Canes Prepare for FIU, Clemson

The nearly consensus 2nd ranked Miami Hurricanes baseball team is about to face off against in-town rival FIU. The Canes are coming off a nice weekend, with a pair of victories over Duke in Durham and a solid thumping of FAU yesterday. The 22-2 Canes have won 9 straight.

Miami opened the series against Duke with an uncharacteristically poor performance by freshman lefty Chris Hernandez. Leave it to me to jinx him by dubbing him the pitching staff's MVP over the first half of the season. Hernandez started off strong but had a rough 5th inning and blew the team's 5-0 lead. He went deep into his pitch count (102) before being relieved in the 7th by Kyle Bellamy and Carlos Gutierrez. Luckily, the Canes' offense is good enough to bail out our young studs when they have off days and Miami rallied to win in extra innings.

Saturday's game was the complete opposite, with Enrique Garcia making me look foolish once again. Garcia shined against the Blue Devils after I had pointed out his season long struggles. Miami topped Duke 8-1 thanks to Garcia's strong performance and a balanced attack throughout the entire lineup. I'm glad Enrique had a good outing, but looking deeper into it, even in his struggles he hadn't lost a game all season. None of our starters have.

Game 3 was canceled due to inclement weather. No biggie there as it gives the Canes' arms an extra day to rest. Miami has been so dominant of late that most of these games have become a formality. I really want to see how they do against FSU and UNC because despite our success, none of the victories have come against teams in the Top 25. #1 ASU in comparison has 6. That's why we haven't been able to crack the top spot.