ACC Roundup: Miami Flips Momentum On N.C. State

DURHAM, N.C.—Edgar Michelangeli turned on a mid-90s fastball from Tommy DeJuneas with a mighty whack, then held his bat out in front of him, pointed it toward the sky, and watched the fruit of his labor sail over the 32-foot Durham Bulls Athletic Park wall in left field.

Michelangeli continued to hold the bat, with only his left hand, as he walked glacially down the first-base line in self admiration. When he saw the ball finally descend into the night, he tossed his bat in a way that might make Jose Bautista blush, then turned his attention toward his Miami teammates in the visiting dugout. It was a go-ahead, three-run home run in the top of the ninth. More than that, it came just a half-inning after North Carolina State’s Chance Shepard had hit a go-ahead home run of his own and stood in the batter’s box for perhaps a second too long.

Emotion reigned supreme Thursday night—just as it did a year ago in the same ballpark, in the same ACC Baseball Championship, when N.C. State’s Preston Palmeiro hit an inside-the-park walk-off home run in the 12th inning to shock the Hurricanes.

It was the Hurricanes who did the shocking this year. On the strength of that three-run Michelangeli home run, Miami defeated the Wolfpack, 8-7, moving to 2-0 in pool play and setting up a decisive showdown with rival Florida State, also 2-0, on Saturday.

Tempers flared as Michelangeli rounded first base and began his trot around the bases—but Michelangeli said he couldn’t hold back his excitement, especially after seeing Shepard admire his own shot the inning before.

“I mean, there was no hard feelings with (the bat flip),” Michelangeli said. “When they did it, we didn’t get angry or anything. And then obviously I got excited and all that stuff, and I found an opportunity to do the same thing, and I did it. But it wasn’t anything—it wasn’t anything, no hard feelings, nothing. It was just excitement, just caught up in the moment.”

It was the most memorable and most meaningful moment in a game full of moments. The game shifted course drastically on more than one occasion. Miami shortstop Brandon Lopez started the scoring with a two-run home run in the third inning, and with the Wolfpack already into its bullpen at that point, momentum seemed squarely on Miami’s side. But an inning later, in the bottom of the fourth, the Wolfpack batted around and took advantage of poor bunt defense by the Hurricanes to tally two bunt singles and plate five runs—a two-run double by Shepard the biggest blow.

“I think everything that could go wrong in the fourth went wrong, and I look at the board, there’s still no errors,” Miami head coach Jim Morris said. “But they had two push bunts, a drag bunt down third with first and second that we didn’t communicate right.

“So a lot of crazy things happened in that inning, but to our credit, our guys fought back.”

Fought back they did, manufacturing two runs in the fifth and tying the game in the eighth on—fittingly—a squeeze bunt single by Christopher Barr to set the stage for Thursday’s late-inning dramatics.

“Every time we play Miami, it’s kind of like that. It’s a battle,” said Palmeiro, who had a few words for Michelangeli as he approached first base in the ninth. “Just something about playing them here, it’s just back and forth all game and play with a lot of energy. That’s why we play the game. You play for those kind of nights where it’s back and forth and coming down to the last inning.”

When Shepard hit his two-run home run in the eighth inning off of the typically reliable Miami reliever Frankie Bartow, the Wolfpack took the lead, 7-5, and had finally seemed in control of the game. But all of that energy and emotion works both ways, and the Hurricanes channeled theirs to muster one final comeback.

“We always are feeding off one another,” said Miami closer Bryan Garcia, who earned his school-record 40th career save Thursday. “Something goes wrong for the other team, we try to jump on them, try and step on their throat. Today, we had to come from behind, and it’s always great to see guys like Edgar, Lopez that have been here three, four years, and they’re having great years, probably their best years since they’ve been here, and we feed off of that . . . Frankie Bartow, first outing that he didn’t have a great one in a month probably, we tried to make sure that we got it back for him.

“And Edgar made sure that happened.”

And then some.

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Enter Sands Man


This was why Florida State recruited righthander Cole Sands, for a performance like this one, on a big stage, with something on the line. In Thursday’s case, that performance came in an ACC Baseball Championship bout with Georgia Tech.

Sands came to FSU highly touted—No. 79 in the 2015 BA 500. His brother, Carson, was an FSU commit before the Cubs drafted him in the fourth round in 2014. Their father, David, is a Florida State alumnus. There’s lineage, there are lofty expectations, and there have been hiccups in Sands’ first season, as he’s gone 5-6, 4.40 as FSU’s Sunday starter. But in Thursday’s 6-1 win against Georgia Tech, Sands showed a glimpse of what all of the fuss is about—a look at what he could be in the future.

