The Miami Hurricanes baseball squad is in Charlotte, North Carolina, and will face off against the Stanford Cardinals tomorrow at 1 p.m. eastern time.
Ahead of the game, Miami Hurricanes head coach J.D. Arteaga sat down and spoke with the media.
Here is everything J.D. had to say about the upcoming matchup:
Reporter: So coming off the FSU series, can you talk about what your team needs to do in order to do really well at the ACC tournament? And can you also update Daniel Cava's status? Thanks.
J.D. Arteaga: Well, it was a tough series. I mean, a fun, well-played series. We had to leave there knowing and understanding we had a really good opportunity to take two out of three from a top 10 team on the road. So a lot of things went our way. A lot of things went right. We swung the bat that first and third game. The starters pitched well the first and third game. Got to obviously close out that first one. But it's one of those things that it's going to happen. I mean, it wasn't, you know, due to walks or pitching around guys. I mean, went right after guys. They got some big hits, and that's part of baseball. But I think we're really close to where we need to be. And if nothing else, we showed that you can hang with any team in the country in that type of environment, in that type of situation. Just play good baseball there for at least two out of the three games. It should have been home sitting, you know, in a different situation. But it is what it is. We've got to move on from it. It's behind us. And now it's really the most fun part of the season of the year when you get into the postseason play. And this first tournament is kind of a test run for the real one that starts next week. So I'm just blessed and fortunate to be in the situation that we're at, sitting in the five seeds. You get one bye. Understanding we're probably six outs away from being the number three seed. You look at the whole entire season and a couple of games that we blew there in the ninth inning. But again, we're the five seed. We're sitting here watching Cal and Stanford play today to see who we play tomorrow. And then win that game, then we've got Boston College for sure on Thursday. And then we'll see who we match up against on Saturday. So right now we're worried about it. It's tomorrow's game, and we don't know who we're playing until about, I don't know, four or five o'clock today after the Cal Stanford game is over.
Reporter: And can you update Daniel's status also?
J.D. Arteaga: He's still kind of day to day. He's getting a little more active this week, getting more and more into, you know, selectivity where it was just more rest and rehab for the last few weeks. He's getting more mobile and things will start swinging a light bat this year, hitting balls off the tee. But it's still baby steps and it's still day to day.
Reporter: Just with Rob Evans and AJ Ciscar, just the value of having a one-two punch like that in the rotation that you can lean on as you at the start of this tournament. Just can you speak to just how the two of them have evolved and grown this season and how important they're going to be?
J.D. Arteaga: Well, I mean, Rob's been as consistent as you can hopefully ask for, you know, and he's a guy coming in. As the season went on last year, he started getting healthy, started pitching to his abilities. And it was what we thought we were going to have all year. But, you know, injuries are injuries. You just don't know what you're going to get when you first come back. But he kind of picked up right where he left off. I've said it a number of times. I feel like he was probably our best pitcher all fall and all spring. We went with Ciscar just more about, you know, how the season ended last year as a Friday night starter. But, I mean, Rob's been our number one guy from day one, basically. He's been very consistent. A couple scares there injury-wise, but he bounced back, didn't miss a start because of injury. So, just been a great season for him. And AJ, you know, great bounce-back game. And again, a tough place to play, a tough place to pitch, backs against the wall, kind of trying to pitch our way out of a sweep situation. And just had a great outing, seven strong innings in Tallahassee. So you can't ask for much more than those guys. Unfortunately, the way that the, you know, the tournament or tournament schedule is scheduled, playing Wednesday, Thursday, it's a little too soon to bring Ciscar back on Thursday, making up five-day rest. It's a little too soon. So had we been a six seed, we wouldn't play our second game till Friday, but we are playing our second game Thursday. So it'll be cooler that second game against Boston College. And Ciscar will be ready for Saturday.
Reporter: We obviously know your strong and historic ties to this program, this university that hasn't won an ACC championship in baseball since 2008, came close in 23. I'm just curious, what would it mean for you personally to potentially end a nearly two-decade drought?
J.D. Arteaga: It's always nice to win and fun to win, and you play every game to win, but that's, you know, ultimately our goal is the College World Series in Omaha and winning over there. I want to end that drought since 2001. Not to say I'm not interested in ending this drought, we want to come in and win four games, but we're not going to do anything crazy to exhaust our pitching or anything to win this tournament and put it in jeopardy the tournament next week. So one game at a time, win one game at a time. We're not going to overextend anybody or do anything crazy to try to win it. If the chips fall where they fall and it's on our side and we win a tournament, great, but we're not going to go off script to try to do anything crazy here this weekend.
