The Miami Hurricanes baseball team exploded offensively in a 20-9 rout over Cornell Tuesday to improve their record to 14-2 on the season.
Sophomore third baseman Mark Sobolewski had a career night, going 6-for-6 at the plate while driving in five runs. Sobolewski’s six-hit performance tied a school record held by former Canes Mike Fiore and Kevin Howard.
“You obviously can’t plan on having a day like that,” Sobolewski said. “I was struggling a week ago at this time. I was having better at-bats and tonight I guess it all came together. It’s a result of the last week or two getting in extra work and feeling better.”
Junior right-hander Jason Santana struggled for the first time this season and lasted only two innings after giving up four runs. Santana was 3-0 with a 1.02 ERA entering the game.
Miami’s bullpen did not fare better in the fifth inning, surrendering six runs in the fifth inning, cutting Miami’s lead to 11-9.
Sophomore right-hander David Gutierrez stopped any momentum Cornell had going by throwing three scoreless innings in relief. The Hurricanes lineup scored nine unanswered runs to put the game out of reach.
“That was an ugly win,” head coach Jim Morris said. “But we won the game. We’ve got to pitch better. They scored too many runs off our pitchers. That’s the bottom line.”
The Hurricanes bounced back from a heartbreaking loss on Sunday to North Carolina State, 11-10. Miami led by two runs in the bottom of the eighth inning before closer Carlos Gutierrez surrendered a three-run home run. The game was called after the at-bat because of a curfew rule initiated before the start of the game.
The Hurricanes won the series thanks to strong starting pitching from starters Eric Erickson and Chris Hernandez.
Erickson won his fourth straight game to open the season by limiting the Wolfpack to just one run over six innings. After the Wolfpack got within three runs after a four-run seventh, sophomore righthander Kyle Bellamy shut the door by recording the final seven outs.
Second baseman Jemile Weeks went 4-for-5 with 4 RBI in the victory.
Miami held on to a 2-1 win on Saturday to take the series. Hernandez tossed 7 1/3 innings and struck out five batters to improve his record to 3-0. Gutierrez closed the game and recorded his fourth save.
Miami would like to see improvement from the backend of the rotation and middle relief, which took a step backward the past two games. Senior right-hander Enrique Garcia remains winless and had a rough outing Sunday.
With the Tuesday victory, the Hurricanes are off to their best start under Morris since 1995.
Alex Kushel may be contacted at a.kushel@umiami.edu.
Miami makes new winning streak
Powerful offense and much-improved pitching led Miami to another mid-week victory, topping the New Jersey Institute of Technology, 13-1.
Perhaps best known for their winless basketball team, NJIT didn’t fare much better on the diamond against the Canes. John Housey earned his first decision of the year, after pitching six innings, allowing five hits and one run.
The double-digit scoring was evenly distributive, with no Miami player accumulating more than two RBI’s. Freshman Joey Terdoslavich led the Canes in hits with three.
-Matthew Bunch
In the story which ran in the print version of The Miami Hurricane, the final score of the Miami/NJIT game was said to be 10-1. It was in fact 13-1. The Miami Hurricane apologizes for the error.