Spring Has Sprung: Final Spring Scrimmage In Photos

Here is a link to the photos from the UM web site hurricanesports.com from today's final Spring scrimmage:

https://miamihurricanes.com/news/2021/04/17/spring-game-photo-gallery/

Go Canes!

Comments

[nemo2020]

#1

[AeroCane]

4-2 canes up over Clemson in bottom of 5th

[AeroCane]

Oops 6-2
Morales with a 2 run HR

[TJL]

#4

[AeroCane]

10-2 canes in the 8th

[AeroCane]

Another nice free article from ‘Inside the U’

There were many positives to take away from Miami’s spring game on Saturday, despite the team missing 16 players due to injuries or other circumstances.

But one of the highlights of the day was the impact made by true freshman early enrollees.

Quarterback Jake Garcia, a California native who finished off his high school career in Georgia, where he won a state championship at Loganville Grayson, stole the show. The former Top247 quarterback went 19-25 with 252 yards and a pair of touchdown passes, including a 52-yarder down the field to Mark Pope.

Garcia should have completed another longball, but it was ruled incomplete after the ball popped out after Dee Wiggins went down with it. In a replay setting, there is a chance the senior would have been ruled down before the ball came out.

The freshman, who arrived on UM’s campus in January, did a good job commanding the offense while running with the first team and showed why he was regarded as one of the nation’s top signal-callers. He finished the 2021 cycle as the No. 47 overall player and No. 5 pro-style passer in the country, according to the industry-generated 247Sports Composite.

But he wasn’t the only mid-year to shine at Hard Rock Stadium. Kicker Andres Borregales, the younger brother of 2020 Lou Groza Award winner Jose Borregales, showed that he was ready to take over the kicking duties at Miami after splitting all three of his field goal attempts.

The first came to open up scoring in the morning. It was a 43-yarder that split the uprights and had plenty of more distance behind it.

The Hollywood Chaminade Madonna product, who finished his high school career at Hialeah Champagnat so that he could have this opportunity to enroll and compete for a job during what would have been the second half of his senior year in high school, also nailed kicks from 21 and 32-yards to finish perfect on the day.

On the defensive side, two former blue-chip recruits shined on the field. Safety Kamren Kinchens finished the game with five tackles, including an interception in the third quarter on a pass from quarterback Peyton Matocha.

The three-time state champion at Miami Northwestern draws high reviews from those who have watched him over the course of his high school career. He finished with double-digit interceptions throughout his career with the Bulls.

The other highly-touted true freshman to make an impact was striker Chase Smith, who finished with a team-leading seven tackles. Smith showed off his versatility as a guy who can cover and track down ball carriers. One of the plays that stood out was when Matocha took off to the wide side of the field, and Smith came from the far side and met the scrambling quarterback for a small gain.

The former Top247 talent and son of former Miami All-American tight end Willie Smith flashed some of the high-end potential that Manny Diaz and the staff saw in him. The 6-foot-3, 190-pounder was also being recruited by Oklahoma and others to play wide receiver prior to his commitment to UM back in August.

The Hurricanes are expected to add 14 more members of this No. 12 ranked recruiting class over the course of the next few months. But a good number of them, including the two five-star’s in defensive lineman Leonard Taylor and safety James Williams, are set to arrive in less than a month.

[86Cane]

Nice job Aero.

[AeroCane]

2-2 in the 9th!
Garland and palmquist pitching
Go canes! I’ll let you know.

[AeroCane]

2-2 heading to the bottom of the 9th!
Toral, kayfus and Gil
It’d be nice if toral ended it with a HR

[AeroCane]

I was wrong
Kayfus replaced toral

[AeroCane]

Jenkins with a sac fly to score kayfus in bottom of the 9th for the 3-2 canes win and sweep over Clemson!

[The Herb]

Sweep or be swepted. The broom is either in our hands or stuffed up our azz.

[86Cane]

Walk-off wins are always fun, but they’re even better when they clinch a series sweep.

Sunday’s hero was Tony Jenkins, delivering the game-winning RBI in the bottom of the ninth to push the Canes past Clemson, 3-2, before a sold-out crowd of 620 fans inside Alex Rodriguez Park.

“Getting sweeps is not easy,” head coach Gino DiMare said. “We’ve had it done to us a few times and we need to obviously run some off ourselves here to make up [for it], but more importantly, just play good baseball. The last two games were obviously a little bit different where we opened the games up and had much bigger margins. Winning one-run games, those are very, very important. Those are going to be more the type of games you’re going to play later on in tournament time, so it was good to see.”

After a pair of lopsided losses in the first two games, the Tigers had built some momentum against the Canes by tying the game against Miami’s closer, Carson Palmquist. But Miami got some timely hitting to earn its second walk-off win of the week.

CJ Kayfus, who entered the game as a pinch runner in the bottom of the sixth, led off the ninth with a base hit up the middle. Two batters later, Dominic Pitelli ripped a double to right that put runners on second and third with one out, setting the stage for Jenkins to be a hero.

“It was just great to be in that position and that situation at the time and an even better feeling to get that done for the team,” Jenkins said. “I’ve just got to stay ready whenever my name gets called and I felt like I did that today. It felt really great celebrating with the guys. Everyone seemed very proud of me and I’m just thankful for my team.”

The fourth-year outfielder, which entered the game as a defensive replacement in the top of the seventh, lifted the first pitch he saw from Clemson closer Geoffrey Gilbert deep to center field, allowing Kayfus to tag up and score the winning run and set off a raucous celebration on Mark Light Field.

“I was so proud of him just being aggressive there,” DiMare said. “Come up first pitch, got a pitch he can drive to the outfield. He hasn’t done a very good job of being aggressive and in that situation, you’ve got to be aggressive, and he got a good pitch to drive.”

The victory was Miami’s eighth home win in a row over the Tigers. It also marked Miami’s second consecutive sweep of Clemson in Coral Gables and its fifth straight series win over the Tigers.

While it was a sacrifice fly that clinch the win, Miami got a major boost from the home run all weekend. Seven different players combined for nine homers against Clemson this weekend, with Yohandy Morales getting the bats going for the Hurricanes in the bottom of the first when he hit an opposite-field homer for the second consecutive day. The true freshman’s solo blast extended Miami’s home run streak to nine straight games dating back to April 4.

The Tigers tied the game in the top of the third, as Kier Meredith delivered a two-out RBI single against the shift that drove home Dylan Brewer to make it 1-1.

But Miami went deep again in the bottom of the third, regaining the lead when Jordan Lala hit an 0-2 pitch from Clemson starter Nick Hoffmann over the right field wall to make it 2-1.

UM starter Jake Garland was strong for six innings, allowing one run on three hits while striking out a career-high six Tigers.

The Hurricanes turned the ball over to Palmquist in the seventh, but Clemson mustered a rally after a pair of seeing-eye singles put runners at the corners with one out. Dylan Brewer hit a grounder to short, but the Canes could not turn the double play and Adam Hackenberg scored to tie the game at 2.

“He wasn’t at his best, but he’s been almost unhuman up to this point,” DiMare said of Palmquist. “We’ve talked to the team about this weeks ago that there’s going to be a day where he’s off, and we’ve got to make sure we pick him up and we did that today. I’m very proud of the team, it’s just a great, great, great win, and a great sweep for us.

[86Cane]

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