Canes Facing Elimination

Man, that was a heartbreaker. I don't know how---with our lineup--- your pitching staff can strike out well over a dozen opposing batters and still lose. If any of you didn't catch the game last night, you would understand just why people say you need luck to win a championship.

No matter how good this UM team is, it's still baseball and anyone can beat anybody on any given day. Last night was a great example. A below-par Arizona starting rotation featured a guy who did a nice job keeping UM's offense in check and the game went into the 9th tied at 3.

After Kyle Bellamy held things down for the Canes, the bad luck started. Catcher Yasmani Grandal led off the innings with a shot that easily should have cleared the center field fence. Everyone knew it when it left the bat. Somehow, the wind knocked it down before it could clear the fence for the winning home run and Grandal had to settle for a double.

That's fine, seeing as how the top of the lineup was up. But after a check-swing strikeout by Blake Tekotte, the bad luck continued. On a wild pitch, Jemile Weeks got hit on the foot and advanced to first. Had he just pulled his foot away at the last second, the pinch runner Jonathan Weislow would have been at 3rd on the wild pitch and a sac fly with 1 out would have been more than enough to close the game out. Instead Weislow had to return to 2nd.

It's still good, with our superstar Yonder Alonso up to bat. I remember specifically saying "Come on Yonder, show us why you were a Top 10 pick." Just as those words left my mouth, he absolutely hammered a pitch to deep center field. Without that crazy wind, that ball would have easily cleared 450 feet. There was no doubt in my mind it was a walkoff home run and I celebrated as soon as I heard the smack of the ball. Instead of the ensuing jubilation, however, was the absolute shock of seeing a perfectly hit ball get knocked down by the wind YET AGAIN and get caught by the outfielder. To make matters worse, Weislow had also assumed the pitch was long gone and was halfway to home by the time he realized he hadn't tagged up and the inning ended on a double play.

From there, I knew it was over. You just can't recover from bad luck like that. The game ended on that play, not on the 3 run shot allowed by Carlos Gutierrez in the 11th. Hopefully the Canes can regroup in time for today's game, because if not, the season is over in extreme disappointment. I know for a fact we have one of the top 3, if not the top team in the country. Losing at any point in the College World Series shouldn't be an option for these guys.