Hurricanes Tomahawk Seminoles

One swing of the bat by ACC home run leader Alex Toral made all the difference for the Miami Hurricanes in Friday's 11-0 win over rival Florida State.
 
On a night when Miami honored Florida State head coach Mike Martin for a 40-year career leading the Seminoles, the Hurricanes' offensive output matched Martin's jersey number to help secure a series opening victory over their in-state and conference rival.
 
"Winning the first game certainly helps,'' head coach Gino DiMare said. "I told the guys we hadn't really played a complete game this year. ... I didn't realize, but six runs we scored with two outs in the seventh inning. And of course we played very good defense. Great complete game. I'm very happy."  
 

Toral sent the 3,227 fans into a frenzy inside Alex Rodriguez Park at Mark Light Field on Friday night, as the sophomore crushed a grand slam deep to center field to push the hometown Hurricanes (19-11, 6-7 ACC) past the rival Seminoles (18-11, 6-7 ACC).
 
Miami ace Evan McKendry kept Florida State's bats in check in the series opener, allowing just three hits and striking out nine over seven scoreless innings to earn his fifth win of the year. The junior right-hander struck out the side in the fifth, running his tally to six strikeouts over five frames, and Miami's bats came alive in the bottom of the inning as they sent 10 men to bat against three different Seminole pitchers.
 

"It was awesome," McKendry said. "Gino has been preaching that we are just waiting for the game that everything clicks for us and today that was it. We pitched well, we hit well, played good defense, no errors, that's exactly what we need to do."
 
Adrian Del Castillo and Raymond Gil opened the bottom of the fifth with back-to-back singles and advanced to second and third after a hard groundout to first from JP Gates. 
 
Florida State head coach Mike Martin elected to intentionally walk Michael Amditis to load the bases with one out and set up and lefty-lefty matchup between FSU starter Drew Parrish and Miami first baseman Alex Toral. 
 
The sophomore slugger crushed an 0-2 pitch for a grand slam off the batter's eye beyond the center field fence to give Miami a 4-0 lead. The grand slam was the first by a Hurricane since Freddy Zamora's bases-loaded homer against UMBC on March 3, 2019.
 

"I feel like we kind of got the momentum going in that inning," Toral said. "It started with Evan. I'm pretty sure he struck out the side the inning before that and as a player I felt like we need to score right here. Evan just had a shutdown inning, it doesn't get better than three strike outs in an inning and coming up with the bases loaded, obviously my emotions were high and I'm glad I came through for my team."
 
The blast was Toral's ACC-leading 13th home run of the year and appeared to rattle Parrish, as he hit Gabe Rivera on the first pitch of the at-bat and then walked Jordan Lala before being lifted in favor of lefty reliever Austin Pollock. Eight pitches later, Anthony Vilar was headed to first with a walk and Martin was coming back out of the dugout to swap pitchers again. 
 

"Everyone knows this is a huge rivalry game and obviously to put my team on top first to start the series off like that just feels great," Toral said. 
 
The Hurricanes had a six-run rally with two outs in the bottom of the seventh, as Zamora singled home Toral and Lala with a base hit up the middle off reliever Tyler Ahearn. After Del Castillo walked, Gil's RBI single to left sent Zamora home and knocked Ahearn out of the game with Miami leading, 7-0.
 
"It kind of sets the tone for the weekend so hopefully we can stick with that approach throughout the lineup and keep capitalizing on moments like that," Toral 
 

"It's our biggest crowds of the year, so it's a great atmosphere and our players were excited to know the fans were going to come out today," DiMare said. "Certainly to have arguably our best game, our most complete game as a team in front of all the fans was great, so hopefully they saw good baseball and they will come out tomorrow. Usually Saturday games are even bigger and, of course, we are honoring our '99 championship team, so hopefully, a lot of fans will come out and support that and we have to concentrate on taking care of the series, which we have had trouble doing. We won game one of the series but we need to finish it off, so we need to be ready to go tomorrow. "

Comments

[solarcane]

Bam

[86Cane]

Bada bing

[thirstybuzzardcane]

Kaboom!

[Old Skool]

Splortz

[nemo2002]

Hi 5

[NativeCane]

Time to eat a big steak?

Posted by: 86Cane | April 05, 2019 at 11:54 PM

Some memories never fade.....

[NativeCane]

For some reason I've been craving Sushi....I wonder why?

[Terrance Sullivan]

Outstanding. Go Canes!

[IraqiCane]

So I'm watching the 1988 Orange Bowl with UM against OU, and damn Steve Walsh has a cannon of an arm. That ball comes with all sorts of velocity and is on the mark.

[HillviewCane]

Espn is broadcasting the high school basketball Championship. I am being bombarded by Sport drink, car product and Marine advertisements. I am sure Espn gets paid for these ads. These players don't have scholarships...they deserve a monetary payment

[BigWindyCane]

News from the first (closed) scrimmage at Columbus High School:

QBs: All three QBs took equal reps; redshirt sophomore N'Kosi Perry finished 5-for-7 for 126 yards with two touchdowns, redshirt sophomore Tate Martell finished 6-for-11 with one touchdown and redshirt freshman Jarren Williams ended the day with 53 passing yards.

