During the first run through the order yesterday evening against Marshall, Virginia hitters familiarized themselves with a sidearm, an aesthetically displeasing throwing motion that resulted in top speeds of 64 miles per hour. The second go-around, a new pitcher toed the rubber, throwing 89 mph heat. Virginia then faced three more submarine pitchers in the Thundering Herd's bullpen-by-committee effort, which fielded six pitchers in total.
"Those guys that throw sidearm scare me," coach Brian O'Connor said.
Virginia steeled itself for the challenge, though, and even ended up using the same number of pitchers. Needless to say, none of them threw at angles flirting with 45 degrees.
Despite the struggle of facing a constantly changing enemy, the No. 1 Cavaliers (18-3, 5-1 ACC) tagged their opponents for six runs, including a three-run fourth inning to defeat Marshall (8-10) 6-3 at Davenport Field and pick up its fifth midweek win of the season.
Junior center fielder Jarrett Parker got a hold of junior left hander Kyle Blank's offspeed pitch with a leadoff double to left-center field that landed on the warning track. Parker advanced on sophomore first baseman John Hicks' fly-out to right and then scored on junior left fielder John Barr's sacrifice fly to give Virginia a 1-0 advantage.
"The first guy we stayed back, tried to take the ball the other way," Hicks said. "The second guy threw a little harder, tried to stay middle field. And when a guy has a low velocity, he kind of tries to throw you a lot of junk, and you just have to stay back and hit it the other way, and if you're early, you can pull the ball."
Marshall brought in a new pitcher, junior right-hander Kevin Shackelford, in the bottom of the third. After the Thundering Herd got on the board in the top half of the fourth, the Cavaliers adjusted to Shackelford's more orthodox, over-the-top throwing motion. Hicks reached second on two errors to begin the inning, but Marshall right fielder Eric Semeniuk barely had to move to catch two hard-hit balls off the bats of Barr and junior catcher Kenny Swab for two quick outs. Virginia finally found a gap in the outfield when freshman designated hitter Stephen Bruno slapped a single to center to plate Hicks. O'Connor then put on a successful hit-and-run as junior second baseman Phil Gosselin pulled out a triple on a hot liner to left-center that rolled to the wall. Senior shortstop Tyler Cannon, who hit 4-for-4 - including the 53rd double of his career to tie him for most in program history - and reached base five times, added to the two-out hitting frenzy with a single through the right side of the infield on a 3-1, giving Virginia a comfortable 4-1 lead.
"Our team doesn't have any quit in them and they don't give away in the innings, and we've had some big innings this year with two outs," O'Connor said. "That's the sign of a good offensive ball club - they don't just pack it in with two outs - we keep plugging along."
Virginia benefited from more than just this clutch hitting, as sophomore pitcher Will Roberts managed to toss four solid innings of three-hit, one-run baseball. The righty could have pitched further into the game, but O'Connor said he wanted several other pitchers to see action to keep the bullpen sharp as the team prepares an important weekend series against No. 6 Clemson.
After Virginia put together a two-run fifth, highlighted by an RBI-single by Hicks and another hit-and-run, O'Connor passed the torch to freshman right-hander Branden Kline, who entered the game with a 3.68 ERA in five appearances. The sixth-round draft pick by the Boston Red Sox quickly retired the side in the bottom half of the frame with only seven pitches. A Marshall hitter finally made contact on Kline's 12th straight fast ball in the top of the sixth, sending a line drive on a rope to right for a double. Kline quickly adjusted and caught senior third baseman Josh Valle looking with a 2-2 slider.
"I've been working on the slider, it's really coming along," Kline said. "Coming here to U.Va., it's become probably my second favorite pitch - my change-up is getting better and better every day."\nThe freshman then induced a fly out to end the inning and handed the ball over to senior Neal Davis in the seventh. Virginia's top southpaw out of the bullpen recorded two quick outs but got in trouble when he surrendered a walk and then a double off the wall to redshirt sophomore left fielder Rhett Stafford. O'Connor brought in redshirt freshman Chad O'Connor, who gave up a single through the middle that closed Virginia's lead to three runs.
The veteran relievers Virginia fielded in juniors Tyler Wilson and Kevin Arico suppressed the Thundering Herd's threat in the final 1.2 innings, however, giving Kline his second win of the season and Arico his seventh save.
Virginia resumes ACC play Friday against Clemson, leader of the conference's Atlantic Division.
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