Miami baseball commences 75th season and Gino DiMare era Friday vs Rutgers
The Miami baseball program commences its 75th season by hosting Rutgers for a three-game series this weekend. The 2019 season will be the Hurricanes first under longtime assistant Gino DiMare.
Gino DiMare begins his first season as the Head Coach succeeding Miami baseball legend Jim Morris. DiMare becomes the fourth Miami baseball Head Coach in 56 seasons.
Ron Fraser led the Hurricanes for 30 years. Morris was the Miami baseball coach for the last 25. Brad Kelley was the Miami baseball Head Coach in 1993 in between Fraser and Morris.
DiMare is stepping into big shoes both with the Miami baseball program and College Baseball history. Fraser and Morris combined for 2,361 wins and two National Championships and one runner up each. Fraser led the Hurricanes to 20 straight NCAA Tournament appearances and Miami received invites to the NCAA Tournament in Morris’ first 23 seasons in Coral Gables.
The streak of 44 consecutive NCAA Appearances was broken in 2017 and continued last year. Many in the Miami fanbase felt that Morris should have retired sooner. DiMare takes over after 19 seasons on the Hurricanes baseball staff. He previously was the Associate Head Coach in charge of hitting and the Recruiting Coordinator.
DiMare’s biggest task will be to upgrade the hitting. Miami’s lack of offense the last two seasons has been the biggest reason in their failure to qualify for the NCAA Tournament. Miami has been one of the worst hitting teams in
over the past two seasons.
The Hurricanes hit .257 in 2018. That was 201th out of 297 teams in Division I. That was an improvement over 2017. The Hurricanes hit .231 two seasons ago. That was 289th out of 295 D1 teams and the worst among Power Five Conference teams.
The Hurricanes do return some talented hitters. Freddy Zamora hit .303 last season and was a Freshmen All-American. Infielder Willie Escala hit .281 as a Freshman in 2018. Several other returnees will be the starting lineup on opening night.
Michael Amditis will be the catcher and gives Miami one of the best backstop tandems in the country. Isaac Quinones hit .291 with 24 RBIs as a Freshman in 2018. Sophomore first baseman Alex Toral hopes to bounce back after a disappointing Freshman year. Centerfielder Tony Jenkins is the other returnee projected to start against Rutgers on Friday night.
Miami Hurricanes
This weekend’s series is the fifth straight season and tenth time in last 11 years that the Hurricanes will host the Scarlet Knights at Mark Light Field to begin the season. Rutgers improved by six wins in 2018 over their 2017 season to finish 25-25.
Miami was not much better in 2018. The Hurricanes 28-26 record in 2018 was the worst in Morris 25 seasons.
Miami will start Evan McKendry who was third-team All-ACC in 2018 in the opener against Rutgers. McKendry was 7-6 with a 3.52 ERA and third in the ACC with 114 strikeouts in 2018. Sophomore Chris McMahon who is expected to have a big season will start on Saturday night.
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Junior College Right-hander Brian LaBelle, presumably not related to Patti will start Sunday’s series finale. LaBelle spent three seasons at Broward College only playing his final season after sitting out the first two with injuries.