Canes football back in action Tuesday morning at Greentree -- baseball drops 12 spots in rankings

After 11 days off, the Hurricanes are back in action at 9 a.m. Tuesday with spring football practice session No. 5 at Greentree Field behind the Schwartz Center for Athletic Excellence.

For any of you not working tomorrow, remember that the practices are open to the public from beginning to end. 

Unfortunately, the first two scrimmages (March 29th and April 4th) are closed to the public. The spring game, which is open, is at 6 p.m. April 12 at Sun Life Stadium.

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As for Canes' baseball, a team with great promise has been problematic of late. Since UM's five-game win streak ended after the March 9 sweep of Boston College, the Canes have lost four out of five, including mid-week games against Bethune-Cookman and Stetson. 

This week will provide a huge opportunity for Miami (11-9, 4-2 ACC) to turn everything around. The Canes play UCF (9-12) at Mark Light on Tuesday at 6 p.m. and travel to Fort Myers to face Florida Gulf Coast (13-7) at 6:30 p.m.

Freshman lefty Danny Garcia (0-0 3.09 ERA) is slated to start against UCF.

The Wednesday starter for UM has not been announced.

The good: freshman Willie Abreu is tied with sophomore David Thompson with the top batting average of .328. And Dale Carey, hitting .312, has seven doubles and leads the team with 4 home runs. He has a .584 slugging percentage.

Also, UM is second in the ACC with 40 doubles so far.

The bad: AJ Salcines, in six appearances, has a 24.00 ERA, with hitters averaging .412 against him. Among hitters, freshman Zack Collins, who was drafted by the Cincinnati Reds in the 27th round of the draft, has not begun to find his groove. The power-hitting Collins, who lifted the Canes over UF in their Saturday-night game, is hitting .118, with two home runs,  two doubles and two singles this season. He leads the team in strikeouts (20) and walks (10). UM needs him to break loose. 

The ugly: UM has 33 errors -- tied with Georgia Tech for the most in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Virginia is tops in ACC fielding with only nine errors. 

 Here are the mid-week notes sent by UM's Camron Ghorbi:

DOUBLING UP

• No. 25 Miami continues its challenging nonconference slate with a pair of midweek games: at home against UCF (March 18) and on the road at FGCU (March 19).

 • The Hurricanes captured a 5-0 victory at Mark Light Field in the lone matchup against UCF in 2013 (March 6), which featured an 11-strikeout performance from starter Bryan Radziewski.

 • Miami did not play FGCU in 2013, but split a home-and-home with the Eagles in 2012. The Hurricanes won 3-0 on the road at Hammond Stadium (Feb. 22), but dropped a home contest 4-2 (April 11).

 POWER SURGE

• Miami is tied for first in the ACC with 12 home runs through its first 20 games of the regular season. Dale Carey leads the team with four homers, while Zack Collins, Garrett Kennedy and Tyler Palmer have two each.

 • The offense already has three multi-homerun games this season after recording just two in all of 2013: games one and two against Florida (Feb. 21 & 22) and game one against Georgia Tech (March 14). Miami is 3-0 in 2014 when hitting more than one home run.

 • In addition to its impressive home run total, Miami ranks second in the ACC with 40 doubles this season and tied for fourth in triples with four.

 • Miami did not record its 12th home run in 2013 until an 8-3 win over Wake Forest on May 12 - the team’s 53rd game of that season. The Hurricanes hit just 14 home runs collectively last season.

 HEATING UP

• After struggling through the first month of the season, sophomore slugger David Thompson has turned it up a notch. Thompson is hitting at a .424 clip over the past 10 games with two doubles, one triple and six RBI. He has recorded a .525 on-base percentage over that span.

 • Over his last two starts, redshirt sophomore Andrew Suarez has allowed two earned runs in 16.0 innings of work (1.12 ERA). He went 9.0 innings against Georgia Tech but earned a no-decision.

 • Senior Dale Carey is 7 for his last 18 (.389) over the last five games entering Tuesday’s matchup with UCF. He has team-high totals of eight hits, nine runs, four doubles and one home run over that stretch.

 • Freshman Willie Abreu has settled into a groove entering the middle of March. The Hialeah, Fla., native, hitting third in the lineup, is batting .353 with 18 hits and 13 runs scored in the last 15 games.

 • Freshman reliever Cooper Hammond has made seven appearances in the last 15 games and has recorded a 2.25 ERA with a 2-0 record. Hammond has yielded two earned runs in his last 8.0 innings of relief.

 SUSAN MILLER DEGNAN