WATCH: Anniversary of Miami Hurricanes crazy trick play in the College World Series
As the 2022 College World Series nears, a trip down memory lane around the anniversary of one of the greatest trick plays in college baseball history seems more than appropriate. Forty years to the day on June 7, the Miami Hurricanes pulled off the “grand illusion” play in the College World Series against Wichita state.
With college Hall of Famer and future Chicago Cubs first baseman Phil Stevenson on first base, the Hurricanes pulled a trick play out of their bag that they had been practicing earlier in the year. Hurricanes pitcher Mike Kasprzak faked a throw to first base. First baseman Steve Lusby then put on an award-winning performance selling the impression that the ball had got past him and into foul ball territory. Hearing the Miami dugout holler out “ball ball” and briefly catching a glimpse of Lusby scrambling Stephenson took off. As he sprinted towards second base, standing calmly in the basepath was shortstop Billy Wrona. Kasprzak tossed the ball to Wrona for the easy out to end the inning.
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The complete play and call can be seen in the video below.
While Miami would gain notoriety in the 80s because of their rise as a football power, this play led to the Hurricanes’ first-ever national championship in college sports.
Miami comes up short in the Regional Round
Despite being a host team in the regional round of the college baseball tournament, the Hurricanes were eliminated over the weekend after dropping two-straight games. The first game was a hard-fought defensive battle against the Ole Miss Rebels in which Miami last after giving up two runs in the seventh inning. The Rebels will go on to win the game 2-1. On the following day, another run of late-game heroics by Miami’s opponent would do them in. The Hurricanes lead the Arizona Wildcats 3-1, heading into the eighth inning. Arizona would score one in the eighth, bringing them to within one. And in the ninth inning, the Wildcats added two more runs to take a 4-3 lead. Those two runs would be the deciding factor as the Hurricanes would fall by that score and thus be eliminated.