The Miami Hurricanes defeated the Virginia Cavaliers 1-0 Saturday night. With the win Miami moves back to .500 at 11-11 (5-3 ACC) on the season and secures another ACC series win. Miami has a chance for their first sweep of the year tomorrow, and Andrew Cabezas will look to repeat his performance from last week in his start tomorrow.

The game passed very quickly and without much action, Miami managed to have 10 hits on the game, but could only score once. Meanwhile, the Hurricanes pitching staff limited Virginia to just three hits, and avoided having to work out of jams for nearly the whole game. The top of the sixth saw what was probably the biggest threat from Virginia in the whole game. The Cavaliers put a man on second with just one out, and it appeared as if they would score until Tony Jenkins made a great grab to prevent any damage:

Evan McKendry was absolutely dominant tonight, the sophomore went seven innings for the home side. In those seven innings McKendry tied his career high for strikeouts at 12, and allowed just six men to reach base. He makes a strong case to earn his third ACC Pitcher of the Week award for this season after this performance.

The Hurricanes earned their only run in the game in the bottom of the second. Isaac Quinones reached first on a single to start the inning, and a fly out and strike out brought struggling Romy Gonzalez to the plate. Romy lifted what appeared to be a harmless fly-ball to left field, but the UVA left fielder lost it in the light and the ball dropped in behind him. Quinones scored from first, and Romy was tagged out at the plate trying to score himself which ended the inning with Miami leading 1-0. Hopefully this lucky break can get Romy going on the season, as it would be a much needed boost to the lineup with Danny Reyes out for the next few weeks.

Besides that offense in the second inning Miami struggled to convert on scoring opportunities, despite having ten hits in the game. Their best chance in the whole rest of the game came in the bottom of the fifth. Romy Gonzalez reached on a one-out double, and it appeared as if he would score on a Tony Jenkins single, but he was thrown out at home after a great defensive play by Virginia.

However it wouldn’t matter, as all Miami would need to win was the one run. It’s great to see two consecutive 7+ inning starts from the Hurricanes starting pitchers. It’ll give the bullpen some much needed rest, and hopefully Miami can use that to their advantage tomorrow and on Wednesday.

Miami’s play has been much better this weekend as compared to their play in the disastrous last few innings against FAU, but it’s time for the Hurricanes to find some consistency. They have a chance to set that standard tomorrow.

Game Info

Winning Pitcher: Evan McKendry (4-2, 7.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 12K)

Losing Pitcher: Daniel Lynch (2-3, 7.0 IP, 8 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 11K)

Save: Frankie Bartow (2)

Box Score:

Next Game

Date & Time: Sunday, March 25, 1:00 PM

Hurricanes Starter: Andrew Cabezas (1-2, 3.79 ERA)

Virginia Starter: Evan Sperling (2-0, 3.04 ERA)

Television: ACC Network Extra

Radio: WVUM 90.5 FM