Hurricanes open J.D. Arteaga era with walk-off win on Opening Night

CORAL GABLES — J.D. Arteaga’s first game as Miami’s head coach ended in storybook fashion.

After falling behind to the New Jersey Institute of Technology, the Hurricanes battled back in the late innings and won on a walk-off by catcher Carlos Perez, beating NJIT on Opening Night 8-7.

Miami loaded the bases in the bottom of the ninth on a single by freshman Daniel Cuvet, and fellow freshman Antonio Jimenez pinch-ran for him. Jacoby Long and Dorian Gonzalez Jr. followed with a pair of bunt singles to load the bases. Perez singled through the left side to score Jimenez and clinch the victory.

The Hurricanes struck first in the game’s opening inning. After UM loaded the bases, Gonzalez got Miami’s first RBIs of the year with a bases-clearing double to left field. The Hurricanes added runs the next two innings on a sacrifice fly by sophomore Blake Cyr and a solo home run by redshirt sophomore Lorenzo Carrier.

But Miami would not be able to cruise to an easy win. Starter Gage Ziehl began the game with three hitless innings, but the wheels came off in the fourth. He surrendered a solo home run to NJIT center fielder Albert Choi and then gave up back-to-back singles. Highlanders right fielder Kevin Putsky followed those hits with a three-run homer that curled around the right-field foul pole, cutting UM’s lead to 5-4.

Ray Ortiz tied the game up at five in the fifth inning with a double off Ziehl, who threw a wild pitch that scored the go-ahead run. The junior pitcher gave up one more run on a single by Andrew Eppinger before Arteaga took him out of the game.

Ziehl, who ended the game having given up seven runs on seven hits with seven strikeouts, opened the season with a rough start last season and bounced back as the season went on.

Cyr, coming off a Freshman All-American 2023 season, swung the momentum back to the Hurricanes with a line-drive home run to center field, cutting UM’s deficit to one in the seventh inning. First baseman Jason Torres tied the game at seven with a sacrifice fly later in the inning.

Miami’s bullpen came through with 4 1/3 innings of scoreless relief; Julian Hernandez, Chris Scinta, Nick Robert and Drew Dwyer shut down the Highlanders and allowed UM’s offense to complete the comeback win.