Miami baseball completed a weekend series win against the Long Island University Sharks. Miami won the series 2-1, with a lone loss coming on Saturday afternoon. The series win positively kicks off the Miami season as the team moves to 5-2 overall. However, their performances taught us a lot about Hurricanes baseball. Here’s what I took away from this weekend’s Miami baseball series.
‘Canes have a clutch gene
This Miami team is fun and habitually delivers in the clutch. Even from their opening game, it was evident. Miami started the season with a walk-off, and in their game against the Sharks on Friday night at the Light, the ‘Canes bats came alive once again. With seven runs in the eighth inning, Miami was able to blow past LIU en route to an opening series win.
“It was very similar to last Friday night,” said Miami head coach J.D. Arteaga after that Friday night game. “There was no panic in the dugout. We had some chances to score in the seventh, but we were able to break it open in the eighth.”
Freshman Daniel Cuvet continues his stellar start to the season
To say freshman third baseman Daniel Cuvet has impressed for the Hurricanes is an understatement. If the handful of games he played earlier did not alert the masses, this past weekend’s slate did just that.
Cuvet homered in all three games and tallied seven RBIs. That brings his season total to five home runs and 14 RBIs, leading the team in both statistics. Cuvet also leads the team with a ridiculous .630 average, a 2.067 OPS, a 1.370 slugging percentage, and a .697 on-base percentage.
The up-and-coming Cuvet fills the void left by Yohandy Morales at third base.
Starting pitchers can carry this team far
The team has gone with the starting rotation of Gage Ziehl, Rafe Schlesinger, and Herick Hernandez for the past two weekends with excellent results. While Ziehl had a rocky first start, he rebounded in a big way on Friday night.
Ziehl threw seven innings while only letting up five hits and three runs. He was an excellent response to his troubles at first. Then, moving on to Saturday, Schlesinger navigated through six hits and six innings while only allowing a single unearned run. It was an impressive performance for a guy making his second career start.
Finally, in Sunday’s game, Miami-Dade College transfer Hernandez got the nod to take the rubber match. He lived up to his nickname of Mr. Hialeah Fire after throwing for six innings, only allowing a single unearned run on five hits. The junior got his second win of the season and looks to be Miami’s most reliable starting arm.
This Miami team lost almost all of its bullpen from last year. If the starters can keep up this great work during the weekend series, this team could go farther than many predicted.
All stats and data provided by ESPN and Miami Baseball unless otherwise noted.