Miami Eliminated in ACC Tournament

On Tuesday, May 20, at 9 AM, #9 seed Miami faced the #16 seed California Golden Bears in the opening game of the ACC Tournament at Bull Durham Athletic Stadium in Durham, NC. Miami fell 12-2 to Cal and now must wait until Monday, May 26, to learn if their season is over or if they have earned a spot in NCAA Regional play. The Tournament Selection show will be televised at noon on ESPN2. The Canes are on the proverbial "Bubble" and can only hope their conference success against the top ACC teams outweighs their late-season slide in the eyes of the selection committee. Here's how last week went for the Hurricanes.

Miami (31-23,15-14 ACC) was looking to earn a first-round bye in the ACC Tournament when Notre Dame (32-20, 14-16) came to Coral Gables for the last three ACC regular-season games last weekend. The Canes needed to win two of three against the Irish to earn that bye, but couldn't get it done. After winning ten consecutive ACC contests, they have dropped five of their last six. Not only is their chance at a tournament bye gone, but a bid to the NCAA Tournament, which looked like a sure thing just days ago, is now in jeopardy.

Ironically, your scribe was in Omaha last weekend, where all collegiate baseball teams hope to end their season in the College World Series. I was at the funeral services for my close friend's loss of their two-year-old son due to a rare form of cancer. My mind was not on baseball. I'll briefly summarize my UM media coordinator's reports on the Notre Dame series.

In the series opener, Notre Dame got all the runs they needed on one swing in the third inning. After a leadoff single, a strikeout, a stolen base, and an infield line out, it was two outs with a runner on second. Miami intentionally walked ND catcher Carson Tinney and pitched to designated hitter Davis Johnson. Johnson hit the first pitch over the left-centerfield wall for a three-run homer. Jake Ogden homered in the bottom of the third to make it 3-1, but did not get on the board again until the ninth, when Dorian Gonzalez Jr singled with one out, advanced to second on a wild pitch, and came home on a Jake Kulikowski single to right. A foul-out and a fly-out followed, and Notre Dame had a 3-2 win in the opener.

On Friday, Miami came out on a mission, scoring four runs in the first and plating nine in the second for a 13-0 lead after two. The Canes cruised to a 15-1 ten-run rule shortened seven-inning win.

Saturday's series decider was tied 2-2 after five. The Canes fell flat and went scoreless the rest of the way. The Fighting Irish scored three in the sixth, one in the seventh, five in the eighth, and one in the ninth for a 12-2 win.

The single elimination ACC Tournament opened at 9 AM on Tuesday with the #9 seed Miami Hurricanes playing the #16 seed California Golden Bears. I'm watching the game live on the ACC Network and will provide 'how it happened' reports.

Cal took a 2-0 lead in the second when a Cade Campbell single to center was followed by an Alex Birge home run to right. The bottom fell out for the Canes in the fourth when Cal added seven more to make it 9-0. Here's how that went. Miami starter Griffen Hugus walked the first two Cal batters, Max Handron and Campbell. Carson Fischer came on in relief for Miami and walked Birge. Fischer faced two more batters, Ethan Kodama singled through the left side, and Adam Advincula reached on an infield error. It was now 4-0 with none out and bases loaded, still in the fourth. Will Smith came on for Miami in relief of Fischer. Smith gave up a two-RBI double to PJ Moutzouridis and a walk to Dominic Smaldino. Now 6-0, still none out and bases loaded. Alex Giroux is in to pitch relieving Smith. Giroux hits the first batter he faced, Jacob French, who was 7-0. Carl Schmidt was up next and hit a two-RBI single up the middle. Schmidt was thrown out trying to stretch the single, and Miami finally had one out but was down 9-0. Handron filed out and Campbell fouled out to end Cal's eleven-batter, seven-run fourth inning, most of which was gifted as Miami pitchers walked four of the eleven and hit one batter while the defense committed an error. Cal starter Oliver de la Torre went six innings, giving up only two hits with no walks while striking out seven for the win. Down 10-0 in the bottom of the seventh, Miami plated two runs to avoid being knocked out by the ten-run rule, but could not avoid that fate in the eighth when, after Cal went up 12-2, Miami could not force a ninth inning.

Canes Corner believes Miami deserves an NCAA bid to play in a regional. We will all find out on Monday. If the Canes play baseball next week, we will cover their regional play here. If there's no baseball, we will update Women's and Men's Basketball recruiting and outlooks for the upcoming season.

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