The No. 8 Virginia baseball team played Towson Wednesday night, but you may not have known that from a quick look at the field. With their school’s name blacked out on their uniforms in protest of a recent decision to cut the program, the Tigers likely played at Davenport for the final time. Behind a solid start from freshman Trey Oest, the Cavaliers closed out the series in impressive fashion, taking a 7-1 win.
On a night when a dominant performance from the Cavaliers (23-2, 7-2 ACC) on both sides of the ball made for a relatively uneventful game, it was the Tigers’ (13-10, 5-4 CAA) turmoil that seemed to take center stage. After a March 8 decision by the Towson administration to drop the baseball and men’s soccer teams, the players staged a protest, covering “Towson” on their uniforms in duct tape. Their decision has been met with sympathy from other teams around the country, including Virginia.
“There’s no question that Towson’s baseball program is in a tough position right now,” head coach Brian O’Connor said. “I hate to see it. Baseball is our national pastime and you hate to see opportunities taken away from young people. They’ve had a baseball program there for a long time. They’ve got a great coach that’s been there a long time.”
The team’s protest has brought them national attention and broad support, including from Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley. The Tigers hope that they may be able to use the public anger to overturn the decision.
“I think the people who made this decision underestimated the outcry in the Towson community, in the state of Maryland, even government officials,” Towson coach Mike Gottlieb said. “I think there’s still some hope. … There’s been some talk at a high level of government about it, so we’re hoping, but we know there’s no guarantees.”
Facing Towson for the 17th and possibly final time, the Cavaliers used two big innings to power their way to the win. After redshirt senior first baseman Jared King reached on an error and freshman outfielder Joe McCarthy walked in the bottom of the third inning, the Cavaliers used four hits to plate five runs and take the early lead. The Cavaliers have had a propensity for big innings all year, and they were able to chase Towson starter junior Nik Nowottnick in their second time through the order.
“I thought we were seeing the ball well and we were getting some good swings in early, we just couldn’t get everything to go together at once,” sophomore outfielder Brandon Downes said. “Then in the third inning, it was just contagious. Everyone’s cutting the ball in half, seeing good pitches, and everyone’s doing their job.”
The lead was plenty for Oest, who continued his impressive freshman year with another strong start, giving up just one run in 4.2 innings of work. He was not in line for the win after O’Connor pulled him in the fifth inning following two Towson hits, but freshman Nate Kirby shut the Tigers down to hold them to no runs in the inning.
“The plan was to get 5 innings out of Trey and chop up the rest of the game with some of those relievers and get them work,” O’Connor said. “I just didn’t feel that in the fourth inning Trey was making the pitches that he needed to, and he needed to learn that he’s got to be a little bit better than that.”
Kirby, redshirt junior Whit Mayberry and freshmen David Rosenberger and Cameron Tekker combined for 4.1 innings of scoreless relief, and the Cavaliers added two more runs in the sixth inning to seal the win. The Cavaliers improved to 23-2 overall and a perfect 16-0 in non-conference games.
Virginia now prepares for a home weekend series with ACC rival and four-time national champion Miami (19-9, 4-5 ACC). The Hurricanes took two out of three games last weekend from Virginia Tech, but fell 6-1 in their Wednesday non-conference matchup against Florida Atlantic.
Freshman first baseman David Thompson has paced the Hurricane offense so far this season with a .289 batting average, 2 home runs and 21 RBI.
Miami will most likely go with sophomore Chris Diaz on the mound Friday, followed by junior Javi Salas and sophomore Andrew Suarez on Saturday and Sunday. So far this season, Diaz has gone 3-1 with a 1.58 ERA in 6 starts. Virginia will counter with its usual three-man rotation of freshman Brandon Waddell, redshirt senior Scott Silverstein and sophomore Nick Howard.
“The University of Miami has one of those storied college baseball programs,” O’Connor said. “I think they’re really good on the mound this year. They always play really good defense, they execute situations well and put pressure on you, and certainly it’s going to be a good weekend of college baseball here.”
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