After dropping their last four games the Miami Hurricanes baseball team was desperate to get back into the win column in their final game against the No. 21 North Carolina Tar Heels on Sunday. Their wish came true as the Miami batters came through with 12 hits to give the ’Canes a 4-2 victory.
In terms of runs, not much was going for the Hurricanes in the first few innings. UM went scoreless throughout the first five innings, but it was not due to a lack of chances as in that time frame, they tallied six hits, including two singles by freshman Fabio Peralta and a double by freshman Evan Taveras, and left six runners on base.
Even though runs were not coming in for Miami, North Carolina did not have much better luck. In his first career start on the mound, freshman AJ Ciscar handled business like it was any other day. UNC got out to a 1-0 lead in the form of an unearned run, but Ciscar kept their lead from growing during the rest of his four inning outing. In total, in four innings of work, Ciscar only gave up two hits, two walks and no earned runs along with notching two strikeouts.
Runs finally started to appear for the ’Canes in the sixth inning with senior outfielder Derek Williams coming to score an unearned run on a passed ball to tie the ballgame up at 1-1. However, the score would remain tied until the ninth and final inning.
Some ninth inning magic started for the Hurricanes when freshman speedster Michael Torres reached base in the form of a walk. The next three batters after Torres all got singles with Peralta and junior Jake Ogden’s singles to make the bases loaded for sophomore slugger Daniel Cuvet’s single that brought the score to 4-1. Two of the runs were credited to Cuvet as RBIs, but one was unearned due to an error.
The Tar Heels tried to make some late inning magic of their own with a run off a triple by senior Jackson Van De Brake to cut the ’Canes lead to 4-2. However, the outcome would not be changed as Miami grad student Alex Giroux finished the Tar Heels to grab the win for both himself and the Hurricanes.
With the late inning victory, Miami moves to 15-14 (ACC 2-7) on the season, managing to stay above a .500 win percentage before they head back down to Coral Gables for their next matchup against the FIU Panthers (19-10) on Wednesday, April 2 at 6 p.m.