The Miami Hurricanes have not been to the College World Series in almost a decade. They’ll need to win consecutive games if they’re to end that drought this year.
The Hurricanes were blown out 8-1 by the Louisville Cardinals in the opening game of the NCAA super regionals Friday afternoon at Jim Patterson Stadium in Louisville, Kentucky. Now facing elimination, Miami will have to win back-to-back games over the Cardinals to advance to Omaha for the first time since 2016.
Game two of the best-of-three series will be played Saturday at 11 a.m. at Jim Patterson Stadium in Louisville.
The Hurricanes’ starting pitcher, A.J. Ciscar, gave up three home runs on the day and seven runs on seven hits in 2⅓ innings pitched. Miami’s bullpen fared better, combining to allow just one run on three hits, but the Hurricanes couldn’t muster up the offense to recover after falling into the deep early hole.
Miami’s run came on six hits, but the Hurricanes blew multiple opportunities to dig into the Louisville lead, stranding a dozen runners on base.
Their best hitter, infielder Daniel Cuvet, whose .381 batting average entering Friday ranked fourth in the ACC, was held hitless in his four at-bats and struck out swinging three times. Max Galvin tallied three base hits in four plate appearances, including two doubles, and was the only Hurricane with multiple hits on the day. Cardinals’ starting pitcher Patrick Forbes was responsible for one run on four hits in 4⅓ innings pitched.
Miami squandered the opportunity to take an early lead, leaving three base runners stranded in the top of the second inning. After drawing three straight walks to load the bases for Miami, Forbes struck out consecutive batters to escape the jam.
The Hurricanes responded by allowing back-to-back homers to lead off the next inning.
In the top of the third, Miami plated its first run of the game on a sacrifice fly by Renzo Gonzalez, but the Cardinals blew the game open in the bottom half. Ciscar’s throwing error on a routine ground ball scored two runs before a three-run homer made it a 7-1 Louisville lead.
A sacrifice fly in the fourth inning provided the game’s final score.
Miami wasted another opportunity to cut into the Cardinals’ lead in the seventh, stranding another pair of runners on base after striking and grounding out with one out.
After a brief rain delay in the bottom of the eighth inning, the Hurricanes again couldn’t string together any hits to cut into the Cardinals’ lead. In the ninth inning, three consecutive Miami batters flew out to seal the Hurricanes’ series-opening loss.