Everything J.D. Arteaga Said After Series Sweep Against Niagara
CORAL GABLES, Fla. — The Miami Hurricanes (3-0) complete the series sweep against the Niagara Purple Eagles (0-3) and coach J.D. Arteaga knows that he has a great good of players.
Arteaga proved some key injury updates as well giving an overall performance review of the opening series of the season.
Opening Statement...
This you know another another great start by our starting pitcher and a good performance by our pitching staff as a whole. Like I said first two nights, it seems like the first time you go out there on the mound I know Brian's been here for three years but he hasn't thrown a whole lot of innings under 20 innings in his career. I know it meant a lot to him to go out there today his first career start. A little nervous in the first inning if he wasn't nervous he's probably not human and not doing it right so he settled down and that was a big two strikeouts there with the bases loaded and just settled in and through the way we expected through all year so um a lot of first for a lot of guys DeGoti home run today and you know first hit and um the DeGoti first start so it's it this first weekend is always a fun weekend for guys you know first time wearing a Hurricane uniform so I love the way the team responded after that first inning being down the first time we have been down. There was no panic very calm we answered right back and that was the bottom of the first inning so um all in all great weekend fans were great over 8,000 fans were those the first three games um so we're excited about what's ahead of us.
What Impressed Him Most from the Pitching This Weekend...
They helped us a little bit with some errors but you know good teams take advantage of those errors and the team responded well and it was a very even keel dugout. No matter what from pitch one to the last pitch no matter what the score was was a very even-keeled dugout even when we kind of emptied the benches up on both nights all three days we got the opportunity to empty the benches um and it was just everybody was engaged every was into the game and you don feel any different to was z0 you know top of the first to you know bottom of the ninth inning Friday Saturday night or today in the seventh.
On Allowing the bench to play...
it's an opportunity to get some experience you know and you know today. We were forced to start DeGoti. Doran was pulled out of the game you know somewhat early I think it was the third or fourth inning and so some guys got opportunities to play more in third base than we expected him to play today um but anything can happen through the course of the season so the more opportunities to get guys more experience to give guys you know you know they're prepared for to do the job when you need them to do it.
Injury Update on Daniel Cuvet and Dorian Gonzalez Jr...
He'll be fine you know. it's one of those I'd rather them sit out half a game than tweak something making it worse and losing for a couple of weeks.
He tweaked on a swing coming out of the box. I want to say the double that he hit and then there was a play that followed him half in he was a kind of a high chopper he came in on and I saw right away that he was grabbing his leg and stuff and he's just you know too important to leave him out there and risk further injury or more aggravate.
On Cuvet...
If this was May or June he would be in the lineup It's February 16th it's not worth it. We got another big game coming on Tuesday not that we're looking ahead or anything but he's not100% and we're not going to take any chances right now we'll push the envelope later on the season when you know we have to um so it's he's going to be fine as well.
On Gonzalez's Performance Over the Weekend...
He's a senior he's been doing it for four years. He started as a freshman, lost his job as a sophomore won it back as a junior the same guy that beat him out of sophomore year shows a lot of character so he's the type of guy that we want in this program and he's in his fourth year. He's a captain for a reason he does things right and it's everything you wanted in your guys. If you had nine of nine Doranyou're going to be okay.
On the Consistent Starting Lineup Over the Weekend...
that's the nice thing being able to to empty the benches in those first two games because if you don't then you might you know start somebody different on that Sunday game and give other opportunities but we were able to put guys in the game Friday Saturday so we're able to start with that same lineup um and still feel like you're giving guys a chance to go out and an get their feet wet and see what they can do.
On the Pitching Rotation...
I think we struck out a good number of guys especially our starters um but they were still efficient you know they were pretty strict in a 75-pitch count somewhere that in that ballpark um you know today I guess you Walt struck out10 guys in five innings and still his pitch count was in the low 70 so that's harder to do you think you know that many strikeouts it's usually your pitch count goes up you had a quick second or third inning I want to say it was like an eight or nine-pitch inning which helped out um but after that first inning he was very efficient for you to know two through five um so to have the number of strikeouts that we had we had 12 last night and six Innings from Hugus and Robert I'm not sure exactly what he had the first night but they comfortably went through you know through five innings and hug is six innings in a good short pitch count.
Justice Sandle is a graduate of Mississippi State University and is the site lead for Miami Hurricanes on SI. He can be reached at justice.sandle111@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter@Justice_News5.
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Justice Sandle is a graduate of Mississippi State University earning a Bachelor of Arts and Science in Communications with a concentration in Print and Digital Journalism. During his time in Starkville, he spent a year as an intern working for Mississippi State On SI primarily covering basketball, football, baseball, and soccer while writing, recording, and creating multimedia stories during his tenor. Since graduating, he has assumed the role of lead staff writer for Miami Hurricanes On SI covering football, basketball, baseball, and all things Hurricanes related.