ford legged out an infield single to push the visitors back in front.
Two batters later, left fielder Harrison Didawick doubled home a pair to provide enough cushion for O’Connor.
Right-hander Matt Augustin (1-0) earned the win in relief, tossing an 1 2/3 scoreless. Meanwhile, Miami redshirt sophomore righty Brian Walters (0-1) was tagged with the loss.
Despite trailing by 4-0 and 10-6 margins, the Hurricanes didn’t go down without a fight.
Miami scored in four straight frames, highlighted by a four-run sixth inning to level the score, 6-6.
Two innings later, the Hurricanes didn’t just tie the score, but took the lead.
Senior right fielder Lucas Costello crushed a solo shot to pull Miami within one.
After smacking a game-winning grand slam Saturday, sophomore designated hitter Blake Cyr delivered the key hit.
Cyr clobbered a two-run blast over the left field fence to vault the Canes ahead, 11-10.
“There’s a lot of fight in this team,” junior second baseman Dorian Gonzalez Jr. said. “We’re just looking to clean up some little things from this weekend to into Tuesday and we’ll be fine.”
With a top-15 series victory under their belt, the Hurricanes hit the road for the first time this season, facing Florida Atlantic Tuesday in Boca Raton. First pitch is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.
“We need to do a better job earlier in games,” Arteaga said. “We’ve been so good in the second half of games, but I’m getting too old for this. We’ve got to compete for all nine innings. Our hitters have shown they are very tough outs, but for whatever reason, we just haven’t gotten off to a good start. We need to start turning the switch on earlier.
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