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Never Too Early To Talk Canes Baseball

The University of Miami baseball team’s recruiting class received a pair of top-two rankings in the ACC, as the Hurricanes checked in 10th nationally in the rankings by Perfect Game and 12th overall by Collegiate Baseball.

Earlier in the month, Miami’s class was tabbed ninth overall and the top spot in the conference, according to Baseball America.

The recruiting rankings take into consideration student-athletes who came to school this fall. Nine Hurricanes were listed among Perfect Game’s Top 500 incoming freshmen, including four in the top 200.

Right-handed pitcher Karson Ligon led the way ranked No. 41 overall, followed by outfielder Lorenzo Carrier at No. 76. Right-hander Gage ZIehl, who was selected in the 11th round by Chicago Cubs, checked in 130th and two-way player Renzo Gonzalez was rated No. 169.

Right-hander David Rossow was tabbed 232nd and infielder Dorian Gonzalez was ranked No. 263. Outfielder Gaby Gutierrez and southpaw Rafe Schlesinger were listed back-to-back, checking in at No. 276 and No. 277, respectively. Outfielder Edgardo Villegas rounded out the group of Canes named by Perfect Game at No. 372.

The Canes’ incoming class is comprised of 19 newcomers, 12 freshmen and seven transfers.

Miami finished 33-21 last season, including recording a 20-15 mark in ACC play. The Hurricanes won seven conference series and posted their most conference victories since 2016. The Canes earned the 47th NCAA tournament berth in program history in 2021, competing in the Gainesville Regional.

The Hurricanes are scheduled to play a 12-inning exhibition game against Florida Atlantic on Oct. 23 in Boca Raton. First pitch is set for 12:30 p.m.

From: www.hurricanepsorts.com

Forget Football, Think Tennis

For the first time since November 2019, the University of Miami women’s tennis team is headed to a fall tournament.

Due to the cancelation of the 2020 fall campaign because of COVID-19, it has been nearly two years since the Hurricanes competed in this portion of their season.

In fact, only two of Miami’s eight players have previously played in any fall tournaments as a Hurricane: Nada Dimovska and Daevenia Achong. Each did so only in 2019.

Achong is one of five Hurricanes set to visit Cary, N.C., for this weekend’s season-opening Fall Ranked Spotlight, hosted by NC State, Thursday through Sunday at Cary Tennis Park.

 

Two players—third-year sophomore Diana Khodan and sophomore Isabella Pfennig—will be making their collegiate fall debuts. Two others—sophomore Audrey Boch-Collins and fifth-year senior Eden Richardson—played in fall tournaments at their prior colleges, but are in their first year at The U.

Given the group’s lack of experience on the fall circuit, 21st-year head coach Paige Yaroshuk-Tews addressed what it will be like for them.

“The fall season for them is just like having all freshmen, but at the end of the day, tennis is tennis,” she said. “You have to find your motivation a little bit more, in the fall, for yourself. It comes a little bit less for your team because the only person you’re going to let down if you don’t show up is yourself. So, motivation is a little different. Focuses are going to remain the same. But all these kids love tennis, so nobody wants to lose. Nobody wants to let themselves down.

“It’s like going to a junior tournament with a coach is how I would look at it,” Yaroshuk-Tews continued. “It’s like, ‘We’re going to play and you have a great coach with you. Let’s go get better.’ We’ve got great opportunities. They way they’ve set up this tournament is [that it features] the best players from all these teams. So, hopefully we’ll have some really good opportunities against ranked opponents and we’ll see what happens.”

It will indeed be a loaded field full of talent in the Tar Heel State. Miami’s five competitors will be joined by individuals from some of the nation’s finest programs: UCF, Duke, Michigan, North Carolina, NC State, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Princeton, USC, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

The singles draw will feature 32 players in a compass draw, while the doubles pairs—Boch-Collins/Khodan and Achong/Pfennig are Miami’s duos—will be split into four-team round-robin groupings.

