Three Takeaways from No. 24 Miami's Series Loss to Boston College
CORAL GABLES, Fla. — The Miami Hurricanes entered the season as a dark-horse Omaha team, and even after their first series loss to Florida, the Canes still had many believing they could restore residence to a place they once called home.
Now, after dropping their second series in a row, this time to the Boston College Eagles, some concerns have started to rise from the ashes of this once-promising team.
It is still early in the season to really know what this team can be, but with these glaring issues, they need to be fixed quickly before things fall behind.
Bullpen Woes
The bullpen is rough right now for the Miami Hurricanes. All offseason, the Canes brought in arms and recruited many to add to one of the main weaknesses from last season. However, it could be worse than last season.
They've got to have some confidence, right? I mean, we've got some good arms. You know, [Lazaro Collera's] a good arm. Bika's a good arm. It is, you know, we've got to be better at challenging guys to take strikes," Arteaga said after the series loss. "Would be a great job of answering up to the fourth, fifth, whenever it was to tie the game, and we'd come out and walk the first three guys. It can't happen.
"It's those little things that have nothing to do with having a good or bad bullpen. It's a mentality. It's an aggressiveness, it's a go after guys type thing, and, you know, they got to get better at it."
The Canes still wait for two more arms to return from injury that could shuffle the rotation and add some dpeth into the pen. Nick Robert is expected back during the Creighton series, and the week after against Clemson, Florida transfer Frank Menendez is also expected back. This could chance the entire team outlook for the future and for their Omaha hopes.
Sunday Starter Question Marks
Friday and Saturday seem to be locked up for the Hurricanes' starters, but Tate DeRias might be the biggest question mark on the roster.
Well, it's a lot of self-inflicted wounds, you know, and it's the Annability sometimes to you know, minimize damage," Arteaga said of DeRias after the Sunday loss. "So, you know, we had a sunball the first hit of the second inning, you know, it's okay. It happens, you know. Then we go a base hit and then a walk, and up for a second, and then let them steal second and third.
"You end up getting out of it, but that's not minimizing. Like, Rob [Evans] did a great job [Saturday]. It was a lead-off double, that rough sport, but it's okay. You face three hitters after that and give up runs. We can live with that. You just have to be able to limit damage."
In the end, change might be coming.
"We're open anything right now," Aretaga said.
Situational Hitting
It may not look like it, but statistically, the Hurricanes have a top-10 offense in the country, and three of the best hitters in the country. The issue is bringing in a runner as well as an injury to a star hitter who is starting to show.
Max Galvin was in the two slot for the Canes before he got injured against UCF. Now, Michael Torres has moved up from ninth to second, which has halted some of the offensive firepower that once was.
Still, the Canes have an electric offense, especially in the middle of the lineup. Derek Williams is the best hitter in the ACC, but the team, all-around, has to find ways to be better with situational hitting.
"I think we scored five runs in each game of the first two innings," Arteaga said. "And then we just kind of settled in and didn't make adjustments and just had no playing. Back to no plan, just big swings and two-strike approaches, and just uncompetitive at-bats.
"You know, and today, it was like that from inning one to. You could say, eight, we didn't, but again, you know, he walked some guys, and we laid off some pitches, but are you going there with the plan? It's a lineup that our strength needs to be the length of our lineup, the pressure, the mental grind that the pitchers have to go through, but we just can't sit back and just let our potential or, you know, our abilities win the game. We've got to make things happen."
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Justice Sandle is a graduate of Mississippi State University earning a Bachelor of Arts and Science in Communications with a concentration in Print and Digital Journalism. During his time in Starkville, he spent a year as an intern working for Mississippi State On SI primarily covering basketball, football, baseball, and soccer while writing, recording, and creating multimedia stories during his tenor. Since graduating, he has assumed the role of lead staff writer for Miami Hurricanes On SI covering football, basketball, baseball, and all things Hurricanes related.
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