Miami baseball controls Gainesville regional after 1-0 win over South Alabama

A 1-0 victory by the Miami baseball team over South Alabama and a 5-3 loss by Gainesville Regional top seed Florida to fourth seed South Florida earlier in the day put the Hurricanes in control of the weekend. Miami needs two more wins to advance to the Super Regional. The Hurricanes and Bulls play Saturday.

Florida will play South Alabama at noon on Saturday with the loser eliminated. Miami and South Florida play on Saturday at 4 PM. The winner between the Gators and Jaguars and the loser of the Hurricanes and Bulls will play an elimination game on Sunday at noon. The winner between Miami and USF is in the regional title game.

True freshman Alexander Rosario who has a 5.21 earned run average in 2021 was sensational for Miami in 6.1 innings. Rosario allowed four hits and two walks while striking out five. An Adrian Del Castillo sacrifice fly with the bases loaded in the bottom of the sixth drove home shortstop Dominick Pitelli for the game’s only run.

Daniel Federman came on in relief of Rosario to close out the seventh. Carson Palmquist came on to record the last six outs for his 14th save of the season. Palmquist entered the NCAA Tournament in a four-way tie for saves nationally. Each of the other three pitchers are in the NCAA Tournament.

The victory is a big one for Miami after the Hurricanes lost both of their games in the ACC Tournament last week to Duke and Florida State. Miami had entered the ACC Tournament with victories in eight of their previous 10 games. Miami has now won an impressive nine out of its last 13 games.

Neither Miami nor South Florida had named a starting pitcher for Saturday’s game. South Florida scored single runs in the second, third, fifth, sixth and seventh. Florida plated runs in the third, fifth and eighth. South Florida had to go deep into its bullpen to secure the victory. Bulls starter Jack Jasiak lasted only four innings.

Reliever Dylan Burns pitched the sixth, seventh and eighth innings allowing one run on one hit with three strikeouts. Orion Kerkerking pitched a scoreless ninth for South Florida to close the game out. The Miami bats are going to have to pick it up on Saturday for the Canes to move within one game of the Super Regional.