Monday Musings: Canes baseball finishes home slate with a big win

Miami was a 2 seed in the Texas regional according to D1 Baseball’s latest field of 64 projections last week, and they should only move up. Unless they get swept ugly by FSU on the road and get bounced out of ACC tourney immediately, I’m not sweating Selection Monday.

Now, it would be NICE of them to do the opposite. Go to Tallahassee, take that series, and go on a nice run in the conference tourney to perhaps give the powers that be something to think about as far as the Hurricanes hosting. It feels like it might take a conference tourney title for that to happen, so I’m not getting my hopes up. But dare to dream, I guess.

3) Bucs head coach Todd Bowles isn’t one to toss out compliments all that often. But he did on Friday for Rueben Bain, Jr.

It was sleds and pads, but Bain looked like a grown-ass man on the practice field at One Buc Place. And Bowles gave him his flowers after his first practice.

“He looked like he was in midseason form,” Bowles said. “Obviously, he’s from Miami, so he’s going to be practicing in the heat, where a lot of the other guys are going to struggle to adjust to this weather, so it didn’t bother him at all. He came in in great shape, and he ran around well, and he kind of picked up some things very well.”

Yeah, yeah, it’s pads, but I can’t help but feel Bain is on a mission to terrorize this year.

4) I gave some kudos to Cristobal for flipping five-star Georgia commit Donte Wright, but I was remiss with another big recent grab.

Cristobal landed a commitment on Friday from Houston, TX Langham Creek DL Ezekiel Ayangbile. The four-star defensive lineman picked Miami over LSU and Virginia Tech. The 6-2, 260 lb lineman checks it as the No. 179 overall player, the No. 21 defensive lineman, and No. 25 player in the state of Texas for the 2027 cycle.

At this point, getting another talented defensive lineman to add into the mix is a win, as Miami needs to continue to stack talent there. I will always have last year’s meat grinder of a defensive front in my mind as the engine for success on the field, and Ayangbile has the potential to develop into a future factor for Miami up front.

Go Canes!