Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Host mission
Miami heads to ACC Tournament looking to secure home site for NCAA regional
CORAL GABLES — The Miami Hurricanes have quite a different perspective going into the ACC baseball tournament this year than they did the past two seasons.
As opposed to needing a strong showing
just to sneak into the NCAA Tournament, Miami is looking to secure a spot as a regional host this time.
It’s still not the level the Hurricanes, winners of four national championships with 25 College World Series appearances, are historically accustomed to, but it’s a sign of progress in coach Gino DiMare’s first season at the helm after the program’s streak of 44 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances was snapped in 2017.
“We’re not quite there, where we need to be, but we’re certainly in the right direction,” said DiMare on Monday morning from just outside Alex Rodriguez Park at Mark Light Field as the team prepared to travel to Durham, N.C. for the ACC Tournament.
The No. 4 seeded Hurricanes open at 3 p.m. on Thursday against No. 9 seed Virginia and then face North Carolina at
3 p.m. on Friday. The tourney is divided into four three-team pools with winners of each pool advancing to Saturday’s semifinals. The ACC title game would be at noon on Sunday on ESPN2. DiMare did not have a rotation set for the tournament when he spoke to reporters on Monday but said that would be determined on Tuesday or Wednesday.
UM finished the regular season winning seven of its last eight weekend series, including sweeps of Virginia, Virginia Tech and Bethune-Cookman. Taking two of three games this past weekend from Duke at Mark Light Field got the Hurricanes to finish the regular season 38-17 with an 18-12 record in the ACC.
With the top 16 teams earning No. 1 regional seeds and the chance to host fourteam regionals in the 64-team NCAA field, the Hurricanes land right on the bubble to host. Baseball America has them at No. 14, the USA Today Coaches Poll at 16, D1Baseball at 17 and Collegiate Baseball at 15.
Miami missed the tournament in each of the final two seasons under longtime coach Jim Morris, who brought the Hurricanes national titles in 1999 and 2001, finishing 32-27 in 2017 and 28-26 in 2018. To get the team in its current position now with DiMare leading the way required change.
“The culture, the attitude, the mindset — it changed in August,” said DiMare, who played for UM from 1989-92 and spent 19 years as a member of the Hurricanes baseball staff before becoming head coach, most recently serving as associate head coach in charge of hitting, as well as the program’s recruiting coordinator.
The team has been motivated by its shortcomings the past two years, which followed College World Series appearances in 2015 and 2016.
“I don’t know how else to say it — embarrassing, humiliating,” DiMare said. “Nothing’s going to drive our team more than that — what we’ve dealt with the last couple of years. Every day, it’s been kind of that attitude, that chip on our shoulder, that whatever of [being] tired of hearing about our program not being where it needs. But we deserved it. We didn’t play well. That’s a great motivation in itself right there.”
Hosting a regional is not viewed by the team as the ultimate goal, but it’ll be the focus over the weekend and make that ultimate goal a whole lot easier.
“It’s not our No. 1 goal. Our No. 1 goal is to win a national championship, but it’s one of the goals,” DiMare said. “It certainly helps. I told the guys, as a former player and coach, ‘It’s a great place to play in the playoffs.’ You want to be able to play here in front of the fans here because it’s a different atmosphere.”
“It’s just as important as last year,” said sophomore first baseman Alex Toral, an Archbishop McCarthy High grad who has belted 21 home runs and driven in 58 runs. “Obviously, we didn’t exceed the expectations that we needed to last year, but this year, we’re playing good ball here toward the end and we’re just trying to keep it going.”
Four Hurricanes were recognized on AllACC baseball teams on Monday.
Redshirt sophomore catcher Michael Amditis, freshman utility player Adrian Del Castillo and redshirt junior starting pitcher Brian Van Belle made AllACC second team while sophomore third baseman Raymond Gil was a thirdteam selection.