Baseball Keeps Rolling — Football Opens Spring Camp

BASEBALL —

It’s been an up-and-down season for Hurricane baseball.

After a 10-0 start, Miami dropped six of the next 10, then won seven of the next eight for a 21-7 (4-5 ACC) record after last weekend’s trip to Clemson, SC, where they notched their first 2026 ACC conference series win as the Canes took two of three from the Tigers. Miami baseball has high standards.

The ultimate goal is always a trip to Omaha to compete in the College World Series, and hosting a regional is the next step on the way to that goal. The Canes have seven conference season series remaining before the ACC tournament begins on May 19. Winning 14 of those 21 games would likely land Miami a spot as a regional host when NCAA Tournament play starts on May 29.

The Canes host the Virginia Tech Hokies (13-12, 5-6 ACC) this weekend for a three-game set at Mark Light Field, with first pitch at 7 p.m. Friday, 6 p.m. Saturday, and 1 p.m. Easter Sunday. The FIU Panthers visit at 6 p.m. Tuesday, April 7, for a midweek clash.

Last week’s play opened with a Tuesday night contest against the Florida Atlantic Owls. Midweek non-conference games demand a different strategy, as teams often use multiple relief pitchers to save arms for conference play.

FAU used eight and UM seven pitchers in the Canes’ 10-6 win, and not one of the 15 pitchers threw more than two innings nor faced more than eight batters in the game. TJ Coats (4-0) earned the win for Miami, and the evening’s offensive stars were the Canes’ top two catchers. Freshman Alonzo Alvarez, behind the plate, went 2 for 2 with one run, two RBI, two walks, and caught a runner stealing, while junior catcher Alex Sosa was the DH and hit a two-RBI double in the second inning to give Miami a 5-0 lead they never surrendered.

The Thursday night opener at Clemson was a nail-biter. Miami took a 1-0 lead after one and extended the advantage to 3-0 after three. Clemson plated one in the fifth and two more in the sixth before relief pitcher Packy Bradley-Cooper came on with one out and closed down the Tigers’ threat. Tied 3-3, Bradley-Cooper threw a scoreless seventh before Miami closer Ryan Bilka came on in the eighth.

The game was tied after nine, and Miami took over in the tenth. Vance Sheahan walked, Alvarez flied out, Dylan Dubovik struck out, Fabio Peralta was hit by a pitch, and Jake Ogden beat out an infield single that brought David Cuvet to the plate with the bases loaded and two out. Cuvet hit a blast that the Tigers’ third baseman could not handle. All three runners scored, and Cuvet took second. Sosa doubled, bringing Cuvet home, and a Derek Williams single scored Sosa for an 8-3 lead. Bilka closed Clemson down for the win.

Clemson evened the series with a 7-6 win on Friday. Simply put, Miami made multiple unforced mistakes they couldn’t overcome. The Canes made three errors, leading to two unearned runs. Miami pitchers hit three Clemson batters, and three Miami baserunners were caught stealing. Baseball seasons are long, and this was the kind of game good teams need to put behind them.

Sophomore right-hander Lazaro Collera was Miami’s starter in Saturday’s rubber game. He went six scoreless innings and lowered his ERA to 1.86 in his best outing of the season.

Miami’s bats also came through big time in the rebound contest. Ogden had two doubles and scored twice, Sosa had a double and a home run, Williams hit a double, a home run, and had four RBI, and first baseman Brylan West added two hits and two RBI. It was an impressive and confidence-building 8-6 win for Miami, as they took an 8-0 lead after 6½ innings in a game they will look back on knowing they can win the games they need to win.

FOOTBALL —

Spring practice is underway at the Greentree Practice Fields, and Canes Corner was there on Saturday, March 28, with an opportunity to hear Head Coach Mario Cristobal speak on the competitiveness at Greentree.

“The competitiveness is good. We’re demanding more. We need to demand more. We need to coach it harder. We need to coach it better. We need more out of everybody. I think it’s easy to talk toughness and physicality and then you have to work at it, and we work at it. It’s part of our practice plan and it’s well documented. We go hard. Our practices are very different, but they’re not reckless, so while you’re out here, it’s got to be max — max effort, max levels of concentration. Every walkthrough, every detail of every meeting, all of that is really, really important. There’s some progress, but it’s nowhere near enough. We need to be more physical; we need to be more consistent. We need to keep working ourselves, even now, to be in great football shape because we are working extended drives and extended practices. And again, around here, spring football is very, very serious. It’s helped us throughout the last four years set ourselves up for a successful camp. That being said, there’s a lot of bright spots and a long, long way to go.”

Canes Corner will be attending both Hurricanes baseball games and football practices in the upcoming weeks and will keep readers up to date. That’s it for now. Be well, all, and Go Canes!