Miami Hurricanes Baseball: Shore, Powerful Florida Offense Too Much for Miami in 5-0 Defeat

Over the past few years whether it is in Omaha, Gainesville or Coral Gables, the Florida Gators just seem to have the Miami Hurricanes’ number.

Facing a dominant Logan Shore and an explosive Florida offense, Miami (4-1) was thoroughly outmatched and fell for the fourth straight time to the Gators (6-0) in a 5-0 defeat.

“Florida outplayed us tonight,” Coach Jim Morris said after his team’s first loss of the season. “They’ve got a very good club and Shore just pitched an outstanding game.”

Coming into the night, some questioned whether Florida was deserving of their No. 1 ranking after just barely scratching by Eastern Michigan on Wednesday night. From the get-go on Friday night though, the Gators showed exactly why they earned the title as the nation’s top team in the preseason.

Against Miami’s No. 1 starter Thomas Woodrey, the powerful Gators offense struck immediately after a single from Buddy Reed and a crushed home run from Peter Alonso that banged off the scoreboard in left.

With the Hurricanes already facing a 2-0 deficit, Florida starter Logan Shore made sure Miami had no chance of coming back. The righthander who was pulled after just ten pitches in his start against the Canes a season ago was masterful and kept Miami hitless through the first three innings.

With Shore dealing on the mound for the Gators, their bats added even more insurance in the fourth. J.J. Schwarz began the inning with a walk and was followed up with a single from Alonso to put Woodrey in a jam with no outs. Following a sacrifice bunt from Jeremy Vasquez and a pop-out from Mike Rivera, Deacon Liput delivered a clutch two-RBI single over Chris Barr’s head at first to give the Gators a 4-0 lead.

In the bottom half of the fourth, the Canes were finally able to ignite a rally against Shore, but in their one chance to get on the board, they just couldn’t execute. Carl Chester began the inning with a double into left field and was followed by a single from Chris Barr, but the speedy Miami center fielder was held at third. With runners on the corners, Zack Collins popped out short and with Jacob Heyward at the plate, Barr was picked off at first in a brutal baserunning mistake. Heyward couldn’t capitalize on the massive opportunity either and the Canes came up empty in their only chance to score on Shore all night.

“We had the first and third situation with no outs and we’ve got to score there,” Morris said of his team’s missed opportunity in the fourth. “We had the three, four and five hitters up and we didn’t get anything and that was big turning point right there.”

Woodrey gave up another home run off the scoreboard in the top of the sixth to J.J. Schwarz and was pulled after 5.2 innings for Jesse Lepore. The Miami starter certainly wasn’t at his best Friday night as he tied a career-high for runs allowed with five and gave up seven hits as well.

“They had a really good approach as a team against me tonight,” Woodrey said after the game. “I don’t think I had my best stuff by any means, but overall they just battled me tough. They’re ranked No. 1 in the country and tonight they played like it.”

From there on out, the Miami bullpen looked good with solid outings from Jesse Lepore and Devin Meyer, but Logan Shore stole the show allowing just four hits and striking out eight to earn his first career complete-game shutout.

“He stayed ahead of our hitters all night,” Morris said when asked what made Shore so dominant. “He pounded the strike zone, he mixed in his slider with a good changeup that got some people out and he just pitched a really good game.”

There weren’t too many bright spots on a night like tonight where the Hurricanes were dominated in every fashion, but Carl Chester had a nice night with three of Miami’s four hits in total. His approach of just trying to get the ball in play paid dividends, while the rest of the team looked uncomfortable and were overswinging at the plate that caused way too many flyball outs.

“We didn’t put any pressure on Florida because we hit too many flyballs,” Morris said after the game. “We had ten flyball outs tonight and that’s not putting any pressure on their defense at all.”

While for this year this game isn’t the end of the world, the streak Florida currently has against Miami is pretty worrying if you are someone associated with the Hurricanes. Not only have the Gators won 22 of the last 27 matchups between the two teams, but they’ve also outscored Miami 30-5 in their last three meetings. If that’s not domination, I don’t know what is.

Miami will have a chance to bounce back in game two with Michael Mediavilla on the mound, but they’ll face one of the hardest-throwing pitchers college baseball has to offer in lefthander A.J. Puk.

No matter where these two teams have met over the last few years, the advantage has been decidedly with Florida. With two more games against the Gators this weekend, they better hope they get that turned around soon.