Speaking of Baseball

The 2nd ranked Canes start their series against Duke tonight. Miami is coming off a 6 game win streak, including a late rally against Bethune Cookman earlier this week. Miami is a little under halfway through the regular season and has posted an impressive 19-2 record, with losses coming to UF and NC State.

The MVP so far is arguably 2nd baseman Jemile Weeks. Weeks leads the team in batting average, runs, hits, doubles, triples, homers, total bases and slugging. That's impressive considering we have some solid bats in this lineup. Yonder Alonso may not be too far behind (2nd in almost every one of the aforementioned categories), but I would give 2nd place to freshman pitcher Chris Hernandez.

The lefty is 4-0 in 5 starts and has posted a spectacular 1.11 ERA, holding opposing pitchers to a measly .153 batting average. We've gotten some very solid production from Eric Erickson as well. The sophomore lefty is 5-0 in 5 starts, posting a 2.84 ERA and leads the teams in strikeouts with 33 (Hernandez has 32).

In fact, our entire starting rotation has been pretty solid outside of Enrique Gutierrez, who has struggled but has also been bailed out by the offense this season. None of our starting pitchers have a loss on their belts. The entire pitching staff has collectively a 3.51 ERA, compared to opposing pitchers who have struggled against our lineup with an 8.47 ERA.

From what I've seen so far, it would be a huge disappointment if Miami didn't make the CWS. I would bet it is safe to say the Canes are a legitimate title contender at this point. However, we have to see how UM does against the meat of its ACC schedule before we start jumping to conclusions and predicting championships.