After he watched the ball fly off the bat of senior right fielder John Spatola and sail over the right field wall in the top of the seventh inning, sophomore Danny Hultzen walked back to the mound, toed the rubber and dialed in on the next batter. He threw two quick strikes, seemingly unshaken. But when the home plate umpire called three straight balls, Virginia's quiet, composed ace wiped the sweat off his forehead and circled the mound. For the first time Friday night, the preseason All-American selection appeared to be rattled by Boston College batters.
The brief respite and a deep breath refocused Hultzen, however, as the southpaw caught sophomore third baseman Anthony Melchionda looking with 91 mile per hour heat on the outside corner of the plate for his 10th strikeout of the game.
"The ump was calling strikes all night," Hultzen said. "Maybe that fatigue was setting in, but I just tried to battle through that."
Five pitches later, Hultzen recorded his 11th strikeout with another fastball to end the inning. And it did not get any easier from there for the Eagles, as the Cavaliers cruised to win the game 7-1 and sweep the series in front of a record crowd of 9,642 fans, the most ever for a three-game series at Virginia. Hultzen combined with juniors Robert Morey and Cody Winiarski to log a season-high 21 innings during the weekend and limit Boston College to 10 hits, allowing only two earned runs while fanning 23 batters. Virginia batters, meanwhile, recorded double-digit hits in each game, outscoring their counterparts at the plate by a total of 22-5.
Hultzen, who improved to 4-1 on the season with the victory, finished the first game of the series with 12 strikeouts - one short of his career high - and was electric from the outset. He struck out the side in the second and, after surrendering his first hit in the top of the third, fielded a sharp ground ball up the middle and threw to first to retire the side.
His counterpart on the mound, Kevin Moran, was not as effective in the early going, allowing six earned runs, eight hits and two walks in just 2 1/3 innings of work. Junior center fielder Jarrett Parker first tagged Moran in the bottom of the second for a double that carried at least 300 feet into the left-center field gap and rolled all the way to the wall. Senior shortstop Tyler Cannon then extended his hit-streak to 10 games with a double that fell in nearly the exact same spot to score Parker and put the Cavaliers on the board. Virginia continued to inflict damage with two outs when junior left fielder Phil Gosselin ripped a double through the left side of the infield to score Cannon, followed by a single up the middle off the bat of sophomore second baseman Keith Werman to score senior catcher Franco Valdes.
Virginia added another three-run inning in the bottom of the third. Sophomore Steven Proscia and Parker began the inning with back-to-back doubles, with the latter landing just in front of the 408 mark in dead center field.
"I've been getting pitched a lot differently this year - took an adjustment," Parker said, adding that opposing pitchers have thrown him more off-speed pitches this season. "Still adjusting to it, actually, so I got a few pitches tonight - I'm just trying to be aggressive and hit 'em well."
After a Cannon ground-out to second moved Parker to third base, sophomore first baseman John Hicks hit a single through the right side of the infield to extend the Cavalier lead to 5-0. Hicks eventually scored on a wild pitch that sent Moran to the clubhouse.
The six-run lead was all Hultzen needed as he allowed only three more base runners the whole game. His eight-inning performance was the longest outing of his young career.
"Danny Hultzen has put together four really tremendous outings for us in a row here, and that's what your Friday night starter needs to do," coach Brian O'Connor said. "For us to have a chance to win this league championship, throughout this entire season, that Friday night starter needs to go out and do the job for you."
Virginia's dominant starting pitching continued Saturday as Morey worked a season-high seven innings while allowing zero runs and just four hits as the Cavaliers took game two against Boston College 4-3.\nMorey "was working ahead in the count, he was locating his pitches, [and] that's what he hadn't done this year," O'Connor said. "He's got some really good swing-and-miss stuff - a good fastball, good breaking ball, good slider - but all that's gotta come together with throwing strikes to be efficient. So he finally did that today and that's what he was doing last year when he was really successful for us, so hopefully that's something he can repeat."
Despite the excellent starting pitching, it was Virginia's dynamic closer that almost blew the game. In the ninth, junior Kevin Arico entered the game in a non-save situation and the normally automatic pitcher - who had not given up a single run all year - ran into an Eagle squad unwilling to give up just yet.
Senior center fielder Robbie Anston started the rally with a single to right field and moved to second on an Arico balk. After walking the next batter, Arico appeared to find his form, striking out junior first baseman Mickey Wiswall and inducing a fly out off the bat of Melchionda to right field. With Spatola at the plate and the count 0-2, Arico needed one more strike to clinch the shutout and the series for Virginia. His next pitch struck Spatola on the foot, however, and suddenly, the bases were loaded. Arico again worked the count to 0-2 - this time against freshman catcher Matt Watson - with another chance to win the series. But again, the Eagles proved resilient, and Watson slapped a double off the left-center field wall to clear the bases and bring the potential tying run to the plate. Arico finally buckled down and converted on his third 0-2 count and struck out the next batter, sealing the narrow win.
The Cavaliers ended up needing all the runs they could muster on a day when they were not that easy to obtain. Boston College sophomore starting pitcher Mike Dennhardt entered the game with an inflated 10.91 ERA but shut out the Cavaliers in all but two innings.
Dennhardt's "got some good stuff," Gosselin said. "Steven Proscia went to high school with him so he told us, 'Be ready, he's a good pitcher.' So we knew we were gonna have a tough time. He threw strikes, had a good fastball, threw off-speed for strikes, so he did a nice job. We did just enough to beat him."
Virginia got on the board in the third when Gosselin poked a two-out single through the left hole in the infield. A balk moved Gosselin to second, and Werman capitalized on the opportunity with a triple that rolled all the way to the center field wall to give Virginia a 1-0 lead.
Grovatt made it back-to-back triples for Virginia when he knocked a sharp liner past a diving Spatola in right field that rolled to the wall. Werman scored to put Virginia up 2-0. The Cavaliers added two more insurance runs in the seventh, highlighted by a double to left by Gosselin, who finished the series 7-for-10 at the plate with four RBI. The runs gave Virginia a 4-0 lead and provided the bullpen with enough support to seal the game.
Winiarski helped Virginia clinch the sweep Sunday with his best outing this season, scattering three hits and allowing just one earned run during six innings of work. Parker gave his pitcher plenty of breathing room early with a bases-clearing triple in the first inning, while Grovatt added a home-run in his two-hit, four-RBI performance. The Cavaliers ultimately tallied 11 runs, scoring in double-digits for the eighth time this season. But for all of Virginia's offensive firepower, O'Connor emphasized that the team's formula for success is closely tied to the starting pitching.
"We really set the tone the entire weekend from the mound, and I knew that we needed to do that because I really like BC's offensive ball club," he said. "All three of our starters went out there and pitched really great games, and when you play great defense like we did this weekend, and you pitch like we did, we're gonna be tough to beat"
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