J.D. Arteaga shares message to Miami players after surrendering seven-run fourth inning vs. Cal

It wasn’t the start to the ACC Tournament that the Miami Hurricanes were looking for. Already down 2-0, the Hurricanes surrendered seven runs in the top of the fourth inning against the 16-seed Cal Golden Bears on Tuesday morning to go down 9-0.

After getting out of the inning, Miami head coach J.D. Arteaga called his players together and seemed to give them a message. That was a message he’d go on to share with the ACC Network broadcast.

“This is the most resilient team I’ve ever been around, man,” Arteaga said. “We’re not gonna start quitting now. So, we’re not going anywhere. We’ve got a lot of baseball left to play here, and we’re gonna fight until the very end.”

The fourth inning saw Miami go through three different pitchers as they all consistently lost the strike zone. They’d load the bases multiple times, often through walks and a hit by pitch. A handful of singles and an error on the shortstop didn’t help matters for the Hurricanes, and by the time the half-inning was over, it was 9-0 and their backs were against the wall.

One thing Miami is going to need to do is get the bats going quickly. It’s going to take at least 10 runs, assuming the staff doesn’t allow any more runs, to win. That’s been a problem early against Cal pitcher Oliver de la Torre, who faced only 10 batters through the first three innings.

For his part, Arteaga addressed the offense as well. He’s looking for his team to put together better at-bats where they have a plan on attacking de la Torre.

“Just better at-bats,” Arteaga said. “Better swings. It looks like we don’t have much of a plan going out there and trying to hit everything he’s throwing. So, we’ve got to be more selective and put better swings on pitchers that we’re looking for.”

Miami entered the ACC Tournament as the ninth seed. Cal, meanwhile, is the 16th seed. The run to win the tournament is a long one for both sides, but the Hurricanes had to come in with a sense of urgency after dropping five of their last six conference games.

In the latest Field of 64 projections for the NCAA Tournament, Miami is listed as a three-seed that would be headed to the Auburn Regional. That’s not a secured position within the postseason, though, and a bad ACC Tournament showing could be another blow to their metrics at this late stage in the season.