The Miami Hurricanes finished off a season-opening series sweep of Rutgers and, after a midweek game against Kent State, will have a top-five showdown with the Florida Gators next weekend.
Starting right-hander Slade Cecconi took a no-hitter into the sixth inning and No. 3 Miami cruised to a 13-6 victory over Rutgers at Alex Rodriguez Park at Mark Light Field after also finishing off Saturday night’s victory earlier Sunday afternoon.
“Happy with the sweep,” said Miami coach Gino DiMare. “Happy with the way we pitched. Our starting pitching threw excellent. We started to swing the bat a little better as the weekend went along, but all in all, a good weekend.”
As anticipation builds for Miami’s upcoming weekend series with the No. 4 Gators, DiMare stressed postgame Sunday that his Hurricanes (3-0) cannot overlook Kent State before UF comes to Coral Gables.
“The fans can do that. We can’t,” said DiMare. “You can’t lose midweek games. That was a big problem for us in ’17 and ’18. We did not play well in midweek games, and from my point of view, we weren’t ready. That can’t ever happen. Those games count too.”
Cecconi went 5 1/3 innings before the Scarlet Knights first hit safely off of him. He went six, striking out eight and giving up one run on two hits and a walk.
“It felt great,” Cecconi said. “I felt like I had good command up until that last inning right there, missing some spots there, but I felt like I had good command of my pitches, got ahead of guys and let the defense do the rest.”
The Hurricanes built up an 11-run lead in the series finale before Rutgers (0-3) had a five-run eighth inning off UM relievers to bring the final margin closer.
Miami scored every which way to get five runs across in the first two innings. Catcher Adrian Del Castillo had an RBI single and right fielder Gabe Rivera, who went 2 for 3, drew a bases-loaded walk in the first. In the second, leadoff-hitting left fielder Jordan Lala scored on a wild pitch and center fielder Tony Jenkins and Jared Thomas, who pinch-ran for Del Castillo and caught for him the rest of the afternoon, scored on an error by the Rutgers second baseman on a grounder off the bat of third baseman Raymond Gil.
“It’s always a good feeling to get things started and heated up,” said Jenkins, who was 2 for 3 on Sunday and scored twice.
Miami added two more in the third with an RBI single from designated hitter JP Gates, followed by a sacrifice bunt from second baseman Tyler Paige to score shortstop Anthony Vilar, who went 2 for 4, from third.
After the Scarlet Knights scored on a sacrifice fly in the top of the sixth, Vilar brought two runs home with a double to right-center in the bottom of the frame and later scored on a wild pitch.
Freshman right-hander Jake Garland struck out the side in the seventh inning. The Hurricanes added two runs in the bottom of the seventh and, after the Scarlet Knights’ five-run eighth inning, got one back in the bottom of the frame.
Rutgers, down 12-1, had Peter Serruto hit a two-run home run and Chris Brito a solo shot in the eighth. Between the two, Mike Nyisztor also hit a ball over the left-field wall with two runners on but overran his teammate at first that was watching to see if the ball would get caught. He was ruled out after what went down in the books as a two-run single.
First pitch to Game 3 on Sunday was delayed exactly an hour due to rain after it was originally scheduled to begin at 1:20 p.m. Saturday night’s Game 2 was not completed until early Sunday afternoon as the Hurricanes finished off an 8-2 victory that was picked up in the bottom of the seventh.
“It was a long day,” said DiMare. “That’s regional baseball right there. That’s NCAA Tournament baseball because, a lot of the time, you get weather in June a lot of places, and you got to kind of make adjustments on the fly.”
All of Miami’s runs in Game 2 came via the home run. Del Castillo belted two for three runs in the first three innings on Saturday night.
Before the heavy rains forced Saturday’s postponement, Rivera hit a grand slam in the bottom of the seventh inning. Upon the second pitch of Sunday afternoon’s continuation, Gates drilled a solo homer.
Saturday night’s starter, Chris McMahon, went six innings, striking out nine and giving up two runs on five hits for the win. Albert Maury Jr. pitched the seventh on Saturday night while Alex McFarlane finished things off with two scoreless innings on Sunday.
The Hurricanes face Kent State on Wednesday in a 6 p.m. first pitch before hosting No. 4 Florida beginning on Friday.
