A strong start from freshman Karson Ligon led Miami to a 5-0 beginning to the 2022 season.
Karson Ligon worked five scoreless innings to go along with eight strikeouts in his first career start as he earned his first career win and led Miami to a 5-0 record so far in 2022. Miami’s offense was excellent again to complement the strong start, with nine runs and ten hits on the evening. The Hurricanes have now scored 54 runs across their first five games of this season.
Miami started the game quickly on offense. CJ Kayfus led Miami off with a double to left field. He advanced to third on a groundout from Dominic Pitelli and then scored on a line-drive RBI-single from Yohandy Morales to give the Hurricanes an early 1-0 lead.
In the third inning, FAU scored their only run off of Miami starter Karson Ligon when Nolan Schanuel hit a solo home run to the right field corner. Ligon was excellent in his first collegiate start, working with a 90-94mph fastball and a changeup that was extremely effective during his entire outing. Ligon finished the night with five one-run innings, allowing just two hits and two walks, and eight strikeouts.
Miami retook the lead with a three-run bottom of the third inning. CJ Kayfus started the inning with a bunt single and reached second on a wild throw to first base. Dominic Pitelli walked to give Miami two men on with nobody out, and after a flyout advanced both runners to scoring position, Maxwell Romero hit a sac-fly to score the first run of the inning. Lorenzo Carrier was hit by a pitch to load the bases for Miami, and then back-to-back singles scored two runs for the Hurricanes and made the score 4-1 after three innings.
Both teams went scoreless in the middle innings, and neither team scored until the Hurricanes extended the lead in the seventh inning. The inning began with a two-base error that allowed Yohandy Morales to reach second. Back-to-back walks followed to load the bases with nobody out for Dorian Gonzalez. Gonzalez grounded into a fielder’s choice, with FAU electing to throw Morales out at home to prevent the run from scoring. Fortunately for Miami, Maxwell Romero scored on a wild pitch during the next at-bat to make the score 5-1. Jacob Burke followed with a two-run RBI-single to right field that made the score 7-1. Jacoby Long hit his first career home run to score the final two runs of the inning and give Miami a 9-1 lead heading to the eighth inning.
On the mound Miami’s bullpen followed Karson Ligon’s exceptional performance with one of their own. The Hurricanes’ bullpen worked four consecutive scoreless innings, allowing no hits and two walks. Miami allowed just two hits in the game as a team, and retired five straight batters to end the game.
The Hurricanes are off to a 5-0 start in 2022. Miami next plays on Friday night to start a weekend series against Harvard before playing Florida the weekend of March 4-6. Miami has scored nine or more runs in every game they’ve played this season.
Game Info
Winning Pitcher: Karson Ligon (1-0, 5.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 8 K)
Losing Pitcher: Marc DeGusipe (0-1, 2.2 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 1 BB 2 K)
Save: None