Going into a three-game series with Miami this weekend, the last thing the Virginia baseball team needed in its contest against William & Mary last night was yet another midweek clunker.
In a matchup between two of the commonwealth's finest, however, it was the Tribe that took control from the beginning and emerged the victor in the end, staving off the Cavaliers 6-5.
In the bottom of the eighth, trailing 6-4, Virginia mounted a comeback. Following a one-out single by junior second baseman David Adams, freshman Dan Grovatt lined a one-hopper down the right-field line that skipped over diving junior first baseman Mike Sheridan for an RBI double.
The Cavaliers left Grovatt standing on second with one out, however, as junior third basemen Jeremy Farrell and freshman right fielder David Coleman grounded out to end the threat.
The bottom of the order was mowed down 1-2-3 in the ninth, including a spectacular diving catch by Tribe junior centerfielder Ben Guez on a fly ball off the bat of sophomore catcher Franco Valdes to open the inning and a strikeout looking by freshman center fielder Jarrett Parker for the final out.
"We just couldn't get the clutch hits when we needed to, and they did," coach Brian O'Connor said. "That's baseball."
For the first 3.2 innings, Virginia could not figure out William & Mary sophomore starting pitcher Cody Winslow. The right-hander had an odd combination of an intimidating 6-foot-8 stature, a disjointed, jerky windup and a junk-filled arsenal complemented by a sub-85 mph fastball. Whatever it was about Winslow that bothered the Virginia lineup, the Cavaliers had difficulty making solid contact in the early going, as Winslow shut out Virginia and allowed just two hits through 3.2 innings.
Meanwhile, a two-RBI double down the left-field line in the top of the third by Guez, who went 3 for 5 on the night, got William & Mary on the board first.
For the third time in two weeks, however, it was Valdes, the player with the lowest average in the Virginia order, who came up with a huge hit in the fourth inning to get the Cavaliers' offense going. Following a two-out walk from Farrell and a follow-up single by Coleman, Valdes drove a two-strike pitch to the gap in left center for a two-run double to knot the score at two apiece. Freshman John Barr added his name to the rally as well, with a single to left to score Valdes.
Valdes "has been very, very clutch for us offensively," O'Connor said. "If we get that from a couple more players, that's a game where we score eight runs rather than five."
Valdes said he and assistant coach Kevin McMullan have worked a lot at the plate, adding, "other than that, I'm guessing it just comes after a while."
The Tribe, however, would waste no time in responding. Junior second baseman James Williamson led off the inning with a single up the middle, and junior third baseman Tyler Stampone followed with a towering shot that cleared the bleachers in left field for just his second homerun of the year. The first-pitch single up the middle by Guez that followed was enough for O'Connor to pull sophomore starting pitcher Jeff Lorick in favor of sophomore Neal Davis.
Lorick finished with five runs, four of them earned, in four-plus innings of work. Though he threw two scoreless innings to start the evening, Lorick's dismissal from the game was accelerated by falling behind in counts throughout his outing, as he threw 67 pitches in his brief start.
Lorick "wasn't getting action early in the count, he was falling behind in the count, and that's a tough way to pitch against one of the top 10 offensive teams in the country," O'Connor said. "You just can't pitch behind in the count against a team like that, and he got burned by it."
The damage in the fifth, however, did not end there -- at no fault of Davis. With junior Sheridan at the plate, Davis made a pickoff attempt as Guez was stealing to force a run-down; junior shortstop Greg Miclat, however, could not come up with the throw from Farrell, which skirted into center field and moved Guez to third. Sheridan then grounded to Miclat, but the shortstop again could not make the play as he booted the ball into center field. Officially ruled an infield single, the play scored Guez to make the score 5-3.
"We scored three runs in the fourth and took the lead, and we gave it right back to them by letting that leadoff hitter get on," O'Connor said. "That's when you've got to smell it and you've got to go out there as a pitcher and put a zero up for your team."
For Miclat, who is still re-acclimating himself to playing shortstop every day after shoulder surgery in the off-season, O'Connor said, it may take time to get back in a rhythm defensively.
"When you can't play every day, you lose your instincts a little bit," O'Connor said. "He'll be OK. He's a good player; he'll bounce back."
The Cavaliers will all try to bounce back this weekend in a three-game road series against top-ranked Miami.
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