’Canes salvage series finale
McKendry turns in strong start to give Gators’ first loss of season
CORAL GABLES — It’s been a tough week for the Miami Hurricanes, who entered their series finale against defending national champion Florida having lost four in a row, including two weekend games against the Gators.
Worse, they’d also lost six in a row to their instate rivals, but that frustration — finally — came to an end Sunday afternoon.
Behind a stellar outing from starter Evan McKendry and on the strength of some well-timed hits from Michael Burns, Miami notched a 2-0 win over the Gators at Mark Light Field, avoiding the series sweep and picking up their third win of the young season.
Miami also handed the top-ranked Gators their first loss of the year.
The win was the Hurricanes’ first over Florida since Feb. 27, 2016 and only the second over UF in the teams’ last 12 meetings dating back to 2015.
No wonder each of Miami’s seven hits was celebrated, each one of McKendry’s eight strikeouts met with applause.
“It’s really a big win for us, needless to say,” Miami coach Jim Morris said. “Florida’s got a really good club, ranked No. 1 in the country as everyone knows. It was a tremendous challenge for us to play against them with the pitching they have and what they have going right now. … This will give some of our young guys confidence to move forward. The big thing for me, whether we won or lost, was for our team to understand what it takes to beat a good club and to play with a good club and they did that.”
McKendry — who gave up four hits, two walks and four earned runs in his first start of the season, a 7-5 loss to Rutgers — was a force Sunday against the hard-hitting Gators.
He retired 12 of the first 13 hitters he faced and the first hit he allowed came in the top of the fifth when Jonathan India reached second on a misplayed fly ball that fell harmlessly between a group of Hurricanes on the infield.
McKendry, a former North Broward Prep standout, finished the second weekend start of his career, allowing just two hits and giving up just two walks.
“I definitely felt good. It took some time to find some of my pitches, but once I got going, I felt good,” said McKendry. “My offspeed was working, my changeup felt good, my slider, I ended up finding. It felt good. Fastball, I was locating pretty well. It definitely feels good, but it’s even better for the team. We all played well. It was a great team win. Hopefully it gets us going.”
Miami gave McKendry the only run he’d eventually need when Burns’ two-out double scored Willy Escala, who’d also reached on a double.
The Hurricanes (3-4) added another run in the seventh when a Burns RBI single scored Freddy Zamora, who reached earlier in the inning on a line-drive single.
And while Florida (7-1) threatened in the final innings, reliever Andrew Cabezas held the Gators to just a hit, earning his second save of the season.
Now, the Hurricanes — who travel to Florida Atlantic on Wednesday — look to build on Sunday’s win as they move deeper into the season.