The Miami Hurricanes baseball team is back in the NCAA tournament. The Hurricanes (31-24) on Monday were named as the No. 3 seed in the Hattiesburg regional, hosted by No. 16 national seed Southern Miss (44-14). The rest of the field in that regional includes No. 2 seed Alabama (41-16) and No. 4 seed Columbia (29-17). Miami begins tournament play against the Crimson Tide at 3 p.m. Friday and will be televised on ESPN2. The regional portion of the tournament is a double-elimination format, meaning a team is eliminated following two losses. The Hattiesburg Regional is paired with No. 1 overall seed Vanderbilt’s regional, so the winners of those two regionals will play a best-of-3 series in the super regionals for a spot in the eight-team College World Series. The Hurricanes making the field is due in large part to a late-season surge. Miami was 15-15 in early April and had won just two of its first nine games in Atlantic Coast Conference play. After that, UM went on a tear in league play, winning five consecutive conference series against Pittsburgh, Duke, Georgia Tech, Boston College and North Carolina State, going 15-3 overall in that stretch (including midweek games) to significantly boost its RPI and get into good enough standing to be a contender to make the tournament. A sluggish finish — getting swept by Virginia, dropping two of three to Notre Dame and a first-round exit in the ACC tournament to Cal — eliminated any slim hopes of Miami getting a host bid or even being a regional No. 2 seed but wasn’t enough to knock them out of making the tournament all together.
Can Miami advance out of regional? The Hurricanes haven’t made it past the regional round of the NCAA tournament since 2016, the last time they made it to the College World Series. This will be the third time in five NCAA tournament appearances since then that Miami will travel for the regional round after having to travel to Starkville, Mississippi, in 2019 and Gainesville in 2021. UM hosted in both 2022 and 2023. Miami missed the tournament in 2017, 2018 and 2024. There was no NCAA tournament in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Top players If the Hurricanes want any chance of making a run in the NCAA tournament, there are a few players who will need to step up. On the mound, it will start with Griffin Hugus. The sophomore righty, a transfer from Cincinnati, paces the Hurricanes with 81 innings pitched over 15 starts, striking out 85 batters while holding opponents to a .235 batting average against. He had six quality starts — pitching at least six innings while allowing no more than three earned runs — this season, including four in ACC play (against North Carolina, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh and Boston College).
If the Hurricanes have a lead late, then they’ll trust Brian Walters to close the door. Walters moved from the rotation to the bullpen midseason and excelled in the closer role, logging eight saves in 11 relief appearances. He had scoreless outings in eight of those 11 relief outings. At the plate, infielders Daniel Cuvet and Jake Ogden lead the way. Cuvet, a sophomore, leads Miami in home runs (16), doubles (17), RBI (76), batting average (.378), slugging percentage (.711) and on-base-plus-slugging (1.161). Ogden, a junior and transfer from UNC Greensboro, hit .350 with 11 doubles, eight home runs and 57 runs scored while going a perfect 12 for 12 in stolen bases.
