College Park, Md. -- After a couple of shaky midweek games last week, Virginia baseball coach Brian O'Connor said his team was in need of a "defining moment" at some point this season.
If Virginia's first road-series win, a weekend sweep against Maryland? that included two come-from-behind wins Friday and Saturday, wasn't season-defining, it was at least a lift for a struggling offense.
The Cavaliers (29-9, 11-7 ACC) combined for 34 hits and four home runs in the sweep of the Terrapins (20-17, 5-13 ACC),? winning 11-6 Friday, 5-4 Saturday and 11-4 Sunday.
"This was big for our team just to all prove to each other that we can win a series on the road," O'Connor said. "I was happy with how we swung the bats this weekend."
The opening night of the series offered a particularly momentous sequence of events for Virginia. The game began with junior starting pitcher Jacob Thompson's second consecutive poor outing, as Maryland pounded the 2007 first-team All-American for six earned runs in five-plus innings on its way to a 6-4 lead.
Sophomore pitcher Neal Davis entered in the sixth, however, and quietly kept Virginia in the game with three-plus shutout innings. On perhaps the biggest play of the night in the bottom of the seventh, Davis got out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam with a rare 5-2-3 double play by sophomore third basemen Tyler Cannon to end the inning.
Cannon "could have stepped on third, he could have thrown the ball to second, but you can't give up another run," O'Connor said. "He made a good decision on throwing the ball home."
Cannon's double play set the stage for an offensive explosion by Virginia in the eighth. Freshman Dan Grovatt slugged his way out of a recent slump with a man-on-first, one-out double to the warning track in left field. Junior Jeremy Farrell followed with an RBI line-drive single to right and stole second on an errant throw from Maryland senior catcher Chad Durakis, allowing Grovatt to score.
Freshman right fielder David Coleman followed with a walk. Then, freshman catcher Franco Valdes -- who had one of his best nights, going 2-5 and playing stellar defense behind the plate -- showed athleticism unbecoming of a 5-foot-10, 205-pound catcher. On a 1-1 pitch, Valdes showed bunt, then pulled the bat back and shot a line drive through the right side to load the bases and keep the rally going.
"That's the first time I've done that in the season," Valdes said, adding with a laugh that assistant coach Kevin McMullan "gave me the sign, and I was like, 'Uh oh ... all right, let's do this!'"
Senior Patrick Wingfield then grounded out to score another run, and freshman John Barr? legged out an infield single to score one more. Valdes completed his trip around the bases on a wild pitch, and junior Greg Miclat brought in Barr for the sixth and final run of the inning with a single to left before Cannon struck out to end the inning.
All in all, the Cavaliers faced three Maryland pitchers in the eighth, thrashing them for six runs on six hits. Virginia tacked on one more run in the top of the ninth, and senior Michael Schwimer closed out the Terrapins in the bottom, completing the Cavaliers' biggest comeback since May 12, 2006.
"Your All-American [Thompson] goes out there and he doesn't have his stuff, and our guys didn't quit; they didn't feel sorry for themselves," O'Connor said. "They met adversity like big dogs."
Game two of the series provided no less drama. Senior Pat McAnaney was brilliant for six of his seven-plus innings, as he allowed no hits and struck out seven during that stretch; however, he had a hiccup in the second when he allowed back-to-back singles and his first home run of the year to junior Mike Moss.
Virginia was again unable to provide early offense and fell into an early 0-3 hole after two innings; Farrell had an opportunity in the first to give Virginia an early lead with the bases loaded and one out, but the senior was punched out looking on a 2-2 pitch, and Coleman followed with a ground-out to keep the Cavaliers scoreless.
Farrell, however, would get his revenge in the fifth? on Maryland's most costly mistake of the series. The senior stepped in with Virginia trailing 2-3 with runners on second and third and got ahead in the count 3-1. With a base open and three sub-.300 hitters to follow Farrell --? the team leader in home runs, with six going into Saturday --? a pitch out of the strike zone to walk the bases loaded appeared to be in order. Sophomore right-hander Ian Schwalenberg instead offered a fastball that caught the middle of the plate, and Farrell uncoiled. The ball went out of Shipley Field as fast as it came in, towering over the left-field fence and easily clearing the 400-foot label on the building behind it, giving Virginia a 5-3 lead.
"I'm glad that they did [give him a pitch to hit] with a base open," O'Connor said, smiling about the home run pitch to Farrell. "The kid made the pitch, and Farrell took a great swing."
In the eighth, sophomore Matt Packer entered and earned an out of similar importance to Davis' double play ball the night before. With runners on second and third and nobody out, Packer struck out junior Will Greenberg, looking for an enormous first out. Though the ground ball out that followed scored one before a line out ended the inning, it was the initial strikeout that sent Virginia into the ninth with the lead.
"If [Greenberg] puts the ball in play on the right side, they score a run, they move the runner, now the next guy hits a fly ball, all of a sudden the game's tied, and it's a different story," O'Connor said. "That was a huge, huge strikeout."
The Sunday game had an entirely different storyline but ended the same, as Virginia got off to an early lead and never looked back in the 11-4 blowout. Junior starting pitcher Andrew Carraway pitched seven strong innings and allowed just one run to improve to 3-2 on the year, and the Cavaliers got a season-high three home runs from Cannon, Grovatt and Adams.
Virginia returns to Davenport Field Tuesday for the first of a six-game homestand against No. 24 Coastal Carolina.
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