The Miami Hurricanes falter again, dropping a series as pitching woes and costly mistakes plague another disappointing loss.
Coral Gables, Fla - The 24-ranked Miami Hurricanes baseball squad suffered a 9–5 loss against the Boston College Eagles on Sunday, losing a second consecutive series. Despite the offense having chances to pull through, especially after coming back from a 5–1 deficit in the fourth inning, the pitching staff continues to struggle since the Florida Gators series.
- Hurricanes; Sophomore slump: Right-handed pitcher Tate DeRias struggled early and couldn't finish on a positive note. He was on the mound for 3.1 innings, giving up four hits and five earned runs, a home run, hitting three batters, and only three strikeouts.
DeRias was named a starter to begin the season. He won all three starts before Sunday's game, including on Wednesday against the Bethune-Cookman Wildcats. When asking coach J.D. Arteaga about a potential change of role moving forward, he mentioned a shift is possible.
"We're open to anything right now," the former Hurricanes pitcher told MiamiRoundtable.
Coach Arteaga mentioned that Sunday's performance was mainly due to self-inflicted mistakes.
- Eagles; Continuous contact: As the Hurricanes' pitching staff struggled to strike out batters, it resulted in extended opportunities to cause damage. The Eagles finished with nine hits and nine runs batted in. They had eight runners in scoring position with four reaching home plate.
Also, the Eagles had six of their own batter walked and three hit-by-pitch. They took advantage of every opportunity given.
After losing the series, plus four of the last six games, the Hurricanes are likely to drop from the top-25 rankings. However, coach Arteaga doesn't believe the team has been defeated.
"They [Boston College] outplayed us," he said. "I still don't feel like we've been beaten this year. We've lost four games. You can go back to all four games and talk about situations. Whether we did make plays or didn't, we gave games away."
The Hurricanes are capable of exploding offensively, averaging 15.5 runs in the first 10 games of the season. The production has gone down in the last six games, but the lineup has plenty of firepower.
"We've got to stick to our approach," junior shortstop Vance Sheahan told MiamiRoundtable. "We're talented enough as a team. We put together big at-bats early on in the weekend series. Just keep going with everything. We have the talent to put those at-bats together."
The Hurricanes won't play another home game until March 20. They will travel to Orlando for a midweek matchup against the UCF Knights, followed by a weekend ACC series against the Duke Blue Devils, and then finish the road trip with another midweek matchup against the FIU Panthers.
There are numerous opportunities to bounce back and get the season back on track.
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