The Miami Hurricanes baseball team continued their strong run of form as of late, taking down the FIU Panthers 9-7 in another offensive eruption.
The Panthers mounted a furious ninth-inning comeback, but it wasn’t enough to catch up with the Canes after a rocky start.
TJ Coats earned the win on the mount for Miami, throwing a career-high 6 innings and striking out seven.
On the offensive end, Derek Williams, Brylan West and Jake Ogden carried the load for Miami, tallying 2 hits and 2 RBIs each.
With both defenses on lockdown to start the first inning, West opened up the scoring in the bottom of the second with a two-run blast to left field, his fifth homer of the season.
FIU answered back with a homer of their own in the fourth inning, as Cleveland Cole smoked one to deep right, cutting the lead to one.
The bottom half of the inning was characterized by mistakes for FIU which led to an offensive barrage from the Canes.
With the bases loaded, a wild pitch skeetered away from the Panthers. Vance Sheahan took his base on the walk and West zoomed home from third to extend the lead. Later on in the inning Alonzo Alvarez got in on the fun, firing an RBI single to right to bring in another run. Fabio Peralta followed it up with a sacrifice fly and then Ogden launched a two-run shot to right field.
By the end of the fourth the score was already 7-1 and it looked like the Hurricanes were ready to run away with it.
Dominant pitching and defense helped the Hurricanes hold FIU to just one more run until the ninth inning, as they bolstered their lead with a Derek Williams 2-run bomb in the seventh.
However, in the ninth inning, the Panthers made a desperate comeback attempt.
It all started with a Cooper Rasmussen shot to deep right field, which scored two. FIU kept the momentum going, loading the bases and eventually scoring on an RBI walk.
That was followed by a Mario Trivella 2 RBI single, and all the sudden it was a ball game.
With the game hanging in the balance, Ryan Bilka saved the day for Miami, retiring the last two batters, and helping the Hurricanes eke out the win.
With the win, the Hurricanes improved to 24-8 on the season, and they will return to action this Friday against Wake Forest.