Hurricanes drop a heartbreaker to FIU

MIAMI — For the Hurricanes baseball team, the brutal start to the season continues.

Miami, which has struggled at the plate, on the mound and was coming off its worst loss to Florida International in program history, was in control early during the second game of its midweek series against the Panthers — and then came a heartbreaking, gutwrenching loss.

With one out in the bottom of the ninth of a tied game, FIU’s Nick Day crushed a ball to the deepest part of FIU Stadium, and while Miami’s Carl Chester got the ball in relatively quickly to relay man Romy Gonzalez, it wasn’t fast enough.

At third base, Panthers coach Mervyl Melendez waved in pinch runner Kolby Follis, who sprinted home from second base to score the winning run and lift FIU to a 3-2 win over the Hurricanes on Wednesday.

The win was FIU’s second over Miami in as many days, after the Panthers dominated the Hurricanes 12-1 on Tuesday night at Mark Light Field.

With the loss, the Hurricanes dropped to 4-8, continuing the misery of their worst start in coach Jim Morris’ decorated 24-year tenure at Miami.

Making it more brutal for Miami? The fact the Hurricanes controlled the game early and looked on pace to try to snap out of their funk against the Panthers (7-6).

A day after being held to just three hits and one run in its worst loss to FIU in the two teams’ 117 meetings, the Hurricanes came out swinging in the first against Panthers starter Tyler Myrick.

The freshman, making the first start of his FIU career, came into the game with a 9.64 ERA, and Miami wasted little time getting to him with Michael Burns and Carl Chester both knocking hits in the first inning and a Gonzalez RBI groundout giving the Hurricanes a quick 1-0 lead.

It was a refreshing change of pace for a Miami team that has struggled at the plate all season.

The Hurricanes entered the game hitting just .178 as a team, and they needed more than six innings in the midweek series opener against FIU on Tuesday to get their first hit, a Chester single in the seventh.

As effective as Miami was in the first, though, the offensive struggles returned as Myrick settled in later.

After Chester’s hit in the first, Myrick retired 14 of the next 17 hitters he faced. He exited the game after striking out seven and allowing just two hits in five innings of work.

He was matched throughout the night by Miami’s Evan McKendry, who was also making his first start.

McKendry, a former North Broward Prep standout, struck out four of the first eight hitters he faced and worked out of a pair of jams to hold the Panthers scoreless through five innings.

He struck out six, allowed three hits and left the game with a one-run lead. He was in line for his second win of the season — especially after Miami gave him an insurance run in the top of the sixth when Chester, who reached on a walk, scored on Barry Buchowski’s first double of the season.