The baseball team from Miami is back in the NCAA playoffs. One day ago, the Hurricanes (31-24) were picked as the No. 3 seed in the Hattiesburg regional. The No. 16 national seed Southern Miss (44-14) will host the event. No. 2 seed Alabama (41-16) and No. 4 seed Columbia (29-17) make up the rest of the league’s teams.
If the Hattiesburg Regional wins, it will play the No. 1 overall seed Vanderbilt Regional. The winners of these two regionals will then play a best-of-3 game in the super regionals to see who gets to play in the College World game, which has eight teams. A late-season run is a big reason why the Hurricanes made the field. In early April, Miami had lost 15 games and tied two others in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
After that, UM went on a tear in league play, beating Pittsburgh, Duke, Georgia Tech, Boston College, and North Carolina State in a row. They went 15-3 overall during that stretch, which included games played during the week, to significantly raise their RPI and get into a good enough position to be a tournament contender. They had a slow finish, losing all three games to Notre Dame, getting swept by Virginia, and losing to Cal in the first round of the ACC tournament. This ended any slim chances of Miami getting a host bid or even being a regional No. 2 seed, but it wasn’t enough to keep them from making the tournament.
Can Miami get past the regional? From 2016 to 2018, the Hurricanes have only made it to the regional round of the NCAA playoffs. That was their last trip to the College World Series. Since then, Miami has been to the NCAA tournament five times and has had to travel for the regional round three times. The first two times were to Starkville, Mississippi, in 2019 and to Gainesville, Florida, in 2021. UM was the host in both 2022 and 2023. They didn’t make it to the competition in 2017, 2018, or 2024. Because of COVID-19, there was no NCAA tournament in 2020.
The best ones There are a few players who need to step up for the Hurricanes to have any chance of making it to the NCAA playoffs. Griff Hugus will be the first pitcher on the hill. The junior righty, who transferred from Cincinnati, has thrown 81 innings over 15 starts and struck out 85 batters while holding opponents to a.235 batting average. He is the Hurricanes’ top pitcher. This season, he had six excellent starts, which means he pitched at least six innings and gave up no more than three earned runs. Four of those starts were in ACC play, against North Carolina, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, and Boston College.
The Hurricanes will trust Brian Walters to seal the deal if they have a lead late in the game. Walters moved from the starting rotation to the bullpen in the middle of the season and did great as a closer, recording eight saves in 11 relief outings. In eight of those 11 substitute appearances, he did not allow a run to score. Daniel Cuvet and Jake Ogden, two infielders, are the best at hitting. Cuvet, a junior, has hit 16 home runs, 17 doubles, 76 RBI, has a batting average of.378 and a slugging percentage of.711. He also has the highest on-base-plus-slugging percentage (1.161).
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