Everything J.D. Arteaga said Ahead of Georgia Tech Matchup In ACC Tournament

By Justice Sandle Sports Illustrated

Updated May 22, 2026 8:32 AM

The Miami Hurricanes are two victories away from returning to the top of the ACC, but they have one of the best teams in the country standing in their way.

However, after another dominant victory in the ACC Baseball Championship quarterfinals against Boston College, the Hurricanes and head coach J.D. Arteaga look to make the case that they belong in those same conversations for Omaha.

The Canes continue to bring out the best in each other and are playing their best baseball at the right time. Arteaga prepares for No. 2 Georgia Tech, while also reviewing the Canes' last outing against the Eagles.

Here is everything he had to say.

Opening Statement...

"A great team effort there especially with the way that game started in the first inning and give a couple runs there Lachi not real sharp, left a lot of balls out over the plate. They came in with a good game plan getting extended and driving the ball to right field there but something we've been doing all year really is answering back. We give up some runs and our offense has been relentless in putting up runs right away and that's demoralizing on a team. It was a lot of different faces today. Peralta with a home run, his first one of the year, opposite field and guys like Dubovik with a simple little two-out single in the hole and then to extend the inning. Then Milano comes up with a big double down the right-field line and scores him there. It's a little bit of everything, good solid defense. We have one error on a pick off attempt the first base and the bullpen was outstanding to put up four shutout innings at the end. We were able to get everybody out there for one inning to kind of get their feet wet. We're in good shape with our bullpen going into the Saturday's game."

On Fabio Peralta and Gabriel Milano having three-hit games...

"It's almost June. There's no more freshmen, no more young sophomores. We've got a lot of our bats, a lot of experience, especially Fabio. Maybe not Milano, but he's a kid that works so hard every day in practice and then never took a day off, coming to the park every day behind an All-American, and he knew he wasn't going to play. Cuvet is going to be in the lineup. He goes for an 0-for-35 slump, he is going to be in the lineup. But the fact that he showed up every day and went and worked hard, and he's that kid that thanks you on the way out the field at every day of practice like we're doing him a favor for him being here. He's worked hard and he got his opportunity and he's ran with it so it's been great to see that happen."

On the bottom of the order producing..

"I think the freshmen are definitely playing well hitting five, six, seven in the lineup, but then you got Vance Sheahan there in the bottom in the eight spot that coming in we expected really big things from him. Unfortunately he had an injury early in the year, then he got sick right after that so he missed like three weeks and he lost a lot of weight and it really affected his offense more than anything else. So having him down there in the eight spot, he's kind of a luxury. And then Fabio at the ninth spot right now, it's almost like a second lead-off guy and you can move the ball around, make productive outs and kind of set up Ogden for some RBI opportunities and get some hits out of it like he did today with that good push bunt in the ninth inning."

On Lazaro Collera...

"Early on he could not get the ball in, just kind of every time we went inside, he would overthrow and yank it or miss up and in and hit a guy, you got to be able to pitch in. I don't care what your stuff is and all the metrics, if you can't pitch in, if the hitter's not worried about the inner half of the play, then that really good slider down in a way, they're going to get to it, , spoil it. You make a mistake and hit it hard, so you've got to be able to pitch in. I think all the guys today did a good job of that after the second inning."

On a positive stretch of games defensively...

"Our downfall defensively has not been lack of ability. It's more of a lack of concentration at times. Making simple simple errors and we've been focused. I could tell you our practice on Tuesday was not the greatest. I told them to get all the errors out of the way in practice and so far we have. But it's just a focus thing. Everybody that's out on the field at those positions are good are good enough to make all those plays. It's just concentrating and being ready for the ball hit to you and being prepared."

On advancing to the semifinals against Georgia Tech...

"It's one win at a time. Going up against a really good Georgia Tech team and we didn't get to play them during the regular season. It's kind of been a knock on us all season long that we didn't play them or Carolina or Virginia. So now we've got an opportunity to just kind of show what we're capable of doing. So we've got Ciscar on the mound. We're swinging the bats well, playing good defense, and just kind of just another game going out to trying to win it. Again, sticking to the script. We're not going to overextend anybody to try to win a game or win this tournament. It's kind of getting everybody ready for next week and then if the script plays out and the right guys are in situations to be in the game, then that's what we'll go with."

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This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/miami as Everything J.D. Arteaga said Ahead of Georgia Tech Matchup In ACC Tournament.

This story was originally published May 22, 2026 at 8:13 AM.