Canes Corner: Hurricane Baseball Earns NCAA Tournament Bid

All 307 NCAA Division 1 baseball teams start their seasons with the same goal: earning a trip to Omaha to compete in the College World Series.

Two hundred forty-three of those teams have been sent back home, and the remaining 64 will compete at 16 double-elimination regional tournament sites this weekend. The Miami Hurricanes are off to Hattiesburg, Mississippi, to compete against host and #1 seed, the Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles, #2 seed, the Alabama Crimson Tide, and #4 seed, the Columbia Lions. The winner of the Hattiesburg Regional will play the winner of the Nashville Regional (Vanderbilt, Louisville, Eastern Tennessee St, or Wright St) in a Super Regional best-of-three-game series next weekend, with the winner earning a trip to Omaha. So Miss (44-14), Alabama (41-16), Columbia (29-17), and Miami (31-24) are all (0-0) going into the tournament. The past is gone; all that matters is the next game. The Hurricanes open play on Saturday against the Crimson Tide at 3 PM on Friday, 5/30. The game will be televised on ESPN2.

So Miss plays Wright St on Friday night. The losers of Friday’s games play an elimination game on Saturday afternoon, and Friday’s winners play on Saturday evening. On Sunday afternoon, the winner of the Saturday afternoon game plays the loser of the Saturday evening game in an elimination game. With all that, two teams will have been eliminated, one team will have one loss, and the winner of the Saturday evening game will be undefeated. The two remaining teams play on Sunday evening. If the undefeated team wins, they are the Regional Champion. If Sunday’s play ends with two one-loss teams, there will be a Monday game to decide which team advances to Nashville.

Miami and Alabama appear to be evenly matched. Miami has a team batting average of .273, and Alabama has a team batting average of .280. Miami’s opponents have only hit .250, while the Tide’s opponents hit .266. Miami’s pitchers have a slight edge in era 5.03 to 5.11. Bama’s pitchers have thrown 18 more innings than Miami’s and have given up 50 more hits and walked 23 more batters. The stats show Bama scoring more runs than Miami and a little more power. Still, they don’t reflect the fact that two Hurricane starters, right-fielder Derek Williams and first baseman Todd Hudson, have been sidelined with injuries for the last six weeks. At Tuesday’s media briefing, head coach JD Arteaga stated that both have been cleared to play, and it’s possible one or both could be in Friday’s starting lineup. Williams was hitting .345 and leading the team in home runs when he went out. Arteaga was on WQAM’s Tuesday night Joe Zagacki ‘Hurricane Hotline’ radio show and announced that freshman right-hander AJ Ciscar (5-2, 3.77) would be the Canes starter in Friday’s game against the Crimson Tide. Arteaga went on to add that Ciscar was a better matchup against the Alabama hitters. Griffen Hugus will be Tuesday’s starter.

Alabama shortstop Justin Lebron is the Tide’s most productive hitter with a .315 avg. and team-leading 18 HR, 72 RBI, and a .644 slugging percentage. Miami’s Daniel Cuvet is more than his match with .378, 16 HR, 76 RBI, and a .711. Bama’s third baseman, Jason Torres, was Miami’s first baseman last season before transferring to the Tide. Let’s hope the Canes show Jason what a mistake that was.

A number of Hurricanes have received ACC post-season recognition and/or notice that they are semi-finalists for national awards.

Daniel Cuvet has been named All-ACC First Team and has been named a semi-finalist for the Golden Spikes Award by USA Baseball. The Golden Spikes Award goes to the top amateur baseball player and is the most prestigious of the annual awards. Miami’s Pat Burrell in 1998 is the only Cane to have won the award. Pitcher Griffen Hugus garnered All-ACC Second Team honors, and AJ Ciscar was named to the All-ACC Freshman Team. Last but certainly not least, Homestead’s own Jake Ogden has been named by the College Baseball Foundation as a semi-finalist for the Brooks Wallace Award, which is awarded annually to the top collegiate shortstop. Ogden is hitting .350 for the year with 76 hits, 8 HR, 30 RBI, was 12-12 in stolen base attempts, and turned 25 double-plays. Congratulations to DC, Griff, AJ, and Jake; all are well deserved.

I’m hoping that next week’s coverage of the Hattiesburg Regional includes a preview of the Nashville Super Regional. This group of Hurricanes believes in each other and their ability to earn a trip to “Music City.”

That’s it for now, be well all and Go Canes!