Hurricane Headliners: Daniel Cuvet

In Hurricane Headliners, Christy Cabrera Chirinos spotlights some of Miami’s top performing student-athletes as they look to continue excelling in and out of competition.

CORAL GABLES, Fla. – It’s a game, a moment he expects he won’t forget any time soon.

Last Saturday, Daniel Cuvet was part of a historic night at Mark Light Field, his eighth-inning home run adding to a game in which the Hurricanes overcame a nine-run deficit to notch a stunning 16-12 comeback win over then 13th-ranked Virginia.

That home run not only contributed to Miami’s victory, but helped the Hurricanes clinch the series against the Cavaliers and gave them their first ACC series win of the J.D. Arteaga era.

The fact that he was a part of it – as a freshman, no less – was beyond special, Cuvet said.

“That was the best game I’ve ever been a part of, to be honest,” the infielder said. “It was definitely the biggest comeback I’ve ever been a part of and probably the highest level of a comeback that I ever played in. And just the emotions and everybody in the dugout, the energy from everyone on the team. We were all ecstatic. It was just incredible.”

Cuvet, a hard-hitting phenom from Fort Lauderdale, is hardly a newcomer to making incredible things happen on the diamond.

Through Miami’s first 16 games, he’s totaled nine home runs, a number that is tied for fifth-most nationally. He has the seventh-best slugging percentage (.955) in the country and his 30 hits are tied for eighth among all Division I hitters.

Among freshmen, he ranks first nationally in hits, second in home runs, slugging percentage and RBI (26), third in runs scored (23), and fourth in batting average (.455). He has reached base in each of the 16 collegiate games he’s played in and has a team-high seven multi-RBI performances and nine multi-hit games.

Cuvet arrived at Miami as one of the top high school prospects in the nation, with Perfect Game ranking him among the top 40 players overall in the country and the top third baseman. He hit .380 with 12 home runs as a high school senior at the Elite Squad Baseball Academy and before that, starred at St. Thomas Aquinas in Fort Lauderdale, where he was able to play alongside his brother, Mikel, a former pitcher.

He was selected by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 17th round of the 2023 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft, but ultimately decided to play at Miami – his hometown program – where he knew he could share his collegiate journey with his family, including his brother, his sister, Sophie, his mother, Jessika, and his father, Patrick, who works for the University of Miami Health System as a nurse anesthetist.

The opportunity to look up into the stands at The Light and see his family there has been an incredible experience, Cuvet said, and one that has made the first weeks of his career even more memorable than he could have imagined.

“Those moments are the best. I mean, it’s just like most of the games I’ve played my whole life,” Cuvet said. “They’ve always been there, so it’s always cool to still see them there and I’m so glad everyone in my family can be a part of this and that they’re able to come to games. … I wanted to be home. I wanted to be with my family and have them be able to come to my games, have my friends be able to come and support us. That was all big for me. … I wouldn’t want it to be any other way. That was a big part of [my decision to come to Miami], along with all the people here and the support from the community.”

As thrilling as the first games of his collegiate career have been, though, Cuvet expects there will be challenges as Miami (9-7) moves deeper into its ACC schedule.

If he continues hitting the ball the way he is now, he knows pitchers will begin adjusting. He expects that means he’ll have to do some adjusting, too, and that’s fine by him.

He’s more than willing to do the work to continue growing and making a difference for Miami.

“My goal is to keep hitting the way I’ve been hitting. I want to get even better at being more disciplined and knowing how teams are going to throw to me, how they’re going to try and get me out,” Cuvet said. “I want to have a better approach and be more disciplined with that so I’m able to hit the pitches that they give me instead of chasing what they want me to chase.”

And as for the Hurricanes as a whole, Cuvet expects the team to continue growing and improving, especially after last weekend’s wins over the Cavaliers.

“That series was huge. We know we have the team to win,” Cuvet said of Miami, which hosts No. 15 North Carolina for a three-game series this weekend. “We know that we can beat pretty much anyone. We just have to play our game, clean up some of the little mistakes we make here and there, and we can beat anyone.”

Championship Bound

Divers Mohamed Farouk and Brodie Scapens are headed to the 2024 NCAA Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships later this month.

Farouk was fifth in the field with a score of 345.15 in the 1-meter springboard at this week’s Zone B qualifying meet, while Scapens, an ACC champion in the same event, was sixth at the qualifying meet with a score of 334.25.

Also headed to the championships are swimmers Giulia Carvalho and Emma Shuppert. Carvalho will compete in the 100-yard butterfly, while Shuppert will compete in the 100-yard backstroke.

The four Hurricanes are among 281 swimmers and 41 divers that will compete at the national championship meet.

Triumph on the Track (and Field)

Last weekend wasn’t just big for Miami’s baseball team.

Hurricanes jumper Russell Robinson claimed the triple jump national title at the NCAA Division I Indoor Track and Field Championships with a mark of 16.76m on his first jump at the meet.

His jump set both a new school and facility record at the TRACK at New Balance.

Two of his teammates – heptathlete Edgar Campre and high jumper Kennedy Sauder – also competed at nationals.

Sauder earned second-team All-American honors with his mark of 2.18m, but Campre – an ACC champion – was unable to finish the competition after getting hurt during the first day of the heptathlon.

The trio’s performances both at nationals and at the ACC championships helped Miami jumps and combined events coach Rob Jarvis earn recognition as the Men’s South Region Assistant Coach of the Year by the United States Track & Field Cross Country Association.

What to Watch This Weekend

Miami’s baseball team will host 15^th-ranked North Carolina for a three-game series that begins Friday at Mark Light Stadium, while the Hurricanes track and field teams host their first outdoor meet of the season, the Hurricane Invitational, at Cobb Stadium.

The women’s tennis team has two road matches on tap, competing at Louisville on Friday and at No. 39 Notre Dame on Sunday. The men’s tennis team, meanwhile, hosts No. 17 Duke on Friday and No. 27 North Carolina on Sunday. Both matches will be played at the Neil Schiff Tennis Center on campus.