Congrats to Chris Hernandez

Your 2008 Baseball America National Freshman of the Year. UM's left-handed freshman ace boasted an 11-0 record with a 2.72 ERA with 117 strikeouts. He, along with the slew of players drafted in the first round of last month's MLB Draft, remains one of the lone bright spots in one of the most disappointing (if not the most) seasons in Hurricane baseball history. The Canes, after steamrolling their way through the regular season, spending most of the year at #1, laid an egg in the College World Series, being unceremoniously ejected after just 3 games.

Hats off to you, Mr. Hernandez - we'll be counting on you next year to be a young but already accomplished leader.

UM's Hernandez Continues To Impress

UM freshman pitcher Chris Hernandez, 7-0 on the season and boasting a 2.77 ERA, was named ACC Pitcher of the Week on Monday. Last Friday, during UM's 1-0 victory over No. 16 Virginia, Hernandez struck out eleven batters and gave up only two hits in eight shutout innings.

The Canes are 36-5 (20-2 in the ACC) and will face St. Mary's for a weekend series beginning Friday. Canes fans will remember St. Mary's as the victim of a Jack McClinton onslaught in the first round of the NCAA Tournament last month. We'll see if the Gaels can fare better in baseball. My money is on "no", but the Canes have lost to Sun Belt powerhouse FIU (I'm laying the sarcasm on pretty thick this morning) this year, so anything is possible. Starting pitching like that exhibited by Hernandez and Erik Erickson, combined with the unbelievable play all season of super-hitters Blake Tekotte and Yonder Alonso, should propel the Canes this weekend as they look to cap off one of their best regular seasons in school history.