It’s been somewhat of an up-and-down season for the Miami Hurricanes baseball team, but the one constant has been third-baseman Yohandy Morales. The junior joined ACC PM Tuesday on the ACC Network with Mark Packer and Taylor Tannenbaum and talked about how the team was able to get over their road woes from earlier in the season.

Miami lost the series to rival Florida 2-1 and was swept by Wake Forest and Virginia on consecutive weekends earlier this season.

“In the beginning, we were trying to play our way on the road,” Morales said. “The past few [games] this month that we played, came from UNC got a big win, and beat Louisville, a good team over there, it was huge for us. We obviously fell down short a couple of pitchers, but we got guys stepping up and doing the job right now.

Miami starting pitcher Karson Ligon has been missed some time within the last month and Myles Caba, Ashton Crowther, and Brian Walters are all out due to "Tommy John" (ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) reconstruction of the elbow since February/March.

Morales, a Miami native out of local Braddock High School, hit his 200th career hit last weekend in a series win against Louisville and was the first Miami Hurricane to do so since 2016. Morales is leading the team in batting average (.375), doubles (12), and RBIs (43).

“It felt special,” Morales said. “Obviously doing it in Miami. I was born and raised here in Miami. Being able to play in front of my friends and family the whole time is just a special accomplishment and milestone I got to accomplish. Couldn’t have done it without obviously my teammates and my coaches. Just pushing me throughout the three years. Getting better every single year, getting one percent better every single year. So it’s a big accomplishment for me and my family.”

Morales’ father Andy Morales played for the Cuban National Team and in the minor leagues for the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. The tough love that he received from his father over the years has helped him become a better player.

“He talks to me about baseball every day,” Morales said. “After every game, after every practice. Basically, he calls me about baseball all the time. Being from Miami and growing up with him the whole time, he just taught me a lot growing up in this. He always after every game, he likes to mention all the bad, but none of the good. He’s been tough on me, but I know it’s all love from his side and he just wants me to become a better player, and be better than he ever was.”

Over the years “YoYo” has learned many lessons from his father, but he most appreciates the lesson of humility and values every time he is able to step onto the baseball diamond.

“The one thing that stuck with me throughout when I was younger was the easy part is getting to the hard part and staying there. Just not to take anything for granted and just keep working every single day because you never know when it’s going to be taken from you.”

Morales played with Team USA last summer and feels the lessons he’s learned from that experience have helped him excel in his third year with the Hurricanes.

“Just playing against great competition from players around the whole country, from top players every single day. Facing them, learning from different players, and picking their brains, what their approach is, or what they do on defense. It’s just helped me a lot throughout the year, and taking it to my junior year.”

Miami is now ranked No. 11 in the country after its win series win over Louisville. Miami will face Presbyterian for a three-game home series this weekend. After the weekend Miami completes its regular season with a mid-week home game against FIU, a weekend series at Pitt, another mid-week game at FIU, and host No. 10 Duke at Mark Light Stadium.

“Throughout this stretch right now at the end, we play Presbyterian first, so we’re worried about that right now,” Morales said. “Obviously also win the mid-week games, which are huge, and going to play Pitt and Duke is our main focus right now. If we get those wins hopefully we become a national seed and that’s the goal we are going for right now.”

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