Action is scheduled to begin Thursday at 3:30 p.m., with each doubles pair playing two matches that day. Every player will then play two singles matches on both Friday and Saturday, followed by one singles match and one doubles match on Sunday. Competition begins at 9 a.m. on each of the final three days of the tournament.

This is the second iteration of the Fall Ranked Spotlight, the first of which came in September 2019 at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Fla. Estela Perez-Somarriba, then the reigning national champion in her fourth year at Miami, claimed the singles crown.

The attention this weekend, however, will not be on results. Rather, it will be the way in which the Hurricanes compete on the court.

“Outcome is definitely not the focus for us right now in the fall. Winning is simply icing,” Yaroshuk-Tews shared. “I think it’s, like, what type of tennis are we playing? What type of tennis are we bringing up to North Carolina? We’ve been focusing on being a little bit more aggressive, taking some more risks, taking some more chances. We know what we can do well and we know what we need to improve upon. So, what we’re looking to see in a pressure situation is making some adjustments, improving on some things. That’s going to solely be the focus. If we win, that’s great. If we lose, as long as we lose the right away, nobody really cares [in the fall].”

While a coach can ever be sure exactly what his/her team will be like until it begins a season, Yaroshuk-Tews is encouraged by what she has seen from her roster thus far in practice.

The Hurricanes have been on the court at the Neil Schiff Tennis Center for quite some time getting ready for this moment, the start of the fall season. Now it is here.

Game Day: Miami vs Michigan State

Today at Hard Rock Stadium your Miami Hurricanes face the Michigan State Spartans in a critical early season matchup.

If Miami is to make something special of the 2021 college football season it starts today at noon.

We think they can and they will.

That is all we have to say about that.

Canespace Prediction: Hurricanes 34 - Spartans 13

Pro Canes: NFL(U) Weekly Leaders

There was a day not to long ago when former University of Miami football players who previously played on Saturdays ruled the NFL fields on Sundays. First round draft picks from UM were so commonplace they set many records.

It seemed every game you watched there was another Miami Hurricane "Legend of the Fall" running, catching and scoring or intercepting, blocking or tackling the other team. In fact, the league was often referred to as NFLU.

Today there are far fewer former 'Canes in the NFL, but still, there is a solid representation across the league and on TV. This past week these were the leaders in performance, productivity and stats in the NFL (from ProCanes).

There Is An App For That

We all know that Alabama showed The University of Miami football team what it looks like to play the game we call "football" in Atlanta.

Sure, we all saw that "Roll Tide" demonstrated how to be aggressive and how to execute the fundamentals of the game such as blocking, tackling, running, passing and scoring. Apparently, they call it football.

Miami demonstrated how not to play the game. They played scared, confused and conservative in the game and never competed. They missed tackles, they dropped passes and got worn down like an old tire.

What we saw was Advantage Alabama.

Now, your Miami Hurricanes face off against Appalachian State in a home game at Hard Rock Stadium. So if there is a rebound game for the Bama loss, App State may be the cure for that. Or, maybe not, we do not know.

We say Miami wins 34-13.

Here We Go: Canes vs Tide

Are you ready for some football?

OK, that's a dumb question, of course you are!

Well for your entertainment pleasure we have a great start to the 2021 college football season when your Miami Hurricanes meet the Alabama Crimson Tide in Atlanta on Saturday at 3:30.

Can Miami compete with Alabama? Well, Vegas says no.

They have the Hurricanes as 20 point underdogs. They sat Miami will score less than 21 points. We say bulls#%@!

Miami fans remember times when they were huge underdogs to Nebraska in 1983. How did that turn out?

In our humble opinion, this game will come down to the fact of IF Miami can outscore the very talented "roll tide" crew.

UM QB King will need to rule the game, and the stadium, for the Canes to win.

We think he will and Miami will win easily.

Canespace Prediction: Miami 34 - Bama 13.