Reporter: And just curious, what's the preparation like for this team when you don't fully know yet who you're going to face?
J.D. Arteaga: You prepare yourself, right? And if you play, you're really playing the game at a high level in the right way, you're really competing against yourself. And you do what we're capable of doing, and you do things that we're good at at a great high level, we're going to win games. So it doesn't matter who the opponent is. There might be small little tweaks here and there, but not a whole lot. If you're constantly adjusting to the other team, that means you're not good enough. So we've got to be strong at what we're good at.
Reporter: Just for you, this is a new format with the ACC tournament, the single buy and double buy. Is there any distinct advantage or disadvantages, at least comparing it from last year? I know you haven't played in it yet, but is there a potential advantage or disadvantage with this new format of the tournament?
J.D. Arteaga: Well, obviously, if you're, teams that are playing today, they got to win five games to win the tournament. Teams that are, you know, the 5 through 8, they got to win four games to win the tournament, and the other guys only have to win three. So, obviously, the advantage if your goal is to win this tournament is that double buy and then just going through your three starters. You can argue that we're in a better situation if we get to that championship game, we're forced to use that fourth starter, which you might need next week in a situation where it's a four-game, like our season last year, our regional last year, we had to go to our fourth starter. So it gives that guy a chance to get a start in and not be, three weeks kind of out of his routine. So, but if it's to win the tournament, I think the double buy is the best option, has the biggest advantage.
Reporter: You said you also said it was like a simulation too, bench leaks and things like that. How do you judge when, how long you want your starters to go and have those opportunities to say, hey, you're doing well, can you just go the full game, or is it just monitoring their situation as well?
J.D. Arteaga: It's monitoring their situation, how many pitches, it's not just, you know, it's not about, you know, the 100-pitch mark. You throw a pitch 101, it's not going to fall off or anything. It's how long it takes to get through, how many high-stress pitches you've got to throw, how many jams you've got to work out of. When you throw a complete game, nine innings, 110-pitch outing, and feel great the next day, or go six innings, you're constantly battling, high-stress situations, throw 105 pitches, and you're going to be pretty sore after that one. So it all depends on the game and how it's going. Again, I'm not going to ask anyone to throw 140 pitches or anything. Fortunately, we're not in a situation where we have to win this tournament in order to advance to the NCAA tournament. I think we're in good shape regardless of what happens this week. So it's a matter of just, you know, playing every game kind of up to script and letting the game dictate how long guys stay in.
Ahead of the game, Miami Hurricanes head coach J.D. Arteaga sat down and spoke with the media.
Here is everything J.D. had to say about the upcoming matchup:
Reporter: So coming off the FSU series, can you talk about what your team needs to do in order to do really well at the ACC tournament? And can you also update Daniel Cava's status? Thanks.
J.D. Arteaga: Well, it was a tough series. I mean, a fun, well-played series. We had to leave there knowing and understanding we had a really good opportunity to take two out of three from a top 10 team on the road. So a lot of things went our way. A lot of things went right. We swung the bat that first and third game. The starters pitched well the first and third game. Got to obviously close out that first one. But it's one of those things that it's going to happen. I mean, it wasn't, you know, due to walks or pitching around guys. I mean, went right after guys. They got some big hits, and that's part of baseball. But I think we're really close to where we need to be. And if nothing else, we showed that you can hang with any team in the country in that type of environment, in that type of situation. Just play good baseball there for at least two out of the three games. It should have been home sitting, you know, in a different situation. But it is what it is. We've got to move on from it. It's behind us. And now it's really the most fun part of the season of the year when you get into the postseason play. And this first tournament is kind of a test run for the real one that starts next week. So I'm just blessed and fortunate to be in the situation that we're at, sitting in the five seeds. You get one bye. Understanding we're probably six outs away from being the number three seed. You look at the whole entire season and a couple of games that we blew there in the ninth inning. But again, we're the five seed. We're sitting here watching Cal and Stanford play today to see who we play tomorrow. And then win that game, then we've got Boston College for sure on Thursday. And then we'll see who we match up against on Saturday. So right now we're worried about it. It's tomorrow's game, and we don't know who we're playing until about, I don't know, four or five o'clock today after the Cal Stanford game is over.
Reporter: And can you update Daniel's status also?
J.D. Arteaga: He's still kind of day to day. He's getting a little more active this week, getting more and more into, you know, selectivity where it was just more rest and rehab for the last few weeks. He's getting more mobile and things will start swinging a light bat this year, hitting balls off the tee. But it's still baby steps and it's still day to day.
Reporter: Just with Rob Evans and AJ Ciscar, just the value of having a one-two punch like that in the rotation that you can lean on as you at the start of this tournament. Just can you speak to just how the two of them have evolved and grown this season and how important they're going to be?
