Miami star Morales pounds three homers to lead Canes to comeback win in regional opener
A little deluge never intimidated Yohandy Morales.
Miami baseball not only survived a storm that pounded South Florida with torrential rain, 30-mile-an-hour gusts and plenty of flooding, it also survived a tiny, private Jesuit School from Buffalo, N.Y. on Saturday night with a come-from-behind 11-6 victory over Canisius College in the Coral Gables Regional opener.
Led by Yohandy Morales’ three home runs and 5-RBI night, the No. 6 national seed Hurricanes overcame an early 4-1 deficit to advance to the winners’ bracket of the double-elimination tournament that was postponed a day because of the weather deluge.
“Impressive,’’ UM coach Gino DiMare understated, when asked to use one word to describe third baseman Morales’ offensive performance. “Amazing,’’ Morales answered, ratcheting it up a notch.
“Two words: not surprised,’’ said Jacob Burke, who also had an outstanding night at the plate.
UM (40-18) will meet No. 3 seed Ole Miss (33-22), the 7-4 winner of Saturday’s late game against No. 2 seed Arizona (37-24) at about 3:06 p.m. Sunday — or 55 minutes after the 11 a.m. Sunday elimination game between No. 4 seed Canisius (29-24) and Arizona. A third game between the loser of the 11 a.m. game and UM’s game will play at 7 p.m. All the games are broadcast on ESPN+.
Morales’ three-homer feat at Mark Light Field for a team-leading 17 marked the first time a Miami player has hit three home runs in one game since David Thompson did it in 2015. He became the fourth Cane all-time with three home runs in a postseason game.
His first home run to right field in the first inning cut the Canisius lead to 2-1. His second home run, a two-run blast to center that scored CJ Kayfus (single), cut the deficit to 4-3. Two batters later, Jacob Burke’s homer to center tied it at 4-4. Morales’ third homer, again to center, scored Kayfus (single) in the seventh, followed by Dorian Gonzalez’s 2-RBI single for a four-run frame that gave UM an 8-4 cushion, made even cushier with three unearned runs in the eighth.
Grifs coach Matt Mazurek said he thought about intentionally walking Morales after his first couple of homers, but decided otherwise. “We fight by the adage if you want to be the best you gotta beat the best… We don’t back down from those challenges.’’
Canes ace closer Matt Walters replaced reliever Alex McFarlane with one out in the eighth to eventually earn his 14th save. Right-handed freshman reliever Gage Ziehl (2-2, 3.86 ERA), the fourth of six UM pitchers Saturday, allowed one hit in two innings for the victory.
Canisius reliever Tom Peltier allowed four earned runs on three hits and a walk in only a third of an inning to take the loss.
“Canisius is a good team,’’ DiMare said. “That’s a veteran team — battled. Very, very confident team. They gave us all we could handle. They jumped out early on us and I was happy to see our guys come back. Obviously Yoyo had an unbelievable game, but we also got some [other] big hits. And we had insurance runs that were huge late in the game.’’
UM’s right-handed freshman starter Karson Ligon, who came into the game with three consecutive losses, was immediately pummeled by the Grifs. Ligon allowed four earned runs on six hits in his 1 1/3 innings before being replaced by Ronaldo Gallo.
The UM game originally was scheduled for noon Friday and then rescheduled for 10 a.m. Friday and again for noon Saturday. The tarp was removed from the field by 2 p.m. Saturday — then put back on the field before 5 p.m. Finally, at 5:30 p.m., postseason baseball began for the Hurricanes.
The weekend’s double-elimination event is one of 16 four-team regionals around the nation, with each winner advancing to eight super regionals June 10-13. The eight super regional winners earn berths in the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska.
Because the Hurricanes earned one of the top eight seeds in the tournament, should Miami win its regional, it would host the best-of-three-game super regional. UM’s opponent would be the winner of the Hattiesburg, Mississippi, regional that includes No. 11 national seed host/No. 1 regional seed Southern Mississippi (43-16), No. 2 regional seed LSU (38-20), No. 3 regional seed Kennesaw State (35-26) and No. 4 regional seed Army (31-23).
As the games in UM’s regional go further into the week, that would obviously take a toll on the winning pitching staff for the super regional.
