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Baseball blows lead late against Old Dominion

Cavalier bullpen allows five runs, three earned, in final two innings

<p>Junior closer Alec Bettinger&nbsp;allowed the go-ahead run in the 9th inning of Wednesday's game against ODU.&nbsp;The former Hylton High School Bulldog is 0-4 with a 5.17 ERA in 2016.&nbsp;</p>

Junior closer Alec Bettinger allowed the go-ahead run in the 9th inning of Wednesday's game against ODU. The former Hylton High School Bulldog is 0-4 with a 5.17 ERA in 2016. 

Virginia baseball fans welcomed their team’s making short work of Old Dominion (19-7, 3-3 C-USA) Wednesday evening. Short work, of course, is a relative term when considering a sport that doesn’t concern itself with a ticking clock.

In baseball terms, the Cavaliers were cruising through Wednesday’s game at Davenport Field. Nearly two hours after freshman starter Daniel Lynch had delivered a first-pitch strike, Virginia led 3-0 in the top of the eighth inning. Then, came the grinding halt.

Coach Brian O’Connor’s trusted arm out of the Cavalier bullpen, senior reliever Kevin Doherty, faltered. The first Monarch batter Doherty faced in that frame singled his 2-2 pitch into left centerfield, right before the next slapped a double down the leftfield line.

Facing runners at second and third and nobody out, the lefty Doherty surrendered a third-straight hit, this time a 2-RBI single back up the box that cut Old Dominion’s deficit to 3-2.

Doherty held a team-best 0.82 ERA prior to Wednesday’s appearance. The Laytonsville, Md. native had allowed only one run and six hits over 11 innings of work.

Following his two-run blemish, Doherty settled down and did his job, inducing back-to-back, routine ground balls. Junior shortstop Daniel Pinero scooped up the first and tossed to sophomore second baseman Ernie Clement for a big force out.

The usually sure-handed Clement let the second grounder scoot beneath his glove and into the outfield grass.

“Ernie Clement has been an all-star for us at second base,” O’Connor said. “He’s been tremendous. And you know, he wasn’t tonight, and that happens.”

Sophomore centerfielder Adam Haseley sprinted to cut off the baseball. He bobbled the transfer, while each Monarch moved up another base. Instead of escaping the eighth with an inning-ending double play, Virginia confronted another second-and-third situation.

Junior closer Alec Bettinger inherited both of those runners, as O’Connor decided to pull Doherty. The switch didn’t exactly pay off for Virginia. Old Dominion junior right fielder Nick Walker produced a sacrifice fly that brought home the game’s tying run, and freshman designated hitter Seth Woodard followed that up with a go-ahead double to left.

When the top of the eighth finally concluded on a Bettinger strikeout, some 30 minutes after that frame had begun, the Cavaliers trailed 4-3.

“We did a good job there, until the eighth inning,” O’Connor said. “They took some good swings off Kevin Doherty, and even so, you induce a couple of double-play balls. We just couldn’t handle them to get ourselves out of it.”

To leadoff the bottom of the eighth inning, Pinero ripped a single through the left side. The lanky shortstop advanced to second on a well-placed sacrifice bunt off the bat of freshman leftfielder Ryan Karstetter. Freshman right fielder Doak Dozier, who had increased Virginia’s advantage to 3-0 with a solo homer in the sixth, returned to the dish. Dozier fouled out to third.

With two down and Pinero still in scoring position at second, sophomore designated hitter Jack Gerstenmaier delivered a game-tying single into left. The score stood tied at 4 heading into the ninth.

Returning to the hill, Bettinger gave up a 1-1 base-knock to begin the frame. He then plunked a Monarch batter, who had showed bunt and invited a first out. Bettinger’s mistake ended up costing the Cavaliers as much as Clement or Haseley’s error Wednesday.

A successful sacrifice bunt moved both Old Dominion runners into scoring position with nobody out. Bettinger executed coach Karl Kuhn’s plan of attack when he needed to, producing a chopper to first. Sophomore first baseman Pavin Smith, whose double in the third had scratched across the first two Virginia runs, fielded and fired home to gun down the go-ahead run.

The sigh of relief was short-lived at Davenport. Senior catcher Connor Myers singled through the left side two pitches later, and the Monarch’s reclaimed a 5-4 lead. Clement would reach on a one-out single in the bottom of the ninth, but the middle of Virginia’s lineup would strand him there.

The Cavaliers can’t fret forever over their fourth-straight loss to in-state rival Old Dominion even though this one is likely the most painful of all. Virginia must turn its attention to a three-game conference series this weekend versus N.C. State (17-8, 3-4 ACC).

“We’re going to come out and have a lot of energy and focus, because this weekend does mean a lot, coming off of last week and tonight,” Haseley said. “We’re just going to have to prepare tomorrow for our opponent, and we’re going to have to bring it.”

The first pitch Friday is scheduled for 6 p.m. in Charlottesville.

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