Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Big change in store for UM
Pitching, defense will need to excel
CORAL GABLES — Days ahead of their opener, the Hurricanes didn’t have captains. Or even a set lineup.
Those are the kinds of things that can happen in transition years. Even veteran coaches and traditionrich programs occasionally find themselves looking for answers.
That’s where Miami’s baseball team finds itself as it prepares to take the field against Rutgers on Friday.
The Hurricanes, who have made 44 consecutive postseason appearances and are coming off back-toback trips to the College World Series, find themselves in somewhat uncharted waters entering the season.
Much of their power hitting is gone after AllAmerican catcher Zack Collins and outfielders Willie Abreu and Jacob Heyward all opted to leave school early and begin their professional careers. AllAmerican closer Bryan Garcia did the same. Adding to the difficulty of replacing them: Several returning veterans — including infielders Chris Barr and Johnny Ruiz and pitcher Cooper Hammond — are nursing various injuries.
“It’s more nerve-wracking, there’s no question about that,” Hurricanes coach Jim Morris said about the uncertainty facing his team. “But it’s also very interesting. I don’t know what the lineup’s going to be. Whatever the lineup is that I put out there on Friday night, that won’t be the lineup a month from now, I guarantee you. … But it’s a lot of fun for me. I enjoy opening day. I enjoy our players. I enjoy the games and the competition as much as anything.”
Despite the questions they have to answer, the Hurricanes expect they’ll still be a solid team.
To help Miami adjust after losing so much experience, Morris and his staff recruited more junior college players than they have in the past. Several are expected to make an impact sooner rather than later. Among them is Jeb Bargfeldt, who helped pitch Cisco College to the Junior College World Series last year and has earned a spot in Miami’s rotation as the Saturday night starter. His Cisco College teammate, Michael Burns, is expected to get significant playing time in right field.
Morris also did a solid job of tapping into South Florida’s talented high school baseball pool signing former Boca Raton catcher Michael Amditis, former North Broward prep pitcher/infielder Gregory Veliz and former North Broward Prep pitcher Evan McKendry, among others.
Throughout the fall and spring, the returning Hurricanes have done their part to make to try and make the new faces feel welcome — something they hope leads to success on the field.
“We all have to find our identity. We’re all just working hard and we’ll see what happens,” said infielder Edgar Michelangeli, who hit .269 with 40 RBI and five home runs last season. “You tell [the new players] to embrace it. You’re playing at Miami, a big school. Embrace it, have fun, and don’t really take it too hard on yourself if you fail or even succeed. … The most important thing is that we jell together.”
In terms of what Miami will have to do to get itself back to Omaha and compete for its first national championship since 2001, Morris — a 37-year coaching veteran — was blunt.
The Hurricanes are going to need to rely on their experienced pitchers and play the kind of defense he has long made a priority. One big reason why? He doesn’t expect this team will score a ton of runs.
His pitchers, including Friday night starter Jesse Lepore, are embracing that challenge.
“I feel like, if anything, that’s a good sort of pressure,” said Lepore, who was 9-0 last season with a 2.20 ERA and 57 strikeouts. “It’s good to have the standard so high. If anything, it gives us a sense of confidence that we’re going to have to go in there day in and day out, pitch and play defense.”
And if there are any doubts about where they could end up, the Hurricanes need only look to last season for inspiration, when Coastal Carolina started the season ranked 23rd in the nation by Baseball America and went on to win the national title, while preseason No. 6 Miami left Omaha after two straight losses.
“Usually, the No. 1 team doesn’t win in Omaha every year,” Michelangeli said. “You can’t control what they rank you. You can only control your effort.”