South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
’Canes unable to home in on win
Hokies spoil UM’s long-awaited return to Mark Light Field
There was no grand welcome back to Alex Rodriguez Park at Mark Light Field after 355 days without a home baseball game for the Miami Hurricanes.
UM, ranked in the top five by four different polls and as high as No. 1 by Collegiate Baseball, had its home opener and ACC opener spoiled by Virginia Tech in a 5-3 defeat Friday night in front of 623 fans with a limited ballpark capacity due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Hurricanes (2-2), who started the 2021 season on a high note by taking two of three at previously top-ranked Florida last weekend, had their bats go quiet over the final six innings after falling behind early.
They dropped their first game back at home since March 8, 2020, when they finished off a weekend sweep of Pittsburgh before last spring’s season was cut short because of the onset of the pandemic.
“Same game,” said Miami coach Gino DiMare of the unusual home opener. “I mean, everything’s a little bit different. We all know that. The setting, the dugouts, the way the dugout’s [spaced], the crowd’s [limited]. … No excuse there. We just couldn’t get anything going.”
Virginia Tech pitchers only faced three more than the minimum from the fourth inning on as Miami finished with just six hits and made baserunning mistakes when it did have runners on.
“I hope it’s early in the season. I hope we get through this and put it behind us,” said DiMare of three instances when a mistake on the basepaths cost the team. “We just couldn’t put at-bats together. The hits were too far apart or the baseson-balls were too far apart, and we just put no pressure on them.”
Miami starting right-hander Daniel Federman allowed a pair of home runs and gave up five earned runs in six innings, striking out seven Hokies.
“Just leaving balls up,” Federman said. “I get the ball down there, and it’s a completely different ballgame.”
Federman, the Archbishop McCarthy grad, settled in after giving up all his runs between the second and third innings, but the UM lineup never recovered against VT pitching. Freshman Hokies left-hander Matthew Siverling threw four shutout innings with six strikeouts after Miami got three runs off senior starter Peyton Alford in his three innings. Shane Connolly shut the door with a two-inning save.
“They were just going right after us, making us hit the ball,” Del Castillo said. “We’ve got to just shorten up and just put the ball in play and not try to do too much.”
Christian Del Castillo singled to right with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, but Connolly got Tony Jenkins to ground out to end it.
The Hurricanes started the scoring with two runs in the bottom of the first before their first out. Yohandy Morales hit an RBI single to center field to score leadoff man Jordan Lala, and Adrian Del Castillo singled to left to plate Anthony Vilar.
The Hokies answered with three runs in the top of the second. Cade Hunter hit a two-run home run to left that scored Jonah Seagears after he had an RBI base hit to left.
They added two more in the third when TJ Rumfield homered to center, following Gavin Cross’ triple, to go up 5-2.
Miami got a run back to make it 5-3 on an Alex Toral sacrifice fly that brought home Lala in the bottom of the third.
In relief of Federman, Jake Garland pitched three shutout, hitless innings against the Hokies on Friday.
The three-game weekend set continued Saturday as freshman Alejandro Rosario took the mound for Miami. Fellow freshman Victor Mederos goes for the Hurricanes in a 1 p.m. first pitch on Sunday.
“You don’t win Omaha in February,” said Federman of how the team is not deterred from its College World Series aspirations despite the lackluster home opener. “We’ve got a long season.”