Sands held a powerful Georgia Tech offense to one run on three hits in five innings, striking out two. He touched 92 mph with his fastball and mixed in a low 80s breaking ball just enough to keep the Yellow Jackets off balance.

“Cole gave us exactly what we needed, and that was a good start, a quality start,” FSU head coach Mike Martin said. 

Added Sands: “This is the second time I’ve thrown against them this year, so I just knew if I made the same pitches that I did before, try and get them to hit my pitch, and knew that I would have a good outcome.”

Certainly, it helped that Sands got plenty of offensive support, as well. The Seminoles jumped out to a 2-0 lead before he even stepped on a mound. Senior third baseman John Sansone hit a two-run shot over the blue monster in left field for the second straight day in the third inning, powering the ball 397 feet into the second balcony of an office building behind the ballpark. Sophomore first baseman Dylan Busby pulled a two-run homer of his own over the wall in the 7th.

Offensive firepower aside, Sands’ growth can’t be overlooked. The Seminoles need a reliable starting option behind sophomore righthander Drew Carlton as they prepare to head into the NCAA tournament. Starting pitching has been rocky at times for FSU this year and was one reason why the Seminoles dropped their last three ACC series en route to this week’s tournament.

Though a freshman, Sands is an important piece for the Seminoles, and he isn’t alone. FSU is also counting heavily on freshmen left fielder Jackson Lueck and catcher Cal Raleigh, who batted third and fourth in the lineup, respectively, on Thursday. Lueck, a switch-hitter, has electrified the lineup since joining the batting order, hitting .414/.531/.596 in 99 at-bats. He picked up three hits Thursday and scored twice—one on a steal of home. Raleigh has cooled off somewhat of late, but he’s still tied for the team lead in home runs with nine and is batting .304/.403/.520 in 204 at-bats. He drove in the game’s first run with a single Thursday.

All three freshmen are playing significant roles, and Martin praised their development.

“It’s been fun watching the maturation process,” Martin said. “Cole has shown a lot of mental toughness, because he hasn’t been successful every single time he’s gone out there, but he’s learned from each outing.

“Cal is a very fierce competitor. He needs to stop being too mean to Cal. He’s a guy that expects a lot out of himself, but he’s rough on himself.

“Jackson, he is one of a kind. That young man is a tough out. He goes up there, intent, every pitch, and he has, along with Cole and Cal, has a very good future in this game.”

Odds and Ends

• Though N.C. State (34-20) has gone 0-2 in tournament play, head coach Elliott Avent said he remains confident in his team’s hosting chances. “I think we’re hosting anyway,” Avent said. “I think there’s a good chance that anywhere from 12 to 13 teams from the SEC and ACC are going to host, so I think we’re hosting. But every game you win I think helps that, but I assume the committee is watching us, so I don’t think it’s the amount exactly they win. You watch this game, Miami not only may be the best team in the country, they may be the best team I’ve seen since I’ve been at N.C. State.”

• In the first game of the day, No. 6-seed Clemson won a tight 5-4 contest against No. 3-seed Virginia, scratching across the go-ahead run on sacrifice fly by Chase Pinder in the top of the ninth. Junior shortstop Eli White tallied three hits in the game, including a booming double off of the left field wall that drove in one. A smooth fielder, White could garner draft interest in a thin college shortstop class. His bat has always been the question mark, but that wasn’t the case Thursday. “Eli White, offensively, had maybe the best day he’s had all year,” said Clemson head coach Monte Lee. Added White: “I feel very confident at the plate, and I feel like my swing is in a good place. Seeing the ball well today, got some good pitches to hit, and I was able to do some damage with them.

• Virginia’s two top draft prospects, and potential first-rounders, had mixed performances Thursday. Catcher Matt Thaiss had a passed ball behind the plate, but he also hit a left-on-left, game-tying home run in the eighth. Scouts consider his bat far ahead of his defense. Meanwhile, ace righthander Connor Jones wasn’t particularly crisp, walking four and surrendering four runs on four hits in six innings. Jones touched 94 mph in a sharp first, but his command slipped as the game wore on. “Certainly, two of those innings I wasn’t as sharp as I would like to be,” Jones said. “I think I got a way from my plan a little bit, tried to be a little too fine and fell behind in some counts.”