Miami baseball got back to business this weekend after their midweek loss to FAU last Tuesday. They handled the visiting Princeton Tigers (0-4) with no problem, completing a four game sweep, winning 3-1, 10-3, 15-1 and 8-0, to improve their record to 7-1.
The only four game series of the season was revealed to be no issue for the ’Canes. Here are a few takeaways from the long series.
Weekend Aces Stay Hot
Even though the season is still young, the most pleasant surprise so far for the Hurricanes has been their weekend starting pitcher trio: sophomore Nick Robert, junior Griffin Hugus and redshirt junior Brian Walters.
After a dominating performance by each pitcher in the opening series against Niagara, all three once again put on a show against Princeton.
Robert started things off with a Friday contest that turned out to be the closest of the series, ending in a 3-1 ’Canes victory. In 5.0 innings of play, Robert threw for eight strikeouts, while only giving up two hits, two walks and no earned runs. Robert finished the game with the win, moving his record to 2-0 on the season.
Hugus kept things rolling on game one of the Saturday double-header. His outing started out rough though, giving up a two-run homerun in the first inning. Hugus made sure he did not make the same mistake again because that turned out to be the only hit he allowed during his outing. In 6.0 innings of play, Hugus tallied nine strikeouts while only allowing two walks and one hit, the homer. Hugus notched the win, also making his record 2-0.
Before Walters pitched on Sunday, the Hurricanes also had the second game of the Saturday double-header. That start went to graduate student and Hawai’i transfer Alex Giroux. Giroux had a solid performance in his first start of the season, throwing five strikeouts, while giving up two hits and a run in 6.0 innings of play, earning him the win.
Walters finished things up with a bang on Sunday. How he was throwing, it was giving flashbacks to when his brother Andrew was the closer for the ’Canes back in the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons. Walters was untouchable, throwing for nine strikeouts while giving one walk and no hits in 6.0 innings of play. Just like Robert and Hugus, Walters moves to 2-0 on the season.
If the first two series are a sign of what’s to come, the Hurricanes may have themselves three aces this year.
Cuvet Out of Slump?
The start of the season has not gone so great for Miami’s star sophomore Daniel Cuvet. A sophomore slump is something needs to try to avoid with all the eyes on him this season. Going into the Princeton series, Cuvet only had two hits while batting a .222 average.
The first two games of the Princeton series were not much better, going 1-5 in six plate appearances. However, game three of the series was a different story. Cuvet went 4-5 at the plate, bringing in three RBIs while also tallying his first homerun of the season.
Sometimes all it takes is one great performance to break out of a hitting slump, Saturday night could have been it for Cuvet. However, the success did not follow him into the Sunday game as he went 0-2 in three plate appearances.
After the Princeton series, Cuvet now sits at a .280 average with seven hits on the season. Cuvet also leads the team in strikeouts with 11, almost double the second most on the team with six.
Saturday night proved that Cuvet is still a stud of a player, the only question now is can those performances appear consistently again, for the Hurricanes’ sake, hopefully sooner rather than later.
Bats Get Back On Track After Midweek Disappointment
The midweek loss against the Florida Atlantic Owls was upsetting for the Hurricanes after the dominance they had against Niagara. The fault of the loss fell more on the hitters with the ’Canes only managing to put one run on the board in the loss. They started the game with a run in the first inning and then went the next eight innings scoreless. After tallying 10+ runs in each of the Niagara games, the FAU performance was certainly unexpected.
The low-scoring trend even followed the Hurricanes into the start of the Princeton series. The ’Canes only managed to tally three runs in the Friday game, luckily the pitching came though, only giving up a single run.
Thankly for UM, the bats showed up again for the rest of the series, bringing in 33 runs in the final three games. The two low-run performances could have just been flukes for the ’Canes, but with tougher teams coming soon in the schedule, they cannot risk those becoming a common trend.
The Hurricanes are back in action on Wednesday when they face the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles (4-3) at 6:00 pm for a midweek South Florida showdown at the Light. Following that the ’Canes renew the annual rivalry by heading up to Gainesville to face the No. 8 Florida Gators (7-0) in a weekend series from Friday, Feb. 28 to Sunday, March 2.