J.D. Arteaga: Well, I mean, Rob's been as consistent as you can hopefully ask for, you know, and he's a guy coming in. As the season went on last year, he started getting healthy, started pitching to his abilities. And it was what we thought we were going to have all year. But, you know, injuries are injuries. You just don't know what you're going to get when you first come back. But he kind of picked up right where he left off. I've said it a number of times. I feel like he was probably our best pitcher all fall and all spring. We went with Ciscar just more about, you know, how the season ended last year as a Friday night starter. But, I mean, Rob's been our number one guy from day one, basically. He's been very consistent. A couple scares there injury-wise, but he bounced back, didn't miss a start because of injury. So, just been a great season for him. And AJ, you know, great bounce-back game. And again, a tough place to play, a tough place to pitch, backs against the wall, kind of trying to pitch our way out of a sweep situation. And just had a great outing, seven strong innings in Tallahassee. So you can't ask for much more than those guys. Unfortunately, the way that the, you know, the tournament or tournament schedule is scheduled, playing Wednesday, Thursday, it's a little too soon to bring Ciscar back on Thursday, making up five-day rest. It's a little too soon. So had we been a six seed, we wouldn't play our second game till Friday, but we are playing our second game Thursday. So it'll be cooler that second game against Boston College. And Ciscar will be ready for Saturday.
Reporter: We obviously know your strong and historic ties to this program, this university that hasn't won an ACC championship in baseball since 2008, came close in 23. I'm just curious, what would it mean for you personally to potentially end a nearly two-decade drought?
J.D. Arteaga: It's always nice to win and fun to win, and you play every game to win, but that's, you know, ultimately our goal is the College World Series in Omaha and winning over there. I want to end that drought since 2001. Not to say I'm not interested in ending this drought, we want to come in and win four games, but we're not going to do anything crazy to exhaust our pitching or anything to win this tournament and put it in jeopardy the tournament next week. So one game at a time, win one game at a time. We're not going to overextend anybody or do anything crazy to try to win it. If the chips fall where they fall and it's on our side and we win a tournament, great, but we're not going to go off script to try to do anything crazy here this weekend.
Reporter: And just curious, what's the preparation like for this team when you don't fully know yet who you're going to face?
J.D. Arteaga: You prepare yourself, right? And if you play, you're really playing the game at a high level in the right way, you're really competing against yourself. And you do what we're capable of doing, and you do things that we're good at at a great high level, we're going to win games. So it doesn't matter who the opponent is. There might be small little tweaks here and there, but not a whole lot. If you're constantly adjusting to the other team, that means you're not good enough. So we've got to be strong at what we're good at.
Reporter: Just for you, this is a new format with the ACC tournament, the single buy and double buy. Is there any distinct advantage or disadvantages, at least comparing it from last year? I know you haven't played in it yet, but is there a potential advantage or disadvantage with this new format of the tournament?
J.D. Arteaga: Well, obviously, if you're, teams that are playing today, they got to win five games to win the tournament. Teams that are, you know, the 5 through 8, they got to win four games to win the tournament, and the other guys only have to win three. So, obviously, the advantage if your goal is to win this tournament is that double buy and then just going through your three starters. You can argue that we're in a better situation if we get to that championship game, we're forced to use that fourth starter, which you might need next week in a situation where it's a four-game, like our season last year, our regional last year, we had to go to our fourth starter. So it gives that guy a chance to get a start in and not be, three weeks kind of out of his routine. So, but if it's to win the tournament, I think the double buy is the best option, has the biggest advantage.
Reporter: You said you also said it was like a simulation too, bench leaks and things like that. How do you judge when, how long you want your starters to go and have those opportunities to say, hey, you're doing well, can you just go the full game, or is it just monitoring their situation as well?
J.D. Arteaga: It's monitoring their situation, how many pitches, it's not just, you know, it's not about, you know, the 100-pitch mark. You throw a pitch 101, it's not going to fall off or anything. It's how long it takes to get through, how many high-stress pitches you've got to throw, how many jams you've got to work out of. When you throw a complete game, nine innings, 110-pitch outing, and feel great the next day, or go six innings, you're constantly battling, high-stress situations, throw 105 pitches, and you're going to be pretty sore after that one. So it all depends on the game and how it's going. Again, I'm not going to ask anyone to throw 140 pitches or anything. Fortunately, we're not in a situation where we have to win this tournament in order to advance to the NCAA tournament. I think we're in good shape regardless of what happens this week. So it's a matter of just, you know, playing every game kind of up to script and letting the game dictate how long guys stay in.
