OPINION: Latest baseball chapter marked by inconsistency, but hope abounds

After 44 years of unmatched NCAA consistency, the appropriate word to describe Miami Hurricanes’ baseball is inconsistency.

Next? They could ride the momentum of a strong finish in the ACC regular season and reach the finals or even win in the ACC Championships this week in Charlotte, North Carolina. Or they could go 0-2 against Duke and Florida State and hope they receive a bid to the NCAA tournament next week.

An NCAA berth used to be as predictable as the sun rising and setting on Mark Light Field. From 1973 through 2016, the Hurricanes were selected for the post-season tournament. That’s a 44-year streak unsurpassed in any NCAA sport.

That ended when they slipped to a 31-27 record in 2017, and they were not chosen again in 2018 when they went 28-26 in the final season of Jim Morris’s legendary career

Gino DiMare took over the next year and produced a 41-20 and NCAA regional berth at Starkville, Mississippi. The 2020 season got off to a 12-4 start (3-0 ACC) but it will forever have an asterisk because at that point the NCAA shut down college athletics due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 2021 UM season deserves a huge question mark. Arguably it is the strangest season in the last half century.

UM fans are frustrated, Coaches no doubt have had many sleepless nights. Players have shown resiliency in a season of highs and embarrassments.

Opening the season by winning two of three at Gainesville against the top-ranked Florida Gators elevate the Hurricanes to the top of some of the many baseball rankings. The Canes won a series against Florida for the first time since 2014.

But an omen that things would become unpredictable occurred the next weekend when they lost two of three at home to Virginia Tech, a team they owned a 34-8 record against and had lost a series to only once.

Three weekends later came the worst three-game series in the 77-year history of UM baseball. The Hurricanes lost by a combined score of 34-2 to arch-rival Florida State. At home.

After the 13-1 loss on Friday night, you’d figure they would bounce back. The Seminoles won 9-1.

Oh, they’ll salvage the final game; they haven’t been swept by FSU since 2000. Seminoles 12, Hurricanes 0.

No other three-game series comes remotely close to that in Miami’s storied history that includes four College World Series titles.

“Florida State could have beaten the Dodgers that weekend,” said Jay Rokeach, who just finished his 53rd season as the public address announcer at The Light. “That’s the best I’ve ever seen them play, they did nothing wrong. Their pitchers were very difficult, and we don’t fare well against lefties and they have good left-handers.

“That’s probably one of the most disappointing weekends I’ve witnessed.”

Three weeks later at Pittsburgh, a team they had beaten 20 of 24 times, they were swept in three games. And late in the season they dropped two of three at Boston College to lose a series against the Eagles for the first time.

Momentum switched back at home when they won all three against Appalachian State and took two of three against Coastal Division leader Georgia Tech, rallying from a 1-4 deficit in the finale to win 5-4 on a two-run double in the seventh inning by Tony Jenkins.

The following weekend they wrapped up ACC play by sweeping 19th-ranked Louisville on the road.

But ... and there’s invariably a but this season ... they lost 3-0 at home to Florida Atlantic in their lone mid-week game loss of the season.

And there are several positives:

* The Hurricanes have won more games overall than any ACC team. They’re 32-17, including 20-15 in the ACC.

* They are the fourth seed in the ACC Championships and are the top team in Pool D.

* They may have the best closer in the nation in freshman left-hander Carson Palmquist. Through 21 appearances he has 12 saves and a 1.38 earned-run average.

* The most pleasant surprise has been redshirt junior transfer Christian Del Castillo, brother of standout catcher Adrian Del Castillo. Christian’s .368 batting average leads the team, and he has 40 RBI and a .495 slugging percentage.

At the ACC Championships this week, the Hurricanes are the top team in Pool D, which includes fifth seed FSU (29-21, 2016) and ninth seed Duke (28-20, 16-17). They face the Blue Devils, whom they swept at Coral Gables, Thursday at 11 a.m. Then they face the Seminoles on Friday at 3 p.m. to finish pool play.

The top seed is surprising Notre Dame (29-10, 25-10), which was the pre-season pick to finish last in the conference. Georgia Tech is the second seed.

Going into this season DiMare and his staff had to replace the entire starting pitching rotation, and that has been a work in progress throughout. Finding a Friday night ace has been an issue, as shown in these losses: 11-5 at North Carolina State, 15-1 to FSU, 12-6 at Pitt, 13-0 at Boston College, 14-3 to Georgia Tech.

