Canes Lose First Series of the Season

This was a pretty disappointing end to the regular season. This afternoon's 12-11 loss to UNC gave Miami their first series loss of the year and should (at least in my opinion) drop them to 2nd in the polls, considering the Tar Heels were ranked 2nd coming into the weekend.

Things started off well, with a 12-2 blasting of UNC on Thursday night, thanks again to the solid pitching performance of freshman Chris Hernandez. However, the team's ace, Erik Erickson, got rocked on Friday night for 7 runs in just 5 innings. UNC tallied 16 hits and the early deficit was too much to bear and Miami fell 10-6 despite a pair of home runs from Mark Sobolewski and Yonder Alonso.

Today was the all-important rubber match that saw UNC barely edge Miami 2-1 in the series. Unfortunately, Enrique Garcia couldn't seem to shake his struggles and the Tar Heels took advantage. So far it has seemed that UM's only weakness this year has been their Sunday starter in Garcia. More often than not, the offense has had to bail him out and today it wasn't enough.

Garcia allowed 6 runs (4 earned) in only 3 innings, creating an early hole for the Canes to dig themselves out of despite their early offensive explosion. However, the blame isn't solely on him, as David Gutierrez allowed 6 more in just over an inning of work before the rest of the bullpen plugged the leak. The loss lies squarely on their shoulders, but I'm sure they've beaten themselves up more than I intend to.

You can't really blame the offense at all, for dropping an average of almost 10 runs on the #1 pitching staff in the country. It was just our pitching staff that dropped the ball, forcing our offense to do too much. It for sure wasn't Yonder Alonso's fault. He hit his 19th homer this afternoon and it was nearly enough to keep the Canes in the game.

Though the loss was disappointing, the Canes did clinch the ACC regular season title on Thursday night and will have the top seed entering the upcoming ACC Tournament. The goal is to win that and secure the top overall seed heading into the College World Series.