Canes defy expectations, edge Southern Miss to capture first regional since 2016

Miami Herald

2 days ago

The third-seeded Miami Hurricanes baseball team has completed its improbable run to their first regional title since 2016.
The Hurricanes, who never trailed, held on to defeat host and top-seeded Southern Miss, 5-4, on Monday night.
Miami will play at Louisville in the super regional round next weekend, with the winner of that best-of-3 series going to the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska.
As for Monday's win, Hurricanes coach J.D. Arteaga believes Miami may have gotten some help from above.
'I can't help but think there was divine intervention,' Arteaga said. 'It seemed like everything went our way.'
That started with Miami's first game in this regional on Friday, a 5-3 win over Alabama. On the final play of that game, Alabama nearly hit a walk-off, three-run homer, but Miami center fielder Michael Torres caught the ball at the fence.
Next, fourth-seeded Columbia did Miami a favor, defeating Southern Miss.
Miami then beat Columbia, and all the Canes had to do next was defeat Southern Miss once in two tries, which is exactly what happened.
On Monday, Miami (34-25) started the scoring with Derek Williams' solo homer in the second inning.
Southern Miss tied the score in the fourth on Matthew Russo's RBI single. But the Hurricanes escaped further trouble when Joey Urban — with runners on the corners — bounced into an inning-ending double play.
The Golden Eagles challenged the out call at first, but the call stood on a great turn by second baseman Dorian Gonzalez.
Miami came right back in the fifth, scoring twice to take a 3-1 lead. With two outs and none on, Michael Torres singled and scored on Jake Ogden's double. Max Galvin followed with an RBI single.
The last out of the bottom of the fifth was a 3-4-1 defensive play by Miami as the ball deflected off the glove of first baseman Renzo Gonzalez, but second baseman Dorian Gonzalez — no relation — threw Carson Paetow out from shallow right field. Reliever Will Smith did a great job covering first on the play.
That was some of that 'divine intervention' Arteaga referenced in his post-game comments.
Miami stretched its lead to 5-1 in the sixth as Dorian Gonzalez hit a solo homer, and Torres beat out a two-out infield hit for an RBI.
Southern Miss cut its deficit to 5-2 in the seventh on Tucker Stockman's RBI single to center off of Miami's second reliever of the night, Rob Evans.
However, Evans struck out the next batter, Paetow, to end the threat.
In the eighth, Evans walked the first two Southern Miss batters, but Brian Walters came in and retired three straight with no damage done.
Then, with two outs in the ninth, Paetow hit a two-run homer to the opposite field, closing the Eagles' deficit to 5-4.
Walters, however, retired the next batter, Seth Smith, on a routine fly ball to left, ending the game.
Miami used four pitchers.
Starter Reese Lumpkin allowed just one run in 3 1/3 innings. Will Smith allowed one run in three innings. Evans, who got two outs, allowed one inherited runner to score but he got that big aforementioned strikeout. And Walters earned his 10th save of the season, allowing two runs in two innings.
'That was a big six-out save,' Arteaga said.
Now it's on to Louisville, a team Miami has not played this year.
Last season, the teams split four games. Louisville took two out of three games at home, but Miami got the Cardinals back at the ACC tournament.
Arteaga said he will take his chances with his squad.
'I love this team,' Arteaga said. 'I'm so happy we get to play more baseball.'