A beautiful Saturday afternoon in Coral Gables set the stage for a single-admission doubleheader against the Lafayette Leopards. The Patriot League foe appeared to be no match for the home-standing Miami Hurricanes as they won 14-4 in game one.
Miami’s bats got it going early in the bottom of the first inning scoring six runs.
With the bases loaded, one out, and the count full, outfielder Derek Williams belted a ball in the right field gap to score two runners to get the Miami offense going. Miami Dade College transfer Cian Copeland followed up Williams RBI double by blasting a ball 405 feet for a three-run home run.
The sixth run of the first came off a fielder’s choice ground out from Fabio Peralta that allowed FIU transfer Brylan West to score after his double and stolen base.
Lafayette’s head coach A.J. Miller elected to keep his starter junior Trey Deitelbaum in despite the rough inning.
In the second, junior third baseman Daniel Cuvet doubled to left field and the speedy Michael Torres touched home from first for the RBI to extend the lead.
Deitelbaum was eventually relieved after just 2.1 innings, surrendering eight earned runs on five hits and five walks. Before getting taken out, he walked three batters and hit a batter, setting up a bases-loaded situation to put the game out of reach. The Leopards turned to Kellen Moore as an attempt to hold it down, but Hurricane bats never slowed.
Torres hit a sac fly and with the bases loaded, Alex Sosa hit a bases-clearing double of the padding in left center field. After three, Miami led 12-4.
The Leopards pitching mistakes were a big factor in this ball game as UM had eight hits but scored 14 runs.
Despite giving up four runs in the third, senior left-hander Rob Evans was solid in his first start of the season. He finished his outing allowing four runs on four hits, striking out 10 batters in five innings of work.
Moore was able to hold down the fort in his 3.2 innings of work as he only gave up two runs on three hits. One of the runs came off the bat of Cuvet who hit a solo home run to left field for the third long ball of the season.
The Hurricanes will look to sweep the doubleheader and take the series at 6 p.m. Saturday night at Mark Light Field.