After a 40-win season and top 8 seed in the NCAA Tournament, the Miami Hurricane baseball team's dreams came crashing down in a span of nine hours on Sunday.

After beating the lowest seed, Canisius, 11-6, on Saturday, Miami faced Mississippi in the winner's bracket on Sunday and lost, 2-1, at Alex Rodriguez Park at Mark Light Field.

So then UM faced the task of needing to beat Arizona, which had defeated Canisius earlier in the day Sunday, and then the Canes would have to beat Mississippi twice on Monday to advance to Super Regionals.

Miami didn't make it to Monday.

The Hurricanes took a 3-2 lead into the ninth inning Sunday in the elimination game against the Wildcats, but closer Andrew Walters - who was so good all season long - gave up a two-out, double to right centerfield by Tanner O'Tremba that plated two runs. That came right after he had a 1-2 count but hit the batter.

“He’s been great all year for us,” coach Gino DiMare said. “Just unfortunate at that time to have that situation happen. ... His bread-and-butter is his fastball. The breaking ball was something I was always concerned about because he didn’t throw it a lot because he didn’t have to. I feel it’s something he’s going to need to throw at some time. It just got away from him (on the hit batter). His fastball on the guy he hit has a lot of life to it and it just took off.”

Miami put a man on third with one out in the bottom of the ninth after a leadoff single by Ariel Garcia (who moved to second on a wild pitch and then to third on a fly out), but a Gaby Gutierrez strikeout and Renzo Gonzalez groundout ended the game.

“We just couldn’t get the job done,” Yoyo Morales said. “We didn’t hit at all these last two games. The pitchers pitched the hell out of two games there, the pitchers basically did everything well these last two games. They were pitching their behinds off and we just couldn’t get the big hits we needed to.”

UM had taken a 3-1 lead into the eighth, but a Tony Bullard two-out solo homer that inning cut it to one and then there were the two Arizona runs scored in the top of the ninth.

Final score: Arizona 4, Miami 3.

The Canes' season ended in heartbreaking fashion after there were such high hopes.

“It’s always disappointing when your season’s over,” Miami head coach Gino DiMare said. “We couldn’t finish them off. Obviously, here at our ballpark, we played pretty well all year long, but at the end of the day, we didn’t score runs, we didn’t swing the bat…Had the lead late but just couldn’t close them out, and yeah, very, very tough to swallow right now.”

Now Miami has to question how the team finished 3-8 over the final 11 games. What went wrong? What needs to be fixed? How can UM make it back to Omaha, a drought that goes back to 2016?

Miami finishes with a 40-20 record.

In the Sunday night game UM mashed a pair of home runs to grab two different leads, but the second-seeded Wildcats (39-24, 17-14 Pac-12) clawed back to score three runs in the final two frames.

First baseman CJ Kayfus kickstarted the scoring with a leadoff solo shot in the first, backing Miami hurler Alejandro Rosario from the get-go.

Rosario retired six of the first eight hitters he faced and six of the next eight, following a Wildcat home run. The sophomore right-hander struck out six across 5 1/3 innings, holding Arizona to only one run on 86 pitches.

Miami freshman Gage Ziehl entered in the sixth with two runners on and one out, but the Hurricanes’ set-up man kept the Wildcats off the board.

In the bottom half of the frame, Miami built off of the momentum.

With the Hurricanes and Wildcats tied in the sixth, Morales delivered his fourth round-tripper of the Coral Gables Regional and team-leading 18th of the season. That made it 3-1, which didn't hold up. Sophomore reliever Trevor Long (6-3) earned the victory, pitching a scoreless eighth. Meanwhile, junior Quinn Flannigan (2) locked down the final three outs to secure a spot in the Coral Gables Regional final against three-seeded Ole Miss.

In Game 1 for Miami on Sunday? The Hurricanes' top starter Carson Palmquist (9-4) allowed only two hits and no runs in a stellar outing of 5 1/3 innings. He struck out 10, improving his season total to 118, the most by a Miami pitcher since Cesar Carrillo in 2005.

But reliever Alex McFarlane gave up a two-run double in the seventh and that decided the game. It was a scoreless duel that finally ended in the sixth when Morales led off with a walk and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Romero singled to right, Morales stopping at third. And that ended Elliott's strong outing as he was replaced by freshman righthander Mason Nichols. Burke's sacrifice fly to deep right brought in Morales with the game's first run.

In the bottom of the sixth Palmquist's superb performance also ended. Jacob Gonzalez led off with a single and Tim Elko walked. Kevin Graham struck out, but Palmquist's wild pitch to Kemp Alderman moved the runners to second and third and brought sophomore righthander Alex McFarlane in from the bullpen. He walked Hayden Dunhurst to load the bases but escaped the jam by getting Peyton Chatagnier to ground to shortstop Pitelli, who flipped to second baseman Gonzalez for the force to end the inning.

In the seventh McFarlane retired the first two batters but then gave up consecutive singles by Justin Bench and Gonzalez, then Elko lined a double to right center that scored the tying and go ahead runs.

The Hurricanes put the tying run in scoring position in the ninth when Levenson doubled down the left field line after one out. Gutierrez struck out swinging and Gonzalez took a called third strike on a 2-2 pitch to end the game.