Fresh off a series win, the Miami Hurricanes head to Tallahassee seeking a statement to end the regular season. Disciplined hitting remains key as the team battles a top-ranked in-state rival for ACC tournament positioning.
Miami, FL. – The Miami Hurricanes baseball program will have an opportunity to close the regular season with a statement against the No. 11 Florida State Seminoles. Coming off a series win over the Louisville Cardinals, the team has some momentum before traveling to the state’s capital in Tallahassee. Both programs are a couple of games apart in the Atlantic Coast Conference standings, but with a double-bye in the conference tournament at stake, the three-game matchup could shake things up.
In Monday’s media availability, Hurricanes coach J.D. Arteaga expressed what the opportunity to face the Seminoles meant, especially to close out the regular season, in an opening statement:
“It’s Florida State week,” he said. “Exciting times, it’s always a fun rivalry, going to Tallahassee, ending the season that way. The way I see it, it’s a great opportunity to go into a top-ranked team on the road and hopefully make a statement. It’s our schedule in the ACC. We missed some of the top teams. That’s just the way the schedule worked out, but now we have an opportunity to show what we can do in Tallahassee against a rival. Just looking forward to it.”
The Hurricanes will face one of the ACC’s best pitchers in junior lefty Wes Mendes. He’s appeared in 13 games, all starts, holds a 9-3 record, and currently has a 2.42 ERA, third best in the conference. When asking coach Arteaga about facing the 21-year-old, he mentioned that it’s going to take great discipline in the batter’s box to generate consistent offense.
“It’s another tough pitcher,” he added. “We got to do a good job, be disciplined. These are games that I’ve been talking about all season. No matter how good your offense is, you got to be able to manufacture runs. You’re not going to sit there and just swing the bat and score runs off of good pitching, good defense, good teams. You got to be able to swing the bat, but we also have to be able to manufacture runs when that’s what it’s called to do.”
The Hurricanes faced a ranked in-state rival earlier this season, the Florida Gators, which didn’t go well. They lost two games, with the final matchup being cancelled due to rainy weather. Despite the strong likelihood of missing junior third baseman Daniel Cuvet for the whole upcoming series due to a back injury, the team still has enough firepower to stamp the season ahead of the ACC and NCAA Tournament.
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