During his 25-year career at Miami, Jim Morris has led the Miami Hurricanes through more than a few high-stakes tournaments.
Most of the young players headed to this week’s ACC Tournament with him, however, likely haven’t faced a challenge as daunting as the one ahead of them now.
While the Hurricanes head to Durham as one of the hottest teams in the nation with their 10-game win streak, a slow start to their roller-coaster season means that without an especially strong showing in the ACC Tournament they’ll likely be on the outside looking in when berths for the NCAA Tournament are announced next Monday.
Morris previously said he believed the Hurricanes (27-25, 16-13) would have to win the conference tournament outright to advance to regional play. But with Miami’s late-season push, Monday he said he was optimistic maybe a berth in the ACC championship game would be enough to extend his final season at Miami just a touch longer.
“It’s time to get it done,” Morris said. “We’ve won the tournament before, we’ve [won] 10 in a row. Now we’ve got to win four more in a row. We’ve beaten the teams we’ve got to play, so let’s go, fight, win.”
Whether a championship game push will be enough to impress the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee remains unknown, but the seventh-seeded Hurricanes do know they can advance as ACC champions. They also know they have their work cut out for them starting with Tuesday night’s game against 11th-seeded Notre Dame (24-28, 12-18). After that, a Thursday game against second-seeded Clemson looms as Miami will continue pool play with its sights set on a berth in Saturday’s semifinals.
The Hurricanes won both of their regular-season series against both the Irish and the Tigers, taking two of three against Notre Dame in March and two of three against Clemson in April.
Knowing they’ve notched victories against both teams and that they enter on a hot streak is a big confidence boost, considering the Hurricanes have started 10 different true freshmen throughout the course of the year.
Now, they’re hoping that dose of confidence will help.
“For these young guys, you don’t know what’s going to happen for them in the future. The fact that they’re facing adversity now as freshmen is a very big step for them,” said junior pitcher Andrew Cabezas, who is scheduled to start Tuesday against Notre Dame. “If we show up and end up do winning the tournament — obviously, we have to go game-by-game — if we end up doing that, it’ll be like, ‘Guys, we can do this, no matter if you’re a freshman or a senior.’ There’s no pressure. The odds are pretty much against us and we have to win every game, but we just have to focus on Game 1. There’s No Game 2 or 3 if we don’t win the first one. That’s our main focus.”
Added Morris, “That confidence thing is huge in baseball. … Hitting, more than anything else. Or even catching a ground ball or pitching, or whatever. It’s a huge thing. The younger you are, the more important it because you haven’t been there before.”
Still Miami knows it cannot afford to take anything for granted this week, especially after what happened a year ago.
Last May, after another season of ups and downs, the Hurricanes saw their 44-year streak of advancing to the NCAA Tournament come to an end. Their clubhouse was left stunned and silent as the final teams in the tournament field were announced and the reality set in that they were one of the last teams left out.
None of the players on the roster want to feel that disappointment again and all of them would like to do their part to send Morris, who is retiring at season’s end, out on as high a note as possible.
“There’s nothing more I want, personally, than to make it as far as we can for [Morris],” said junior third baseman Romy Gonzalez. “He deserves it. He’s had a great career and just leaving on a high horse is what we want to do for him.”
McKendry, Zamora, Bargfeldt honored
A trio of Hurricanes earned recognition from the ACC on Monday with Jeb Bargfeldt, who pitched a complete game two-hit shutout against Boston College last week, earning ACC Pitcher of the Week honors.
Later, the ACC announced fellow pitcher Evan McKendry had earned a spot on the All-ACC Third team, while shortstop Freddy Zamora was named to the ACC’s All-Freshman Team.
McKendry, a former North Broward Prep standout, led the Miami staff with seven wins and 114 strikeouts. He finished the year with a 3.52 ERA.
Zamora, meanwhile, was the only Hurricane to start all 52 games this year and was second on the team with a .310 average. He led all Miami players in hits (63), doubles (12) and triples (four). He was second on the team in runs scored (32), RBI (26), walks (23) and steals (20).
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