Miami baseball has biggest comeback in over 30 years

Virginia scored one run in the top of the first inning, then erupted for three runs in the third inning, four in the fourth and four in the fifth to take a 12-3 lead halfway through the game versus the Miami baseball team on Saturday night. The Cavaliers maintained that lead going to the bottom of the seventh inning.

Miami plated six runs in the bottom of the seventh and seven in the eighth to take a 16-12 lead heading to the ninth inning. Nick Robert set down the side in the ninth inning to close the victory. Virginia tagged Miami starter Rafe Schlesinger for eight runs and Ben Chesnutt who relieved him for four more.

J.T. Caruso relieved Chesnutt and shut out Virginia with two strikeouts in 1.2 innings. Miami had 12 batters in the seventh inning. Three of the six seventh-inning runs came with two outs. Third basemen Daniel Cuvet, the hero on Friday night, flew out with the bases loaded and Miami down 12-9 to end the seventh inning.

The improbably Miami rally resumed in the eighth inning with two outs. Leftfielder Lorenzo Carrier started the rally with a double. Jacoby Long followed with a pinch-hit double to score Carrier and cut the lead to 36-30. The next three Miami batters walked to cut the deficit to 12-11.

That set up 2023 freshman all-American second-baseman Blake Cyr as the Saturday night hero. Cry hit a grand slam to give Miami its first lead of the night 15-12. Cuvet went back to back to extend the lead to 16-12. Seven Miami players had multiple hits in the Hurricanes' best comeback since 1992.

Cyr led the way with three hits, three runs scored and five RBIs. Cuvet had three hits, three RBIs, two and two runs scored. Cuvet, Cyr and Dorian Gonzalez had RBIs in the third inning as Miami cut a 4-0 deficit to 4-3. The top four Miami hitters had 10 hits, eight runs scored and 10 RBIs.

Miami will go for a key early season sweep on Sunday. Virginia entered the week ranked 12th nationally. Hernandez who is 2-1 with a 1.59 ERA will start for Miami on Sunday. A sweep of Virginia will significantly improve Miami's RPI. Miami was 244th in the RPI entering the weekend. Virginia was 13th.