Through the first few innings of Tuesday night’s game against Lehigh, Miami’s bats seemed to be in the same slumber that led to the recent loss against Florida.
But thanks to a midgame comeback, the No. 6 Hurricanes were able to defeat the Mountain Hawks, 9-2.
Miami’s (6-1) bats came alive in the fifth and six innings, scoring seven runs in the two frames and winding up with a season-high 14 hits against Lehigh (4-6).
“It was a little scary there in the beginning,” head coach Jim Morris said. “I didn’t think we were swinging the bat as well as I’d like to. We were striking out too much and we were just off balance.”
The game marked the first of 15 midweek games that the Canes will play this season.
“Last year, we struggled with midweek games,” Morris said. “I talked about [it] yesterday with our team: We’ve got to play well not just on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, but we’ve got to play well in the middle of the week too if we want to stay a top-eight team in the country. That’s our goal right now going into super regional or regional.”
Junior right-hander Jason Santana (2-0) pitched 5 1/3 solid innings of work. The relief pitching of freshman left-hander Iden Nazario and sophomore right-handers Anthony Nalepa and John Housey threw 3 2/3 shut-out innings while allowing only one hit and striking out eight.
“Santana threw really well and I was very excited by the way Iden [Nazario] came in and threw,” Morris said. “We need a lefty coming out of the ‘pen and the other two guys came in and threw very well too. You’ve got to have a bullpen if you want to win and go where you want to go.”
Junior second baseman Jemile Weeks went 3-for-5 with two runs and a career-high three stolen bases while freshman designated hitter Joey Terdoslavich hit 2-for-4 with three RBI and blasted his first career home run.
“The key thing for me was just getting on base,” Weeks said. “I got on and I was just making good reads … This definitely helped me out tonight to get my confidence up and everything.”
The Canes open up their ACC schedule with a series against Boston College at Mark Light Field starting at 7 p.m. Friday.
“Hopefully they’ll let me throw this weekend [because] that was my main focus to keep my pitch count low so I could be ready,” Santana said. “It was a good win for the team and hopefully we can get it started now against Boston College and continue to just keep staying on a roll.”
Christina De Nicola may be contacted at c.denicola@umiami.edu.