No. 1 seed Miami cruises to win over Maine, heads to NCAA regional winners’ bracket
No. 1 Coral Gables Regional seed University of Miami wasted no time Friday in exerting its dominance over fourth-seeded Maine in the opening game of the NCAA Division I Baseball Championship at Mark Light Field.
Home runs have a way of making quick, decisive statements, and the Hurricanes hit a lot of them this season — 115 to be exact, including three Friday. A blast in each of the first two innings accounted for five runs. Another one in the seventh added two more and led to UM’s eventual 9-1 win.
“The better team won tonight, no doubt about it,’’ Maine coach Nick Derba said. “They flat out beat us. We gave them our best and the better team won.”
The Canes (41-19) advanced to the winners’ bracket game at 6 p.m. Saturday against the No. 2 seed Texas Longhorns (39-20). Texas defeated No. 3 Louisiana 4-2 earlier Friday in a lightning/weather-delayed game that started nearly two hours late.
Louisiana (40-23) will meet Maine (32-20) in the noon losers’ bracket game of the double elimination regional.
After right-handed sophomore starter/winner Gage Ziehl (8-4) struck out the side in the first, the home-run-hitting Hurricanes got a 2-0 lead, as CJ Kayfus led off with a single and scored on a blast to right-center by Edgardo Villegas.
“Good start,’’ UM coach Gino DiMare said. “Our talk before the game was try to get out in front early. Couldn’t script it any better.’’
UM made it 7-0 in the second, fueled by a 3-RBI blast by first-team All-ACC/Golden Spikes semifinalist Yohandy Morales — his 17th of the season and 46th of his career. The home run put Morales in possession of fifth place all-time at UM, passing Hurricanes great Ryan Braun.
“I thought I passed Downtown Kevin Brown, no?’’ Morales said of former UM great Brown (1998-2001), who is No. 4 on the home run list with 48. “The main thing was winning and we came out with a win. That’s the most important thing.”
Dominic Pitelli led off the second with a single, stole second and scored on Kayfus’ double. The Cane’s other run came on an RBI-single by Villegas.
By that time Ziehl had five strikeouts. By the middle of the third, he had seven for his 100th K this season. Ziehl allowed one unearned run on four hits in six innings. The Black Bears got on the board in the fourth when Quinn McDaniel singled and eventually scored on a pickoff-attempt error by UM catcher Carlos Perez.
But by then it was all but over — except for UM’s two additional runs in the seventh on Zach Levenson’s boomer to center, which drove in Blake Cyr (double).
“Its cool,’’ Ziehl said of his 100 strikeouts. “But at the end of the day the only thing that matters is the W.’’
Miami will start right-handed sophomore Karson Ligon (3-1, 4.25) against Texas. The Longhorns will start right-handed redshirt sophomore Lebarron Johnson Jr. (7-3, 2.82).
