Miami falls to No. 13 Virginia in ninth inning, capping dramatic weekend series
The first two games of Miami’s weekend series against No. 13 Virginia were uber-dramatic comebacks, complete with home-run heroics and frenzied finishes.
Sunday’s finale?
Drama — and uber disappointment for the hard-fighting Hurricanes, who stranded bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth to fall 14-11 and give the Cavaliers their lone win of the weekend.
Virginia (13-3) led off the eighth inning with a home run by Casey Saucke to tie the score at 11, then went ahead on a ninth-inning RBI-single by Griff O’Ferrall and two-run double by Harrison Didawick.
In UM’s ninth after Blake Cyr grounded out, Daniel Cuvet walked and Dorian Gonzalez Jr. singled. Jason Torres then struck out, but freshman pinch-hitter AJ Goytia hit a hard infield single to shortstop to load the bases and keep UM alive. Jacoby Long’s grounder to third base ended UM’s hopes.
“Like I told the team, tomorrow I think we’ll look back on the weekend, on the week, and be happy, especially taking two out of three from a really good team in Virginia,’’ UM coach J.D. Arteaga said. “But right now, we’re looking at those missed opportunities we had today, and today we’re 0-1.
“We preach hitting the reset button everyday, whether after a loss or win. We fought hard and came up a little short. We’re doing the tough part — the hardest part of the games is fighting no matter what the score is, and I think we’ve got that down. We’ve just got to clean a few things defensively to help our pitching and not give them the extra pitches and extra at-bats.”
Cyr belted a two-run seventh-inning homer off the left-field scoreboard after Lucas Costello led off the inning with a solo shot for an 11-10 UM lead, but it wasn’t enough.
After securing the series win on Saturday night with an intense, come-from-behind 16-12 victory in which the Hurricanes (9-6) scored their last 13 runs with two outs in the seventh and eighth innings, Miami couldn’t clinch the sweep Sunday in its first Atlantic Coast Conference series.
Before Sunday, UM’s three previous games (and six of its previous nine) were come-from-behind wins. Last year in the regular season, the Canes’ 19 of 42 wins — including four walk-offs — started as deficits.
The Cavs, who finished 50-15 in 2023 and were one of eight teams to make it to Omaha, Nebraska, for the College World Series, mounted 4-run leads twice Sunday.
Miami hit three home runs (Gonzalez Jr., Cyr and Lucas Costello) and the Cavaliers hit two, both by Saucke.
UM reliever Brian Walters (0-1), who allowed one earned run on one hit in a 1/3 of an inning, got the loss.
Matt Augustin (1-0) got the win, allowing two hits in 1 2/3 innings. Jack O’Connor earned the save.
Virginia opened the scoring with four, two-out runs in the second on run-scoring singles by Luke Hanson and Anthony Stephan and a based-loaded hit by pitch. UM’s left-handed starter Herick Hernandez hit two batters and walked another in the inning.
Hernandez (2-1, 3.76 ERA) allowed six runs — four earned — on seven hits and one walk in 4 2/3 innings. He struck out seven.
Miami had 15 hits to Virginia’s 17. The Canes committed two errors.
“We’ve got to compete for nine innings,’’ Arteaga said of his players, who were scoreless for the first three innings. “Our hitters have shown they’re very tough outs when they don’t give pitches away. For whatever reason, we just haven’t gotten off to good starts. We have to start turning the on switch on quicker.’’
The game lasted 4 hours and 9 minutes.
UM next travels to Boca Raton to face FAU at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. After that, the Hurricanes host No. 16 North Carolina (13-2) Friday through Sunday.
