Miami Hurricanes Baseball: Miami Dominant in Three-Game Sweep of Manhattan

A weekend ago, the Miami Hurricanes looked uncomfortable and flustered at the plate and the No. 1 Florida Gators took advantage. This week against the Manhattan Jaspers, the No. 6 Canes had no such problem.

Miami beat Manhattan by a combined 31-8 in the three games at Mark Light Field and improved to 9-2 before two midweek games against Maine and Stetson and their first ACC series against Virginia Tech next weekend.

Game 1 Recap:

The Florida series was a struggle at the plate, everyone knew that, but in one game against Manhattan, the Canes were able to produce more than they had combined against the Gators last weekend.

Miami piled up 18 hits and ten runs against the Jaspers following just 16 hits and six runs against Florida all weekend. The key to that improvement was an increase in production from the bottom of the lineup. The 6-9 hitters that included Willie Abreu, Brandon Lopez, Edgar Michelangeli and Romy Gonzalez combined to go 9-for-16 and gave Jasper starter Tom Cosgrove no rest anywhere in the lineup.

While the hitting certainly led the way, Miami starter Thomas Woodrey rebounded nicely after not pitching his best against Florida. The southpaw struck out a career-high ten batters and delivered eight shutout innings in a start that showed why he leads the line for Coach Jim Morris and the Canes.

Daniel Epstein came in for his debut in the ninth inning and closed out an impressive 10-0 Miami victory to open the series.

Game 2 Recap:

If you thought the Miami offense was done exploding Friday night, you were wrong.

The Canes poured it on the Jaspers once again with 14 runs and 13 hits and were led by the mighty Zack Collins. The junior catcher hit his third homerun of the season with yet another opposite field shot and showed why he has the potential to be in the discussion for the Golden Spikes Award later this year.

Michelangeli picked up his second consecutive three-hit game and Chris Barr moved his average up over .300 to .306 with a 2-for-3 night.

On the hill, Michael Mediavilla allowed just one earned run and four hits in six innings, but was a bit wild once again with four walks. While his command has been a bit of a concern early on, the sophomore has adjusted well to the starting rotation and earned his third win in three starts as the Canes wrapped up a 14-4 victory.

Game 3 Recap:

If there was one person you could say that benefitted the most from Manhattan’s visit into Coral Gables this weekend, it was Edgar Michelangeli.

With the Hurricanes looking for a series sweep, the redshirt junior that filled in at third base and put together his third straight three-hit performance of the weekend. He went 9-for-12 in the three games to boost his season average .371, cementing his place in the lineup early on.

The Miami bats weren’t as hot as they were in the first two games of the series, but after they were held hitless in the first three innings, the Canes erupted for seven runs off of Manhattan starter Joe Jacques. The Hurricanes sent 12 men to the plate in the fourth inning and Zack Collins capped off the inning with an RBI single that raised his average to .433 through the first 11 games.

While the Canes only scored in the fourth, Miami starter Danny Garcia was solid allowing just five hits in a 75-pitch, six inning outing. Frankie Bartow got roughed up a bit in the seventh as he allowed three runs and four hits, but the Jaspers couldn’t rally as Cooper Hammond and Bryan Garcia shut the door to claim a 7-4 victory.

Manhattan clearly isn’t the toughest opponent Miami will see all year, but you hope that they can gain confidence from such a dominant series performance. The Hurricanes will have some interesting tests in the midweek and then will head to Blacksburg for their first ACC series of the year. If Miami plays anything like they did this weekend, they’ll come back to Coral Gables with a 14-2 record before a huge series with Louisville.