Everything J.D. Arteaga Said After Getting Eliminated from the ACC Tournament

By Justice Sandle Sports Illustrated

Updated May 23, 2026 7:17 PM

Spending the weekend notching two wins but falling to the No. 3 team in the country is a hard pill to swallow. It also hurts knowing that the Miami Hurricanes played one of their worst games of the season at the wrong time.

Head coach J.D. Arteaga leaves the ACC Baseball Championship disappointed, knowing that his team could have been better.

Here is everything that Arteaga said after the semifinal loss to Georgia Tech:

Opening Statement...

"First of all, a lot of credit to Georgia Tech, that's a really good team. A really good lineup, pitching staff did a great job today keeping us off balance. Blakely really mixed it up well. We just didn't quite ever make the adjustment. I felt early, we had some chances to get some hits there and grab some runs in and kind of keep it close, keep it a game, and we just didn't come through with two outs. Those two-out RBIs, we've been really good at all year, but they didn't quite get it done today. But too many mistakes, it was seven walks, three errors, that's not going to be a good team. Got to play better against that type of team."

On the freshman hitters...

"Those three guys, those freshmen gave us some really good at bats today. Regardless of how many hits they got. Just good at-bats, battled with two strikes and did a great job of getting on base. It tells you a little bit more about our future and every year since I've been here, we've been getting a little better, a little better. I think we should we should be a 2-seed going into next week. We went in last year as a 3-seed so we're trending in the right direction, no where near where we want to be and what we expect at Miami, but we're definitely getting better and keep working to get to where we're expected to be."

On Alex Sosa playing first base...

"He's a big prospect behind the plate so the willingness to go over there and buying in to be in a first baseman at this point in the season in his career knowing that next level he is going to be a catcher tells you a lot about him, his selflessness and he's going to come out and do whatever at this point it takes for us to win and gives us the best chance to win. He played a lot of shortstop growing up ,started his high school career as a shortstop, a little third base so we knew he could catch a ground ball. Being where you're supposed to be and cut off positions was a bigger concern, but he is a good enough athlete to play anywhere on the field."

On Georgia Tech's lineup...

"They don't allow you to make any mistakes. We knew coming in, especially two strikes, they're leading the country in hitting with two strikes and not getting little singles here and there. They're driving the ball and you make a mistake up in the zone with an off-speed pitch which Ciscar made a couple, they're going to make you pay. It's a very mature lineup. They know exactly what they're trying to do. They're not trying to hit every pitch you throw. They're very selective and they got power one through nine, so It's a very good lineup. I've seen a lot of good ones, this one ranks up there in the top. But it can't affect the way you pitch though and I think it did a little bit today where we nibbled at times. Just make quality pitches. Good quality pitches is still going to beat good hitting."

On what will change so fielding mistakes do not happen...

"I talked about it on Thursday a little bit. Those are routine ground balls. That's all you work on. You don't work on spectacular plays moving left or right or anything like that. It's routine ground balls that just whether it's lack of focus, whatever you want to blame it on, we got to make those plays. All we work on is routine ground balls and slow rollers and stuff like that. So just have got to be better."

On if he learned anything new about the team heading into NCAA Tournament...

"Well, when you play like we did today, we're going to lose and that's not new. It's baseball, you can't walk seven, eight guys and make three errors, and there's a couple other plays that weren't errors, a ground ball to Milano that Burress beat out and a back end of a double play, they don't go down as errors, but we have got to be better."

On message to team after the game about this week heading into NCAA Tournament...

"We really haven't got together yet. We'll get back together when we get to the hotel and talk a little bit about what transpired today and hopefully get it out of our system because next week the season's over. It's not another chance tomorrow. So that's something we talked about coming into this is understanding what a loss at this point of the season means. It's kind of a practice run this week. If we lose we're out of the tournament but we got a chance to dress out and compete next weekend. Next weekend we lose and then season's over and for some guys their careers are over. So a learning lesson that we can't take anything for granted. We've got to show up, we've got to be ready to go for nine innings every game."

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This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/miami as Everything J.D. Arteaga Said After Getting Eliminated from the ACC Tournament.

This story was originally published May 23, 2026 at 6:53 PM.