Pitching will be key to success for the Miami Hurricanes this postseason.

Miami was behind the eightball before the season started when it comes to its pitching rotation. The Hurricanes lost junior Myles Caba and freshman Ashton Crowther before the season began and sophomore Brian Walters in late February with season-ending Tommy John surgery.

"Considering our pitching, our lack of depth maybe, because of not having one of our starters down and not having a mid-week guy, due to, I never really say this, although I shouldn't say this because it was already stated earlier, due to the fact that we had three guys go down at the beginning of the season to surgery," Head Coach Gino DiMare said. "Three pitchers. That's we have a lack of depth."

The Hurricanes were able to overcome that adversity and put together a good season going 37-18 and 18-12 in the conference. The record is remarkable considering that one of its starters was also injured mid-season.

Karson Ligon (3-1, 4.27 ERA) missed several games this season due to inflammation in his throwing arm and the DiMare has had to figure out how to manage the pitching staff without one of their best pitchers. Ligon last pitched on April 23rd, a 9-7 win over Georgia Tech.

"We're hoping that if we're playing on Saturday, he'll be able to throw, albeit limited." said DiMare of Ligon's status. "If we don't get to that game, we come back, he will throw a simulated game most likely on Saturday here against some hitters. He threw two simulated innings last week and so this would be three innings and hopefully I guess the regional time he'll be able to throw maybe four innings...Maybe 45-50 pitches by regionals."

Usual game three series starter Alejandro Rosario (3-6, 8.00 ERA) was injured as well in May, but DiMare feels confident that he can pitch if needed.

"Thank God he's okay. He did not get hit in the bone area. The forearm area, it swelled up, it's come down. He played catch today. He feels really good. He does feel it...he feels it when he's moving his hands and fingers around but in terms of throwing he feels good and he wants to throw. He wants the ball. He wants to have an opportunity to pitch. So those are all positive things. We just have to see how it all plays out but he is good."

Gage Ziehl (7-4, 4.65 ERA) has been the most consistent starting pitcher for the Hurricanes and will likely be the starter against NC State in game one of the ACC Tournament. He arguably pitched his best game of the season against the Wolfpack pitching eight innings, allowing just one run on four hits and striking out eight.

"That night I believe I had all my pitches working," Ziehl said. "I was being very efficient."

DiMare believes that some pitchers have yet to pitch up to their potential.

"Some guys haven't pitched up to their capabilities yet," DiMare said. "Shown signs of it. We certainly need those guys to be able to do that."

Ronaldo Gallo (2-3, 7.16 ERA) is one of those pitchers that pitched up to his potential as of late. The junior out of Miami Southridge stepped up in the season's final game against Duke with a solid start pitching three shutout innings, allowing one hit and zero runs.

"Ronnie Gallo was huge," DiMare said. "He pitched the end of the [prior] game and started the next game...I want to pitch. And that mentality and Ronnie hasn't had the year he would have liked, but he's pitching better lately and I'm hoping some guys like him and some others, in different phases of the team, can find their way and stay with it mentally, battle through the adversities, it's not been the year for some guys, and find a way to get it done. It's always the most important time of the year is right now."

DiMare said the bullpen has improved overall over the course of the season with a couple of hurlers throwing harder than earlier in the year.

"I like the mentality of our bullpen. We got some tough mentally guys there at the backend of the pen," DiMare said. "If anything guys are throwing harder now than they were earlier in the year. Carlos Lequerica is throwing harder now than earlier in the year. Ally [Alejandro Torres] is throwing harder than he was earlier in the year. Ally was more 89-91, now he's up to 92-93. Lequerica was high 80s, he's now 93-94 when he's throwing and those guys we go to quite a bit."

Miami will face NC State in game one of the ACC Baseball Championship Thursday, first pitch is set for 7 PM EST. Game two for the Hurricanes will be Friday at 3 PM eastern against Duke.

Photo Courtesy of Miami Athletics

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