Canes Slip Past Rams

By David Furones

Special to CollegeBaseballInsider.com

@DavidFurones90

(photo by JC Ridley/HurricaneSports.com)

 

CORAL GABLES, Fla. – Super Regional play kicked off with a true David vs. Goliath matchup. David did not shy away but Goliath ultimately came out on top, although with some controversy accompanying it.

 

Miami, the No. 5 national seed with four national championships, 23 College World Series appearances and 28 regional titles, benefited from three unearned runs and a key interference call to outlast inexperienced Virginia Commonwealth, making its first Super Regional appearance, 3-2 in a game interrupted by an hour, 35-minute weather delay on Friday afternoon at Alex Rodriguez Park at Mark Light Field.

 

Miami (48-15) leads 1-0 in the Coral Gables Super Regional, which continues with another noon start on Saturday. The Hurricanes are one win away from reaching the College World Series for the first time since 2008.

 

VCU (40-25), the lowest-seeded team remaining in the NCAA Tournament, had a chance to take the lead in the sixth, but down 3-1 could only muster one run falling victim to a runner’s interference call early in the inning.

 

After Matt Davis led off the inning with single, Vimael Machin grounded a slow roller to second. Miami’s George Iskenderian appeared to make no play on the ball he charged and made contact with Davis, allowing the ball to roll past him. The umpires, after originally calling no interference on the play, congregated and called Davis out on runner’s interference.

 

“The runner interfered or impeded a fielder attempting to field a batted ball,” said umpiring crew chief Billy Van Raaphorst. “The calling umpire can choose to ask for help on the play if he’s not 100-percent sure on the call, and that’s why we got together to make sure we got the play correct.”

 

Said Iskenderian, who went 0 for 4 at the plate, “I just kind of go after the ball to field it, ran into him, so there was nothing I could do after that. Obviously, the call, I thought, went the right way.”

 

Instead of having runners on second and third and no outs, VCU was left with a runner on first and one out. The Rams scored on a James Bunn two-out RBI single but the inning left a lot to be desired.

 

“It could’ve gone either way,” said VCU coach Shawn Stiffler, who argued after the overturn but said he hadn’t gotten a chance to watch a replay. “It’s unfortunate timing, but that’s part of the game. It’s something I have interest in going back and looking at for certain.”

 

Added Miami coach Jim Morris: “I thought the call was definitely right. I was concerned that they weren’t going to reverse the call, but in the umpires’ meetings, they always say that they want to get it right. I felt in my mind that I was right and that when they got together, they would make the right call.”

 

Miami starter Andy Suarez (9-1) was unable to return to the mound after the lightning delay, but the left-handed ace who was the highest drafted player in 2014 to return to college baseball earned the win. He lasted five innings, giving up one run on three hits and striking out four.

 

“We were concerned to bring him back at that point,” said Morris of Suarez, who threw 83 pitches. “We had to go to the pen sooner than what we really wanted to.”

 

Said Suarez: “If the lightning delay would’ve only been for 30 minutes, I would’ve gone back, but since it was too long, I knew I was out.”

 

Closer Bryan Garcia pitched a 1-2-3 ninth and ended Game 1 by retiring pinch-hitter Brett Hileman on a groundout to second.

 

Freshman All-American left-hander Michael Mediavilla pitched a perfect seventh and eighth to hand the game over to Garcia.

 

VCU starter JoJo Howie, a left-handed pitcher with a tremendous backstory pitching with muscular dystrophy, remained in the game after the fifth-inning delay and held Miami’s lineup, which leads the nation in runs per game and on-base percentage, to three runs (none earned) on four hits and three walks over 6.1 innings.

 

While the runs were unearned, it was his throwing error that allowed the Canes to score all the runs they did in the second.

 

“I probably should’ve set my feet,” Howie said. “I had more time than I thought. I was trying to let my shortstop get to second base and instead of taking an extra step, I rushed my throw and I tried to slow down the throw to let him get to the base. It was a mental error more than anything else.”

 

Jacob Heyward drove in two with a single up the middle in that inning, and Ricky Eusebio, who finished 2 for 3 with a walk, followed by driving Heyward home on a nearly-identical base hit after Heyward stole second.

 

“Just having a right-field approach,” said Heyward, who went 1 for 3 with the run and two RBI. “[Howie] can’t strike me out. He didn’t have anything to really get by me. I knew he had off-speed [pitches], so just letting the ball travel.”

 

The Rams got one of those runs back when a slow Logan Farrar dribbler to first scored Bunn, who led off the frame getting hit by a pitch.

 

Game Notes

·        On Miami being one win away from Omaha, Morris said: “I’m excited. If you’re a player and you’re not excited, then something’s wrong with you.”

·        Thomas Woodrey (7-2, 2.84 ERA) will face Heath Dwyer (10-2, 2.85) in Game 2 on Saturday.

·        Stiffler had more to say on the controversial interference call: “There’s nothing you can coach your kid to do. Young man’s looking to me like, ‘What did I do wrong?’ You did nothing wrong. It’s just part of the rule.”

·        VCU had won 14 of its past 15 games coming in and extended a streak of games giving up three runs or fewer to 16 games.

·        Said Howie on returning after the delay: “I’ve kind of always pitched through aches and pains my entire life, so this was nothing. … Honestly, it was like a restart. I got to come out and have better stuff than when I first came out. I just kind of viewed it as a second chance.”

·        VCU leads the nation in getting hit by pitches. Postgame Suarez said, “[Pitching coach J.D. Arteaga] told me before the game that they crowd the plate, so if I’m going in, make sure it’s middle in.” Suarez did hit one batter.

·        On Miami’s potent offense getting held to three runs, which is commonplace for Virginia Commonwealth pitching, Heyward said, “[Howie] pitched well, hit his spots. We hit a lot of hard shots, just didn’t go our way.”