Canes to Meet 'Zona

If you caught any of the Regionals action this weekend you saw the best team in the nation in action. Miami withstood a late Missouri rally before responding in the 8th for a close victory on Saturday. Then they completely dominated an outmatched Ole Miss squad on Sunday night.

Granted, I don't think it's fair that Ole Miss had to beat Missouri and then get an hour of rest before suiting up against the top ranked team on the road. I don't understand the scheduling there, but hey, I'll take it. Eric Erickson allowed an early home run against the Rebels, but regained his composure and the Canes didn't allow a run the rest of the game. Much of that had to do with fantastic shortstop Ryan Jackson, who hasn't received any publicity on this blog, and for that I have to apologize.

Now the Canes host another top seed in Arizona, but I wouldn't be terribly worried. I fully expect Miami to come out strong against a relatively weak pitching staff from the Pac-10 visitors. All the Canes need is to win 2 of 3 and they are heading to Omaha. Perhaps they'll meet FSU there, who barely squeezed into the Super Regionals after having to beat 3-seed Tulane twice to advance.

One thing I was surprised about from this weekend was Jim Morris deciding to go with Enrique Garcia in Game 1 of the Regional. That's fine and dandy until you lose that game and then need to call on your weakest starter to pitch in an elimination game on Sunday night or Monday night. I don't understand why you wouldn't just go with your best guys at the offset. I suppose Morris is thinking that if they win the first two, then they'd have to rely on Enrique to close out the Regional, likely against a better team than 4th seeded Bethune Cookman. Then a loss would kill the momentum. So I see his line of thought there, but it's a risky move. Looks like it paid off though.