Crushing Disappointment for Canes

They rolled through the regular season like a team possessed. Besides a couple of notable slip-ups against Sun Belt competition and UNC, it didn't matter which team they faced or where. They acquired the most victories in school history (53) since 2001. And when it all mattered, the Canes folded, and are now heading home without a College World Series title.

It was complete and utter domination by the Stanford Cardinal, who beat the Canes 8-3 on Wednesday to stay alive and meet Georgia to determine who advances in Omaha to the championship round. The Cardinal rocked UM starter Enrique Garcia for 5 runs on 8 hits in 4 1/3 innings. By the 6th inning, it was 8-1 and you could see the futile desperation in every Miami swing of the bat thereafter. The Canes, who had made a living off of scoring double digit runs in the regular season, suffered from a monumental offensive collapse that will have Canes baseball faithful scratching their heads for a long time. For a team that had typified offensive pyrotechnics throughout the season, it was quite dismaying to see their bats so loudly silent.

And so it ends for Miami. They spent most of the year firmly entrenched in the top spot in all relevant college baseball polls. They won the school's first ACC championship. They had 3 players picked in the first round for the first time ever. But none of that consoles players or fans. They wanted to bring the 5th national baseball title back home to Coral Gables, and in that most important of measures, they failed quite spectacularly. Baseball is a game of streaks, and the point is that they were at their coldest when it mattered most, which proves them unworthy of being called champions. This team, for all of its promise, will be known as one of the biggest disappointments/teases in school history.