Miami Suffers Setback to USF Wednesday, 4-2
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The Miami Hurricanes baseball team (27-10, 8-7 ACC) dropped its first midweek game of the season to the USF Bulls Wednesday night at Mark Light Field by a final score of 4-2.
South Florida’s Dominic Pontbriant (2-0) earned the win, tossing 5.2 innings and allowing two runs on four hits with two walks and five strikeouts.
Miami’s TJ Coats (5-2) was charged with the loss after going 6.0 innings, surrendering three runs (two earned) on seven hits while walking one and striking out six.
South Florida got things started quickly with a leadoff single from Ryan Pruitt. With a stolen base and a throwing error from Miami freshman catcher Alonzo Alvarez, Pruitt moved into scoring position. Lance Trippel then lined an RBI single up the middle, and within five pitches, USF found themselves ahead, 1-0 in the opening frame.
Another Miami miscue came from starting pitcher TJ Coats, as a throwing error to first allowed Trippell to score from second, putting the USF lead at 2-0.
But Miami’s bats fought back as Jake Ogden led off the inning with a double, and Daniel Cuvet popped up to right field to move Ogden to third. Alex Sosa then stepped up to the plate to deliver his second triple of the season and move his on-base streak to 26 straight games, scoring Ogden and putting Miami on the board, 2-1 in the opening frame.
The Hurricanes evened the midweek contest at two on a Max Galvin RBI single up the middle, scoring Sosa to tie the game.
USF found the lead again in the top of the third from Joey Brenczewski, who launched a solo shot to right field, making the score 3-2. The Bulls added another on a groundout RBI in the seventh, moving the score to 4-2.
The Hurricanes threatened late in the bottom of the ninth with runners at second and third with one out, but the rally fell short as the Bulls turned a double play to hand Miami its first midweek loss of the season.
Next up for Miami is a trip to Palo Alto, California, to take on the Stanford Cardinal for a three-game conference series. First pitch is slated for 9 p.m. eastern time. All three games of the series will be televised on ACCNX and WVUM 90.5 FM.
To stay up to date with the University of Miami baseball team, be sure to follow @canesbaseball on Instagram, X and Facebook.