Compounding the strangeness of 2021 has been the ACC’s expansion of the regular season by two series, six games. That’s six fewer non-conference games, and it has resulted in ACC teams beating each other up.

With numerous returning players, it looked as if the Hurricanes would have a lot of depth this season. But Jordan Lala (.233), Alex Toral (.264, 6 homers compared with 24 in 2019) and Adrian Del Castillo (.290) underperformed compared to expectations. Del Castillo was a consensus pre-season first team All-American and Toral was on one pre-season first team and two second teams.

Raymond Gil, coming off an injury last fall, has come on strong as the designated hitter and is hitting .303 with a team leading 7 home runs. Anthony Vilar has been consistent (.301, 5 HR), and freshmen Yohandy Morales at third base and Dominic Pitelli at shortstop have been superb fielders who show a lot of promise for the future.

The ACC Tournament appears to be wide open. Louisville, Pitt and Virginia Tech have stumbled, FSU isn’t the world beater it was that weekend at The Light.

But the Hurricanes’ lineup is filled with lefties and that doesn’t match well against the Seminoles.

And another but: The Canes have momentum from playing well in the last two ACC series.

I asked Rokeach for his prognostication.

“I have no idea what we’ll see, good or horrible,” he said. “I can’t predict how they’ll play.”

We will know soon if the Hurricanes can turn this question mark season into an exclamation.

The University of Miami baseball program returned to the top 25 in two polls released Monday. The Hurricanes came in at No. 21 in Collegiate Baseball’s NCAA Division I baseball poll and No. 24 in the Baseball America. Miami came in at No. 29 in the NCBWA poll and also received votes in the USA TODAY coaches poll and Perfect Game’s poll.Miami (32-17, 20-15 ACC) went 3-1 last week, bouncing back from a midweek loss to FAU with a three-game sweep at then-No. 19 Louisville.

Raymond Gil led the way offensively for Miami on Thursday, as the fourth-year player hit two homers in a three-hit game to help the Canes beat the Cardinals, 6-1. Miami’s designated hitter hit the first of his two round-trippers in the top of the seventh when Gil crushed a leadoff homer that traveled 431 feet with a 106 miles-per-hour exit velocity before hitting the batter’s eye in center field.

Gil added his second homer of the night an inning later, depositing a two-run homer over the wall in left field to make it 5-1. The blast gave Gil the fourth two-homer game of his career and the second this season, as he hit two home runs at Pitt on April 9. Anthony Vilar capped a three-hit night with a two-out solo homer to right in the top of the ninth. The second baseman joined Gil as Hurricanes with three hits on Thursday.

Four Miami pitchers combined to blank the Cardinals in game two, while a big blast from Yohandy Morales provided the offense to help the Canes defeat Louisville, 2-0, on Friday. Jake Smith, Spencer Bodanza, Andrew Walters and Carson Palmquist combined to toss Miami’s third shutout of the 2021 season.

The Hurricanes made history on Saturday afternoon, becoming only the second team to ever sweep Louisville at Jim Patterson Stadium. With a 3-2 victory over the Cardinals, the Canes became the first team to sweep Louisville at home since ECU took the first three games ever played inside the ballpark on April 15-17, 2005.

Trailing 1-0 after three innings, Miami responded with a rally in the top of the fourth against Louisville starter Tate Kuehner. Vilar opened the inning with a hit by pitch and Morales followed with a single and advanced to second as a throw was late trying to get Vilar at third. Adrian Del Castillo tied the game with a base hit up the middle that pushed Vilar home, but a two-out, bases-loaded single from Jordan Lala drove in a pair and vaulted Miami ahead, 3-1.

Miami will be the No. 4 seed in the 2021 Atlantic Coast Conference Baseball Championship. The Canes are the top team in Pool D, joined by No. 5 Florida State (29-21, 20-16) and No. 9 Duke (28-20, 16-17). Miami is set to open play in the 2021 ACC baseball tournament at 11 a.m. on Thursday against Duke. The Hurricanes will face Florida State on Friday at 3 p.m. to conclude pool play.The Canes has five players among those recognized by the Atlantic Coast Conference for their outstanding performances during the 2021 season.

Freshman Carson Palmquist was named to the All-ACC First Team, while redshirt junior Christian Del Castillo and sophomores Adrian Del Castillo and Anthony Vilar earned positions on the All-ACC Second Team. Palmquist and Morales were two of 12 players selected to the 2021 ACC All-Freshman Team.