Tag Archive for: College Baseball

Miami baseball hosts Lafayette riding 5-game winning streak

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The Miami Hurricanes baseball team hosts Lafayette for a four-game weekend series starting Friday at 7 p.m. The Hurricanes have started the season on a five-game winning streak after sweeping Lehigh last weekend and beating Central Florida on Tuesday and Indiana State on Wednesday.

The bats have led the way for the Hurricanes thus far this season. Through these first five games, the Hurricanes have scored the third most runs in the country (71), behind fellow ACC contenders Virginia and Georgia Tech.

Seven Miami batters have hit a home run so far, with Derek Williams and Alex Sosa tying for the team lead with three dingers each. Williams leads with nine RBI while Alonzo Alvarez leads in batting average (.636) and OPS (2.169).

Miami always enters a season with College World Series aspirations. An influx of transfers has given the lineup new life. Vance Sheahan, a junior infielder from USC-Upstate, has driven in seven runs including a walk-off two-run home run against UCF on Tuesday. Sosa, a junior catcher from North Carolina State, is batting .318 and is already a third of the way from matching his career-high 10 homers from last season. Cian Copeland, who played junior college ball at Miami-Dade, is currently 5-for-9 with seven RBI.

“We have to stay on the one goal we have, and I’m sure everybody knows that one goal we got,” Copeland said. “It’s to go to Omaha.”

A central point of the strength of Miami is in the catcher position. While Sosa is swinging a hot bat, he is typically slotted in the lineup as the designated hitter because Alvarez, a freshman who recently celebrated his 20th birthday, has emerged as a promising catcher in his own right. In Miami’s most recent game against Indiana State, Alvarez doubled and homered in the Hurricanes’ 6-2 win on Wednesday.

“The standard to start here as a freshman, I know the standard is high,” Alvarez said. “[Sosa’s] kind of taken me in as an older brother, and I learned a lot from him. Even off the field, I learned a lot, and it kind of just took a little bit of pressure off my shoulders.”

Sosa and Alvarez have the benefit of being mentored by Director of Program Development Jarrod Saltalamacchia, who spent 12 years as a Major League catcher including with the Miami Marlins and Boston Red Sox.

“It’s great to have Salt in here to kind of help all that,” Alvarez said.

AJ Ciscar is projected to start Friday, looking to follow up on his promising Opening Night start, where he allowed one run on five hits with seven strikeouts in five innings. Tate DeRias entered his sophomore season being promoted from weekday starter and reliever to Sunday starter. He struck out nine batters in 4.2 innings during Miami’s 27-3 win over Lehigh last Sunday.

“[Miami head coach JDArteaga] doesn’t necessarily want us to always pitch for strikeout, but the goal for the offseason was definitely to get more swings and misses,” DeRias said. “That’s what I worked on and obviously [Sunday] it was kind of on display.”

Lafayette will play its first game of the season in Miami after the Leopards’ original opening series against Coppin State was cancelled. The Leopards went 14-35 last season, including 9-16 in the Patriot League. They return outfielder Jack Mislan, who batted .261 with eight home runs and 36 RBI as a freshman.

There will be a double-header Saturday starting at 2 p.m., and a matinee Sunday at 1 p.m.

North Carolina’s Caleb Roberts catching on with Lightning

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The Delray Beach Lightning is currently the hottest team in the South Florida Collegiate Baseball League. They nailed their ninth victory in the last 10 games. For the 18-6 rout over the South Division-leading West Boca Snappers on Monday, they leaned on catcher Caleb Roberts.

One of the catalysts of that victory, Roberts, went 3-for-4 with four RBIs. He raised his batting average to .341 for the summer. Roberts has spent the summer working to return to his original position after spending his collegiate career at right field for the North Carolina Tar Heels.

“Getting the reps here in the [SFCBL] has helped a lot,” Roberts said, “and catching every day has given me a chance to show scouts, and myself really, that I can catch at this level.”

Prospect Watch: C Caleb Roberts

Caleb Roberts arrived to North Carolina as a catcher. A knee injury, though, forced him to adjust to the outfield during his freshman year. He played in 54 games, started 40 of them for the 46-19 Tar Heels. He batted .227 with 23 runs, 17 RBI and a .374 on-base percentage. But perhaps his most memorable moment from that season came in the ACC Tournament opener against Virginia.

Roberts entered the game as a pinch hitter in the bottom of the tenth inning with the bases loaded. He was hit by a pitch, making it a painful, yet rewarding walk-off winner. In order for the Tar Heels to continue on towards their conference championship run, Roberts had to literally take one for the team.

He played only in the season opening series of the 2020 spring that was cut off after 19 games due to the COVID-19 outbreak. After the Cape Cod League cancelled their season, summer baseball in the wake of the pandemic was not a sure thing. For Roberts, getting to play in the SFCBL makes up for losing his sophomore season.

South Florida Roots

“Having the chance to play down here in one of the only leagues going on in the entire country is a great experience,” Roberts said.

Like many of the players in the SFCBL, Roberts is a South Florida native. He won the FHSAA 8A State Championship in 2018 with St Thomas Aquinas in a senior year worthy of the title “Mr. Baseball.” That year he was ranked the No. 6 catching prospect in Florida by Perfect Game after batting .494 with a .988 slugging percentage, 53 RBI and six home runs.

Beating his old rivals again and winning the league title for the Lightning would certainly mean a lot to Roberts.

“I played with a bunch of these kids in high school and played against them in travel ball,” Roberts said. “To win would be pretty cool.”