LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — If you’re making a list of the brand names in college baseball, the University of Miami Hurricanes better be prominent on your list.
Miami has four national titles. Miami has 25 trips to the College World Series. The Hurricanes made 43 consecutive trips to the NCAA Tournament.
There’s more.
Alex Rodriguez committed to the Hurricanes but never played for them. The reason? The Seattle Mariners made him the first pick in the 1993 MLB Draft. Although ARod was never officially a Hurricane, he donated nearly $4 million to renovate their home stadium, Alex Rodriguez Park.
One thing more: Manny Machado, a perennial all-star, is one of a string of big league players who live in Miami and work out with the Hurricanes during the off season.
Allow me to interrupt this Miami Love Letter to make my point:
Dan McDonnell has built the University of Louisville into a stronger, more determined baseball program than Miami — despite the Hurricanes' overwhelming advantages in weather, recruiting base and tradition.
Louisville baseball coach Dan McDonnell during a practice before the 2025 NCAA Super Regional in Jim Patterson Stadium.
That’s been forgotten the last two seasons as the Cards finished short of making the NCAA Tournament in 2023 and 2024.
There’s been a blast of grumbling that McDonnell lost his touch. Maybe he needed to shake up his staff, starting with the pitching coach. Perhaps the Name/Image/Likeness financial factor put the Cards at a disadvantage.
McDonnell and his gritty team flushed the grumbling out of the conversation last weekend in Nashville. The Cards went to Vanderbilt and took down the Commodores, the overall top seed in the 64-team event, as well East Tennessee State and Wright State.
On Friday at 3 p.m. Louisville will open Super Regional play against Miami at Jim Patterson Stadium. Don’t show up without a ticket. The best-of-three series sold out in less than 30 minutes.
Fans have started to believe this will be the sixth U of L squad that McDonnell will manage into Omaha, Nebraska for the College World Series.
Since McDonnell arrived in 2007, Louisville has visited Omaha five times. During the same stretch, Miami has crashed the College World Series three times.
Miami’s last trip to Omaha was 2016, Louisville was there in 2017 and 2019.
Here is one final question to make your eyebrows dance:
As of Thursday afternoon, which program has more players on the active 26-man rosters of the 30 Major League Baseball teams?
Miami has three — Red Sox utility infielder Romy Gonzalez; Rockies relief pitcher Carson Palmquist; and Guardians relief pitcher Slade Cecconi.
Louisville has six — Dodgers catchers Will Smith and Dalton Rushing; Pirates catcher Henry Davis; Angels relief pitcher Reid Detmers; Blue Jays reliever Chad Green; and Giants shortstop Tyler Fitzgerald.
Not bad for a program that had to postpone its home opener because of snow and 23-degree temperatures. It was 76 degrees and mostly sunny when Miami opened its home season on Valentine’s Day.
Does that guarantee McDonnell’s program anything this weekend?
No, it does not.
It’s baseball. Funny things happen in baseball every day. As Miami coach J.D. Arteaga said Thursday, Texas A&M and Virginia, the teams many ranked first and second in the preseason polls, failed to make the NCAA Tournament.
Vanderbilt and Texas, the teams awarded the top two seeds for the NCAA Tournament, failed to survive the opening weekend and will not play in the Super Regionals.
Baseball is not only a funny game. It’s a cruel game, too.
These games look like a coin flip. The Cards are ranked No. 29 in the Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) while Miami is No. 33. Louisville split 30 Atlantic Coast Conference games. Miami finished 15-14.
Louisville won series over North Carolina and Florida State, teams that defeated Miami.
Miami won series over Georgia Tech and N.C. State, programs that beat Louisville.
It’s too close to call. But what isn’t close to call is this: In his 19 seasons as the Cardinals’ coach Dan McDonnell has built a program that has achieved more than Miami.
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