Longwood baserunners stood at the corners with nobody out in the top of the fifth. Virginia was hanging on to a 6-2 lead, and coach Brian O’Connor had just snatched the baseball from freshman starter Daniel Lynch after a walk and handed it to junior reliever Tyler Shambora.
The first pitch from Shambora ran in on the hands of senior first baseman Connar Bastaich, who somehow managed to keep it in fair ground and send a blooper into shallow left-center field. Junior shortstop Daniel Pinero raced backwards, his eyes tracking the baseball through a low-setting sun, and made an absurd bare-handed catch à la San Diego Padre left fielder Kevin Mitchell’s in 1989.
“Danny’s play was I think really really pivotal…” coach Brian O’Connor said. “We scored the five runs. We went up, and then we took Daniel Lynch out of the game. All [of a] sudden if that ball drops — there’s no outs — if that ball falls in, who knows how that inning is going to go.”
While the crowd froze in disbelief, Pinero spun around quickly enough to discourage the Lancer on third base from breaking for home. Once the baseball had returned safely to Shambora’s glove, the lanky shortstop, grinning, nodded at his teammate sophomore second baseman Ernie Clement as if to say, “Your move, dude.”
“No never [tried that before], that’s why we have a glove in our hands,” Pinero said. “I was just trying to make the play. Then when I caught it, I knew had to throw the ball into the infield to see if that guy would tag from third to home. So I just threw it hoping there would be someone there.”
Shambora, who entered Wednesday with a 4.71 ERA and painful memories of several rough appearances in 2016, induced a 2-2 grounder that Clement gathered behind the bag and fired to first for the second out. Both runners advanced on the play, the man on third barreling down the line to cut the Longwood deficit to 6-3 and the other reaching second before Clement could turn two.
The Cavaliers escaped the fifth one batter later when Shambora’s payoff pitch found the edge of the strike zone. Encouraged by his teammates and coaches for limiting the damage in that inning, the St. Petersburg College transfer trotted back out to the mound in the sixth and tossed a scoreless frame.
In the bottom of the sixth, Shambora’s Virginia teammates scratched across three more runs on two hits and two Lancer errors to build a comfortable 9-3 lead. Sophomore center fielder Adam Haseley drew a leadoff walk that set the tone. Singles into right field off the bats of Clement and junior catcher Matt Thaiss brought home Haseley.
The Longwood miscues ensued, as sophomore first baseman Pavin Smith reached on a fielding error by the third baseman that enabled Clement to score. Soon after, Thaiss and Smith each moved up a base on an errant pickoff throw from the catcher that sailed into center field. Freshman leftfielder Ryan Karstetter drove in the 9th and final Cavalier run with a slow roller to third.
The Lancers would manufacture a fourth run in the ninth off freshman righthander Chesdin Harrington, who surrendered two hits and walked three in .2 innings. But overall, Virginia’s bullpen, especially its upperclassmen — Shambora and seniors David Rosenberger and Kevin Doherty — excelled Wednesday in relief of Lynch.
Behind the plate, Thaiss continues to lead those veterans and help out the inexperienced arms, including Harrington.
“I’m trying to do my best with the pitching side of things, and just trying to guide these younger guys,” Thaiss said. “These guys who don’t have as much time logged in as Connor Jones and Alec Bettinger and even Adam Haseley. That’s the main thing I’m doing. You know guys like Pavin Smith and Ernie are going to take care of the offensive stuff.”
Clement took care of the offensive stuff Wednesday, tallying two hits and three runs in the two-hole, but so did ever humble Thaiss. The Preseason All-American collected three hits, a walk and two RBIs in five plate appearances. Then there was also Pinero, who apart from making that SportsCenter Top 10 snag in the outfield, worked two walks and doubled to deep left.
“Danny is an extremely talented player,” O’Connor said. “He’s not perfect, but I’ll tell you what about this guy — he lines up and plays shortstop every day. The guy’s done it for three years, and there’s not many college shortstops in the country who can say that. We’re going to certainly need him to play inspired, good baseball down this stretch run.”
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