Brian Van Belle overcame injuries and three years in junior college to get to the mound inside Alex Rodriguez Park at Mark Light Field on Sunday.
All of the obstacles were worth the wait, as the redshirt junior turned in a brilliant debut and earned his first win as a Hurricane. Van Belle struck out five and allowed just five hits over six shutout innings to help the Hurricanes (3-0) secure a sweep over Rutgers (0-3) with a 9-3 victory on Sunday afternoon.
"I feel like my fastball was working really well," Van Belle said. "I kept it too high and I'd like to keep it lower. Other than that, I just tried to get quick contact and keep a fast tempo."
Van Belle was matched by Rutgers starter Tevin Murray over the first 2.2 innings of the game, as the junior lefty held Miami hitless in its first trip through the batting order. But back-to-back doubles from Tony Jenkins and Anthony Vilar ended the no-hit bid and the shut out, as Vilar's shot to the leftfield wall pushed Jenkins around to score.
One batter later, Rutgers third baseman Carmen Sclafani threw a ball away trying to retire Freddy Zamora at first. Instead of ending the inning, Zamora ran all the way to third and Vilar scored from second to put Miami up, 2-0. Vilar finished the weekend 7-for-11 (.636) with four doubles, eight runs scored and four RBI.
Two innings later, Miami chased Murray from the game when it loaded the bases with two outs in the fifth. Vilar sparked the rally with a two-out base hit, while Zamora walked and Adrian Del Castillo was hit by a pitch before Murray was replaced by freshman right-hander Garrett French. The reliever threw a 1-2 wild pitch to the backstop that allowed Vilar to score and give the Hurricanes a 3-0 lead.
"Del Castillo has been special from Day 1, so we all knew that," head coach Gino DiMare said. "I was really, really impressed and certainly happy to see Vilar swing the bat. We faced some lefties and these guys hit off some lefties where they stayed in there and drove the ball the other way, which is a great sign for hitters."
CMD....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uB1D9wWxd2w
Posted by: jgatsby1112 | February 23, 2019 at 09:36 PM
Have y’all seen the Wolf of Wall Street parody gif with Manny and Sebastian tossing midget Willie at a target for cash?
Posted by: TruCane81 | February 23, 2019 at 09:50 PM
All this pain you said I’d never feel.
But I do.
But I do, do, do.
Posted by: TruCane81 | February 23, 2019 at 09:52 PM
So I'm back up in the game (hustling slow)
Running things to keep my swing
Letting all the people know
That I'm back to run the show
'Cause what you did, you know, was wrong
And all the nasty things you've done
So, baby, listen carefully
While I sing my come-back song.......
Posted by: TruCane81 | February 23, 2019 at 09:58 PM