Miami Hurricanes Baseball in Danger of Missing NCAA Tournament

The Miami Hurricanes have participated in 44 consecutive NCAA Baseball tournaments. To put that in perspective, Kansas set the NCAA Basketball tournament record this season with 28.

The Hurricanes have started the season 10-11 with their most recent RPI being 144th out of 299 teams in Division I baseball. Like basketball, 64 teams make the NCAA Tournament. Miami’s streak is in serious jeopardy of ending this season.

The Hurricanes have had a surprising series loss to Dartmouth, were swept by Florida International and have split with Florida Atlantic. They head to Chapel Hill this weekend to take on North Carolina then travel to Fort Myers for one game with Florida Gulf Coast next week.

This is a big weekend as the Hurricanes are a half game behind the Tar Heels in the ACC Coastal. Miami won two out of three in their opening ACC Series against Georgia Tech two weeks ago and lost two of three at North Carolina State last weekend.

The Tar Heels are 13-5 overall and are ninth in the RPI. They are currently projected to be the number nine overall seed in the baseball bracketology according to college sports madness.

Miami is not in the NCAA Tournament with the projected bracketology as of now. Their pitching has been good, but their hitting has been subpar this season. That was expected with the losses of Zack Collins and Willie Abreu, but not to the level its been.

The Hurricanes are hitting .206 as a team with 12 homeruns in 21 games. Two of which came in the Hurricanes win over FAU on Wednesday night.

Carl Chester was a pre-season All-America canddiate has been the team’s offensive leader this season. He is hitting .293 with two homeruns and 11 RBIs. No other Hurricane is hitting over .260.

Michael Burns and Romy Gonzalez have been run producers with mediocre averages this season. Burns is hitting .260 with one home run and 15 RBIs and Gonzalez has been the ‘Canes best power hitter at .250 with five home runs and 19 RBI’s.

The Hurricanes will have plenty of opportunities to raise their profile with two months remaining in the regular season, plus the ACC Tournament. They have played better with the start of the ACC season. Despite being second in the Coastal, 12 ACC teams are ahead of Miami in the RPI.

That can be looked at two ways. Its not a good place to be, but it also gives the ‘Canes lots of opportunity to improve their low RPI number.

After the trip to Fort Myers next Wednesday, the Hurricanes will play their next eight games at home.

They host Wake Forest in a three game series next weekend, get a visit from St Thomas. University on April 5, have a three game series with Duke at Mark Light Stadium the following weekend, then get the return game from Florida Gulf Coast in two weeks.

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Miami will finish the game with Pittsburgh, Florida Atlantic, Florida State, Florida International, Boston College, Bethune-Cookman, Central Florida, another visit from Florida Gulf Coast and a three game series with Virginia Tech at the Light to finish the season.

Duke is the only ACC team below Miami in the RPI. Florida A&M is 27th in the RPI, FGCU 29th, UCF 61st and Florida Atlantic 135th.

FAMU, FGCU and FAU are all projected to be in the NCAA Tournament. The ACC teams remaining on the Hurricanes schedule that are in the tournament per bracketology are UNC, Virginia, Wake Forest, and Florida State.

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With 60 percent of their schedule remaining, Miami still has plenty of time to make their 45th straight NCAA Tournament. They need to get the hitting to catch up to the pitching and they will still be able to make a run.

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