RBs: Cam'ron Harris (five carries, 32 yards), running back Deejay Dallas (38 rushing yards).

TEs/WR: Sophomore tight end Will Mallory (four receptions, 62 yards, two touchdowns), WR Brian Hightower (three catches, 22 yards), sophomore WR Mark Pope had a 52-yard touchdown reception; Redshirt sophomore Evidence Njoku had a 51-yard catch.

Defense:
redshirt freshman Greg Rousseau (four sacks), sophomore Nesta Silvera (six tackles, four tackles for loss) and true freshman Jahfari Harvey (five tackles, two sacks).

Junior Trajan Bandy had two PBUs, sophomore Gurvan Hall had four tackles and sophomore Al Blades had two tackles and one PBU.

[Terrance Sullivan]

Looking forward to hearing about the next 2 scrimmages when Fans and Media can access the situation. I am leery of these closed off to everything stats this decade from last year of Shannon, through Golden, through Richt, now first year of Diaz. Damn we have had 4 Head Coaches this decade 2010-2019. Pathetic. only decade with that level or turnover or worse was the 1970's. SMDH.

[Terrance Sullivan]

Lawd we had 6 Head Coaches in the 1970's SMDH.

[BigWindyCane]

Mark Walton released by Bengals following his third arrest. SMH

[HillviewCane]

Posted by: BigWindyCane | April 06, 2019 at 05:08 PM

Hopefully he get's it together. Time is fleeting

[BigWindyCane]

You’re right Hillview.

The NFL = the Not For Long

[NativeCane]

Canes up 4-0 top of the 8th

[NativeCane]

Final score 4-0 CANES WIN!

I'm not even gonna say the word but it would be really sweet if
tomorrow the Canes did to the Noles what Mrs. Native does to our kitchen floor periodically and sends Mike Martin out of Miami a loosa!

[solarcane]

Tight End U by the end of the year

[solarcane]

Guns Up Texas Tech

[solarcane]

Lawd we had 6 Head Coaches in the 1970's SMDH.

Posted by: Terrance Sullivan | April 06, 2019 at 04:52 PM

Yea Sully, til 1980 rolled around it was pretty brutal for sure... Seating and parking was pretty sweet though lol

[BigWindyCane]

Yep Solar. Jordan and Mallory will be like Herndon and Njoku. I still feel Herndon is one of the best tight ends I have seen at the U. Herndon is the full package, with blocking, route running and catching. I love his game.

Mallory needs to bulk up a little, but he sure has some great upside. Speed, agility and hands are elite for a tight end.

[solarcane]

Windy,
I'm with ya
If kosi had 126 yds on 5 passes his deep ball must be money lately.
Jordan can get open with teams double teaming JT.
We might end up with 1st and second team ACC tight ends if the qb gets it together.

[Terrance Sullivan]

SolarCane Yes Sir. Thank God they hired Howard in 1979. Hopefully Manny can do a great job 40 years later. Go Canes!

[HillviewCane]

When we have some success this year will we give Richt some thanks for hiring Diaz?

[BigWindyCane]

Scrimmage highlights

https://twitter.com/canesfootball/status/1114904248108634112?s=12

[NativeCane]

Noles draw first blood top of the 3rd but Canes respond with small ball to take the lead.

2-1 Canes.....

[NativeCane]

Vannbelle gives up 2 HR's top of the 4th, Maury comes in relief.
3-2 FSU.
Bottom of 4th.

[NativeCane]

Amditas over left field fence for 2 run Homer.

4-3 Canes

[NativeCane]

Noles tie it at 4 each top of 5th
Canes strand 3 on base.

4-4

On to 6th inning

[86Cane]

Good call Native. Keep it going...

#GoCanes

[solarcane]

When we have some success this year will we give Richt some thanks for hiring Diaz?

Posted by: HillviewCane | April 07, 2019 at 01:18 PM

Richt deserves a lot of thanks for what he did for the program off the field

[NativeCane]

Noles wake me from dead sleep with shot heard around the living room, 2 runs off Freddie Zappora air mail error.

6-4 Noles

Bottom of the 9th
Canes last chance.

[NativeCane]

Zamora

[NativeCane]

Zamora tries to make up for 2 errors with HR but just don't good enough.
On the words Meatloaf 2 out 3 ain't bad.

6-5

[86Cane]

"Cause two out of three aint bad."

Thanks Native

[Herbieibis]

Until the Canes learn how to field this season Is going to be a constant struggle. Pitching the same way.

[JCane]

Problem on the diamond is one of your best hitters is one of the poorest D shortstops in the conference. If he improves, the D will look a whole lot better.

[solarcane]

FSU spring game

"In the spring game, Blackman finished 23-of-37 for 415 yards and three touchdowns. Considering FSU’s quarterback troubles the past two seasons"

Either they have no defensive backs.or its good to name a starting qb and concentrate on getting one guy ready.