“Coach Pollard says always just take today with a grain of salt and come back with amnesia,” Johnson said. “Tomorrow’s a new day, so just compete as hard as we can just get that win.”
For the Dukes, it was a moment of elation, an 8-7 victory against what has proved to be one of the best collegiate teams in the country. For the Cavaliers, it was a shock that bred an atmosphere of despondency as the players cleaned and exited the dugout.
“I think we need to recommit to our game plans,” Coach Pollard said. “That's something we've been really good with this year. We've been really good at game-planning the opposing starter and being able to flush him out of the game. And we need to recommit to that.”
“The difference today was we gave them free offense, right?” Coach Chris Pollard said postgame. “We gave them five outs in an inning, we gave them four outs in another inning, we gave them some free passes and that allowed them to string together offense.”
Entering the weekend after a thorough run-rule demolition of Old Dominion during the week, the Cavaliers welcomed Florida State to The Dish Thursday evening.
“I told our guys in our pregame on Sunday, like, hey, the message doesn't change,” Coach Chris Pollard said. “Our approach doesn't change. The things that we do from a process standpoint, don't change. And so, you know, we looked at this as a one day season, right?”
Ahead of the series, here is the good, the bad and the surprising — the high, the low and the buffalo — for the Cavaliers and their opponent.
The junior second baseman ranks third on the team in runs batted in so far this season.
Ultimately, Virginia would win 3-1. Three hits and seven walks for Virginia would prove enough to push past Boston College as the series concluded in front of the second-largest crowd ever at Eddie Pellagrini Diamond on a cool spring afternoon.
Virginia will put their best effort toward a win on Sunday to avoid a sweep.
“[Boston’s] game is premised on trying to speed you up,” Pollard said. “They want to bunt, they want to run, they want to force you to hurry and make you make a mistake. We did that today … We gave them a couple of runs on hurry plays where we didn't have to be hurrying.”
This back-and-forth game seemed destined for similar late-inning dramatics, though the Cavaliers (21-5, 6-3 ACC) pulled away with an overwhelming offensive attack that was too much for the Terrapins (11-13, 1-5 Big Ten).
While the conclusion of the season is not foregone by any means, Virginia has made well of the opportunities it has been given.
The sun was high and temperatures approached the low eighties as a mass of fans entered the gates of Davenport Field at Disharoon Park. The temperature was not the only thing that was high, as No. 9 Virginia baseball felt the pressure in their first ACC series-deciding match against No. 24 Wake Forest.
Johnson made perhaps the loudest contract of the game, launching a home run deep to center field in the eighth inning. It all proved to be too little too late as the sun set and the scoreboard displayed a bruising 13-4 final score.
