Miami Season Is Over: Miami Hurricanes Exit NCAA CWS 2016 In Rare Loss Over Gaucho’s 5-3 Victory
ByIt may be a rare loss for the Miami Hurricanes which in return, a massively surprising win for the Gauchos team celebrating its first appearance in Omaha. Coach Andrew Checketts did not hid elation over the win and said it was their first program NCAA World Series win and he sure looked like it.
Miami, Florida and Texas Tech got a combined 0-4 in Omaha. The Miami Canes (50-14) for their second time went 0-2 for in their 25 CWS appearances, Their first happened some 37 years ago sometime in 1979. Meanwhile, Santa Barbara (43-19-1) struck with four runs right after the 1-hour and 2-minute delay due to the rain in the sixth inning, NCAA posted.
Ryan Cumberland lay down during the delay and made it 3-1 with his one-out, bases-packed crash down the first-base line. The Gauchos put in two more big runs before their inning end with back-to-back squeeze plays. The Canes commenced their scoring on Zack Collins' 16th homerun of the season through the first inning off Davis (7-4) and Gauchos' JJ Muno isolated in a parallel run in the bottom half off Danny Garcia (9-5). Offenses came sterile and careful until the rain broke out before the sixth inning, ABC News reported.
After the rain, Garcia returned to the mound and got a fly out before Muno drilled over the right-field corner. Reliever Frankie Bartow issued a walk while Cumberland pinch hit for Kyle Plantier released the biggest hit of his career.
Nos. 8 and 9 batters, Billy Fredrick and Ryan Clark, respectively laid down the grip bunts. Not giving up, Miami attempted to come back against Nelson. They tried to string together four straight hits in the eighth. Randy Batista and Collins tried stake on the runs. But Davis got out of it when he startled Ruiz with a slider which stranded the runners on first and third, ABC News added. Miami gained hope from one out in the ninth. However, Christopher Barr's comebacker to Nelson embarked on a game-ending double play.
At the end of the game, Collins said Miami's season should not be defined due to what happened at the NCAA CWS.