The No.5 Virginia baseball team has grown accustomed to pounding challengers in midweek games, showing no mercy while running up the score against overmatched opponents. Since a stunning 8-0 loss to Liberty Feb. 28, 2012, the Cavaliers had not lost a midweek game, a streak that had spanned 21 games and 407 days of dominance.
Wednesday, more than a year after fellow Big South member Liberty stunned the home crowd, Radford flipped the script on the nation’s fifth-ranked team to earn its biggest upset in school history. The Highlanders blitzed junior starter Artie Lewicki in his long-awaited return from Tommy John surgery, tallying three runs in the top of the first and built a 9-1 lead through two innings.
Even a near-miraculous two-out ninth inning rally that put the winning run on base was not enough to climb all the way back. After three straights singles brought sophomore center fielder Brandon Downes to the plate with runners on first and second and Virginia trailing by just one run, Highlander redshirt sophomore closer Michael Costello induced a pop-out to halt the rally and end the game. Radford’s 9-8 victory on ‘80s night at Davenport Field was its first in Charlottesville since 1990.
As the home team retreated to its locker room after its first non-conference loss this season, coach Brian O’Connor remained upbeat and lauded his team’s resolve.
“I told our team after the game, ‘What I’m really proud of tonight is our fight,‘” O’Connor said. “Our guys don’t pack it in even when we’re behind. They keep fighting knowing there’s another opportunity.”
Lewicki, who was the losing pitcher in the team’s last midweek loss as well, was making his first appearance since his dud against Appalachian State in the NCAA Regional put Virginia on the brink of elimination. An elbow injury forced Lewicki to wait 44 weeks before having a chance to erase memories of that disappointing close to a promising 2012 season.
Lewicki felt “a pulling sensation” in his elbow during the third inning of a summer league game and was forced to undergo offseason Tommy John surgery Aug. 7. He was one of Virginia’s most promising starters to close last season, compiling a 3.82 ERA in 77.2 innings. Pitching coach Karl Kuhn instructed him to watch film of his outings from 2012 during his rehab to help him remember his motion and process.
“I just wanted to come back and help the team anyway I could,” Lewicki said. “I just really wanted to pitch. I missed it. It was tough watching in the fall but it basically motivated me to come back.”
Lewicki was told early Wednesday afternoon that he would start, and he could not have envisioned a better setting for his return to the mound. The Cavaliers’ entered winners of five straight and 14-of-15, and the Davenport Field bleachers were packed to the brim with fans. As soon as Lewicki fired his first pitch, things went south.
“He’s got to calm himself down and stay within himself,” O’Connor said of Lewicki. “But that’s natural. You’re coming back from arm surgery, it’s your first start, you’re pitching at home, you want to do so good and sometimes you try to do too much.”
Radford scored three times in the top of the first, as the Highlander hitters punished Lewicki’s mistakes on the mound. After the first two batters reached base, sophomore shortstop Brandon Cogswell’s error on a double-play ball loaded the bases with no one out.
The defense made amends with a pair of defensive gems. Redshirt senior Jared King made a lunging stop at first and freshman second baseman John Laprise made a diving catch in shallow right field, but it was not enough to salvage Lewicki’s night. Highlander junior first baseman Alexander Lee’s hot shot up the middle drove in two as Lewicki lasted just one ineffective inning.
As calamitous an outing as Lewicki had in his return, usually reliable freshman Trey Oest fared even worse in relief. Oest lasted just 2/3 of an inning and was hammered for six earned runs, including a three-run home run by redshirt senior shortstop Jeff Kemp that gave the Highlanders a 7-1 lead.
Freshman righty Josh Sborz settled things down after replacing Oest, but not before Radford extend the lead to 9-1 through just two innings. The bullpen followed with seven consecutive scoreless frames to hold the Highlanders at nine runs, but the Cavalier bats never mounted a real rally until the ninth.
Home runs by sophomore outfielders Mike Papi and Derek Fisher highlighted the comeback bid on offense and brought the Cavaliers within 9-4, but even after a weekend in which they twice rebounded from ninth inning deficits to win, the eight-run hole proved too much to overcome.
“Down 9-4 [entering the ninth], we still have a shot, not only when the bases are loaded with nobody out,” Fisher said. “To see us fight back like that kind of shows a lot about our team.”
The Cavalier pitching staff will need to regroup quickly as it prepares to face hard-hitting Georgia Tech in Atlanta. Yellow Jacket hitters are batting a conference best .328 at the plate. Four different Georgia Tech players rank among the ACC’s top eight in batting average including senior Brandon Thomas, who sits atop the leaderboard with a .441 average.
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