Miami Baseball - Headed to Omaha for 22nd Time

The Canes are headed back to Omaha and based on the ups and downs of the 2006 season, that feat is nothing short of amazing.

The same Canes who went 1-2 in the ACC Tournament and didn't host a Regional -- let alone a Super Regional -- are headed back to the College World Series.

Miami took down Ole Miss this past weekend in dramatic fashion.

Friday night's game saw the Canes jump out to a 9-3 lead by the top of the fifth inning. Three outs later, the Rebels had tied it and by the end of six, they were up 11-9 and never looked back.

Playing on the road for a Super Regional is difficult enough in its own right, without falling in an 0-1 hole. The Rebels were hungry, one win away their first trip to the College World Series since 1972. They came close last year - actually one OUT away from making the journey.

Miami had other plans, though. After skunking the Rebels 7-0 in front of 9,139 at Swayze Field on Sunday evening - the series was tied 1-1 and Monday's game was anyone's for the taking. Miami ace Danny Gil (4-2) threw one of the best games of his career with six innings of shutout ball - allowing only four hits and posting three strikeouts.

On offense, it was the Nebraska Regional MVP providing the highlights yet again. Jemile Weeks went 3-for-4 with a pair of home runs and had a career-high five RBI, going along with an intentional walk.

On Monday night there were a few heroes.

First and foremost, hat's off to head coach Jim Morris for some gutty in-game moves. Most importantly, his decision to go with closer Chris Perez in the fifth inning. Perez entered the game with Miami trailing 8-7 in and effort to stop the bleeding.

The Canes had a comfortable 3-0 first inning lead, which the Rebels quickly tied up after two. After the third, Miami stretched the lead to 6-3 - but back came Ole Miss in the fourth, holding a 7-6 lead until the bottom of the sixth inning.

The U took an 8-7 lead in the sixth after Tommy Giles and Jon Jay both singled. Giles scored on a Valencia sacrifice fly while Jay stole second and third before scoring on a throwing error.

Par for the course, Ole Miss tied the game back up top of the seventh with a quick solo shot by Chris Coghlan. The Canes survived the inning behind Perez (retiring the next three batters.)

Then Miami broke it open.

Roger Tomas bunted his way on base, Eddy Rodriguez moved him over with a sacrifice bunt, Weeks was intentionally walked, Tommy Giles singled (driving in Tomas), Jay was hit by a pitch and with the bases loaded Valencia stepped to the plate and with two outs and a 2-2 count, delivered the Super Regional knock-out blow in grand fashion. The bases cleared and Miami was ahead 13-8 and never looked back en route to a 14-9 victory.

The Canes square off Saturday night against the Oregon State Beavers at 7pm ET on ESPN. Miami is in Bracket #2 and will face the winner/loser of the Georgia v. Rice contest.

Bracket #1 is 75% teams from the ACC as it features Clemson, Georgia Tech and North Carolina - along with Cal State Fullerton.

Thankfully for the Canes, the bats seem to be waking up before Omaha -- which is the perfect time to get hot. 9 runs on Saturday, 7 on Sunday and 14 on Monday had the Canes averaging 10 runs per game against the Rebels.

They'll need that same kind of action the next few games. Beating Oregon State is a must if Miami is going to do ANYTHING in Omaha this year. Crawling out of the loser's bracket with this year's pitching staff will be difficult. Same to be said for a best-of-three format for the Championship Series.

Regardless of how things play out in Omaha, this is one of those seasons where simply making it to the College World Series is good enough (... almost.) Of course once you get there, why not set your sights on winning?

Curious to see how it all plays out. To think that a few weeks back these Canes were getting smacked up in the ACC Tournament and now they're Omaha-bound. Definitely a testament to how difficult this new conference is and how battle-tested the Canes are after year two in the Atlantic Coast Conference.