Miami Hurricanes edge NC State, snap ACC tournament blues and advance to semifinal
The 11th-ranked Miami Hurricanes will face the nation’s No. 1 team on Saturday in the Atlantic Coast Conference baseball tournament semifinal after defeating North Carolina State 4-2 on Thursday night at Durham Bulls Athletic Park.
UM’s victory Thursday, witnessed by a stadium bathed in red with local Wolfpack fans, was its first in an ACC tournament game since 2019 after going 0-2 in each of the 2021 and 2022 ACC tourneys. The 2020 season was cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic.
But before the ACC No. 4 seed Canes (38-18) meet top-ranked and top-seeded Wake Forest (46-9) at 1 p.m. Saturday, they still have to face No. 5 seed Duke (35-20) at 3 p.m. Friday in a game that is required in the conference’s tournament pool format. Tournament rules dictate that if all three teams in any of the four pools finish 1-1 after playing the other two teams in their pool, the highest seeded team in each of those pools advances to the semifinal. Thursday’s win ensured that the worst UM – the top-seeded team in Pool D – could do in its pool is finish 1-1. Thus, the semifinal berth.
NC State fell to 35-19.
The victory and semifinal berth should help the Canes in their quest to be named on Sunday night one of 16 regional hosts when the NCAA tournament begins June 2. The NCAA will reveal the tournament’s field of 64 at noon Monday on the ESPN2 selection show.
Hurricanes All-American closer Andrew Walters, who entered the game 4-0 with a 1.21 ERA, came in early with two outs in the seventh and after allowing a single to Chase Nixon, got Eli Serrano to line out to right field. He retired the side in the eighth and ninth for his 24th career save and 10th this season.
“Just go right after them,’’ Walters told the ACC Network after the win. “That’s been my game plan the entire time.
“Playing on the road is something we need to do. ...No opponent really keeps our frame of mind any different. We’re going after them the way we take every game.’’
Rafe Schlesinger (3-1) pitched two thirds of an inning for the win.
The home-run smacking Hurricanes, who came into the game 11th in the nation with 106 for the season, immediately started strong when leadoff hitter CJ Kayfus walked and Edgardo Villegas boomed a 2-run homer to right-center for No. 107.
The home-team Wolfpack answered by loading the bases in their half of the first and tying the score with a 2-run single to left-center by Eli Serrano III.
The Canes made it 3-2 in the fourth on a double by Dominic Pitelli and RBI-single by Renzo Gonzalez. But they also left bases loaded in each of the third and fourth innings — including when UM Golden Spikes Award semifinalist Yohandy Morales watched a third strike to end the fourth — and left runners stranded on second and third base in the fifth.
Morales struck out swinging the next time UM loaded the bases in the eighth, but Jacoby Long then came home on a wild pitch by reliever Carson Kelly for a 4-2 UM lead.
Miami had nine hits but struck out 13 times and was 2 of 13 with runners in scoring position, stranding 12.
