Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Hurricanes drop 2 of 3 in series vs. Virginia Tech
The momentum of the Miami Hurricanes’ opening-weekend series win at rival Florida did not carry over to its first ACC series of the baseball season.
Miami dropped the rubber match of the three-game set against Virginia Tech, 9-6, on Sunday afternoon at Alex Rodriguez Park at Mark Light Field.
The Hurricanes (3-3) will fall in the rankings after leaping into the top five of four different polls and as high as No. 1, according to Collegiate Baseball, following last weekend’s series win at previously top-ranked Florida. The Hokies (5-1) win a series over UM for the first time since 2012.
Three different times on Sunday, Miami took two-run leads that Virginia Tech erased. The third time, the Hokies went up 7-6 in the top of the seventh inning when Kevin Madden’s two-run single tied it and Tanner Schobel’s RBI groundout gave VT a one-run advantage.
“Very disappointing,” said Miami coach Gino DiMare. “Seemed like every time we scored runs, they’d answer right back, we let them right back in the game. … We’re still a team trying to find itself. We’re still trying to figure out the bullpen.
“Guys couldn’t stop the bleeding there in the bullpen. It was a total team effort, in terms of us not getting the job done. We didn’t paly good defense. We’re still struggling with our lineup, trying to figure it out.”
The Hokies added to it in the top of the eighth when Gavin Cross belted a two-run home run to right field put them up 9-6. After the five unanswered runs from Virginia Tech, UM went down quietly in the bottom of the eighth and ninth.
Tied at 4, Miami rallied for two runs in the bottom of the sixth for a 6-4 lead. Anthony Vilar and Yohandy Morales
delivered RBI singles as UM strung four hits together in the frame.
The Hurricanes broke a 2-2 tie in the fifth inning when reigning ACC Co-Player of the Week Christian Del Castillo delivered a two-run single with the bases loaded and two outs.
The Hokies then got those two runs back in the top of the sixth as Schobel similarly hit a bases-loaded, two-out single that plated a pair.
UM freshman starter Victor Mederos was chased in that sixth inning. His afternoon ended with four runs charged against him — the last two because his baserunners scored with reliever Anthony Arguelles giving up the hit to Schobel — on six hits over 5 innings. He struck out five.
Miami struck first as Morales, back at third base on Sunday after starting at shortstop on Saturday, hit a two-run home to left field.
“When I hit the ball, I thought it was going to be caught by the left fielder,” Morales said. “I got mad at myself as soon as I hit, but I saw that it kept carrying and ended up going over the fence.”
VT evened the game over the next two innings — first thanks to a Schobel RBI single to left in the top of the second and then a solo homer to left by Fritz Genther in the third.
The Hurricanes and Hokies were even through the weekend’s first two games after UM freshman right-hander Alejandro Rosario threw seven shutout innings with seven strikeouts for his first college win on Saturday night in a 3-0 victory.
Miami scored all three of its runs on Saturday in the first inning thanks to a run-scoring hit to center by Morales and then Adam Frank drove in two with a single of his own to left.
The Hurricanes dropped the home opener on Friday night, 5-3, after Virginia Tech homered twice off Miami starter Daniel Federman, who allowed five earned runs in six innings while the UM bats did not get a run across after the third inning.
“They just had a lot more energy than us the whole weekend, and we had to pick it back up,” Vilar said. “We scored early. We scored in the first inning in every game, and we just stopped scoring.”
The Hurricanes again won’t have a midweek game and play at North Carolina State for a threegame series beginning on Friday.