The Miami Hurricanes Baseball team is red hot and riding a seven-game winning streak as they hit the road to take on an in-state opponent on Tuesday night. After a dominant three game series sweep of Dartmouth where the Canes outscored the Big Green 35-9, Miami will make the short bus ride up to Boca Raton to take on the FAU Owls in the first of four matchups throughout the 2023 season. The Canes will arrive at FAU ranked #22 in the most recent polls and will look to continue their recent offensive onslaught against a 6-1 FAU squad that is coming off a weekend series win against USF.
Following a slow offensive start in their season opening series against Penn State, the Canes’ bats caught fire as they averaged 11 runs per game in the next five games. In their most recent win, Miami put up a 20-run performance on 21 hits. The Canes have been winning big with the long ball so far this season, out homering their opponents 22-6 through eight games. While many of the Miami batters have been seeing the ball well in the box, with five players currently batting over .350, there might not be a player in the country more comfortable at the plate than Miami’s Zach Levenson. Levenson is currently batting .538 and is tied for the team lead with 3 home runs. It would be hard to find another trio in the country that has done as much damage offensively as Levenson, Blake Cyr and LifeWallet athlete Yohandy Morales. The three are all batting over .400 and have combined for 9 home runs and 32RBIs.
On the mound the Canes will be rolling with right-handed pitcher Ben Chestnutt. Chestnutt is coming off of an impressive showing against Indiana State last Wednesday where he went 5 innings while only allowing a single run. The Miami bullpen has been in a groove as well, headlined by Andrew Walters. Walters was just named to the NCBWA Stopper of the Year Award watch list, an award given to the top reliever in college baseball. While the offensive explosion stole the show, the Miami pitching staff has only allowed 2 runs over the last 2 games. The Canes’ pitching staff will be tested as FAU has scored 8 runs or more in 5 of their last 6 games.
On the opposite side of the diamond, the Canes will face a solid FAU squad fresh off of a blowout midweek win against UCF and then a 2-1 weekend series win against USF. FAU has been led by 6’2 infielder, Jackson Ross, out of Lakeland. Ross leads the team with 4 homeruns and is also leading the Owls with a batting average of .393. Looking to extinguish the Miami offense will be left-handed pitcher Evan Waterbor as he makes his second career start. In his first start, Waterbor allowed just one run in four innings against UCF last week.
The Miami Hurricanes swept FAU in their meetings last season and will look to keep that streak, as well as their seven-game overall win streak, alive at 6:30 in Boca Raton. This will be a big midweek matchup for the Canes as they look to stay on track before making the trip up to Gainesville for a huge weekend series matchup against the Florida Gators.