For the first seven innings of its home opener yesterday, the No. 16 Virginia baseball team lived up to the mediocrity critics predicted. The team’s pitching was suspect, its defense error-prone and its offense dormant in action against William & Mary.
But the Cavaliers (2-1-1, 0-0 ACC) erased a four-run deficit during the eighth inning and came from behind again in the 11th on freshman Mike Papi’s walk-off two run single to salvage a 6-5 extra innings victory against the Tribe (2-2).
“There’s a lot of things that we did not do well, but most of all, I’m proud of my players because they found a way to win the ballgame,” coach Brian O’Connor said.
The win echoed Virginia’s last game at Davenport Field, a drawn-out super-regional win against UC Irvine, which sent the Cavaliers to their second College World Series.
William & Mary senior righty Matt Davenport excelled on the mound and nearly propelled his team to a shocking upset. The side-winder held the Cavalier offense at bay during his scoreless 6.2 innings of work, allowing just two hits.
“Davenport was outstanding for them tonight,” O’Connor said. “I couldn’t wait until they took him out of the ballgame because of his quirkiness, and he had really good location.”
Once Davenport left the game, however, the William & Mary bullpen disintegrated. On junior closer John Farrell’s first pitch, Cavaliers senior first baseman Jared King delivered the first hit of the eighth inning rally, a bases-clearing double. Freshman catcher Nate Irving followed up with a line drive to center which found grass a few feet in front of the Tribe’s junior center-fielder Ryan Brown to bring home King and knot the score at 4.
Irving nearly fell from grace, however, with his critical 11th inning error, his second of the night. With the bases loaded and one out, Cavalier senior closer Justin Thompson induced a sharp grounder to King at first. King fielded it cleanly and threw home for one out, but Irving’s throw back to first base for the double play sailed over King’s head and into right field, allowing the go-ahead run, freshman Josh Smith, to trot home from second.
“It’s a lot of pressure for a young kid and I think [Irving’s] handling being our starting catcher very well,” O’Connor said. “Tonight he obviously made a couple of mistakes… He’s just going to have to learn, and the only way you learn is by getting experience.”
Virginia came to bat with the top of its order due up, needing to create one run to extend the game. Junior shortstop Chris Taylor slammed a base hit to bring up speed demon sophomore outfielder Mitchell Shifflet. Shifflet showed bunt but took a four-pitch walk.
Junior third baseman Stephen Bruno then bunted the runners over to bring Papi to the plate in his first collegiate home game. On the payoff pitch from William & Mary junior reliever Ryan Williams, the ball jumped off his bat into right field to easily score Taylor. The game came down to an enthralling play at the plate when Shifflet slid past catcher Chris Forsten to complete a gut-check victory for Virginia.
“We don’t focus on winning tight games,” King said. “We focus on being mentally tough and that ability shines through when there’s tough times in tough games like tonight where we don’t score a run for eight innings.”
The Virginia pitching staff danced in and out of trouble all night, but came up with enough key plays while the Cavalier bats looked for a spark. Although junior righthander Joel Effertz wobbled in his first start for Virginia, allowing two runs in just 2.2 innings of work, the bullpen held fast to keep the game competitive. The Tribe left an astounding 19 runners on base, including seven in the final three innings. In both the ninth and 11th innings, William & Mary sent the potential go-ahead runner to third base with fewer than two outs but bailed out Thompson with poor bunt attempts which led to run downs at the plate. Thompson earned the win for the Cavaliers with three innings of relief work.
The baseball team springs back into action tomorrow when it begins a three-game home series against Monmouth.
Read More
Virginia Athletics wins second straight Commonwealth Clash over Virginia Tech
By Eleanor Lynch | 8 hours agoThe Cavaliers’ fifth Commonwealth Clash victory over the last eight contests proves the athletic department’s overall success in recent years.
No. 6 men’s lacrosse falters late, fumbling chance at huge victory over No. 1 Notre Dame
By Michael Liebermann | 11 hours agoThe ache of last season's defeat will persist.
No. 6 women’s lacrosse eliminated by No. 4 Syracuse in ACC Semifinal
By Peter Kratz | 11 hours agoA forgettable first-half performance sunk the ship for the Cavaliers.
