Tuesday night, sophomores provided offensive power early and a young bullpen shut down its opponents late — essentially, an ideal outing for the No. 5 Virginia baseball team.
It was a welcome return to normalcy for the Cavaliers after a series of struggles in their last two midweek games against Radford and Old Dominion. The Spiders challenged in the third, but Virginia proved to be too much, taking a 6-2 win at home.
“We played very good baseball this weekend [against Florida State] and that obviously carried over to today,” coach Brian O’Connor said. “I thought we played really good defense tonight, and [it was] a really crisp, well-played ballgame. It was good to see.”
Against both Radford and Old Dominion, the Cavaliers (36-6, 16-5 ACC) had fallen behind early, trailing 9-1 against the Highlanders and 7-2 against the Monarchs. Tuesday, freshman Josh Sborz halted that trend, giving up just two runs in three innings in his third start of the year. Virginia got on the board early, as sophomores left fielder Derek Fisher and third baseman Nick Howard made Richmond (24-15, 7-5 Atlantic 10) redshirt sophomore starter Chris Bates pay for two walks with consecutive RBI singles in the first inning.
“That’s not our typical approach, those past couple midweek games,” Howard said. “It was definitely nice to get ahead early in that game and finally settle in.”
Howard was the offensive star for the Cavaliers Tuesday night, batting a career-best 5-for-5 with 3 RBIs to lead the team. Howard even flashed his ability in the field, grabbing a foul fly ball up against the wall in the ninth inning. The performance came after a stellar afternoon on the mound from Howard Sunday, as he gave up just one run in 6.2 innings in the final game of Virginia’s sweep of No. 9 Florida State.
“I know that he said he’s seeing the ball well and that’s awesome,” sophomore shortstop Branden Cogswell said. “It’s nice to see someone on your team go 5-for-5, because you never really see it.”
After Richmond tied the game in the third, Virginia responded quickly, tacking on a run off another RBI single from Howard. The Cavaliers broke the game open an inning later, scoring three runs on two deep doubles from sophomore center fielder Brandon Downes and Howard. Virginia saw continued production from its crop of sophomores, as all six runs came off the bats of second-year players. Sophomore outfielder Mike Papi walked and scored three times, while Cogswell reached base four times and score twice.
Cogswell was recently named to the watch list for the Brooks Wallace Shortstop of the Year award, and he has been a dynamic presence in the leadoff spot for the Cavaliers all year. Cogswell is currently sporting a .363 batting average and .487 on-base percentage, while his four triples are tied for the ACC lead.
“He’s been a good table-setter hitter for us, whether it’s to get hits, or draw a walk and somehow get on base and create innings for us,” O’Connor said. “The guy’s done a really nice job in that spot in the lineup, and he’s been really consistent for us.”
The four-run lead was enough for the Virginia, as the Cavaliers used a combination of freshman David Rosenberger, sophomore Nathaniel Abel and redshirt junior Whit Mayberry to close out the final six innings of the game. Though Rosenberger had only seen action in 11 games this season before Tuesday’s showing, he held the Spiders scoreless in three innings in his longest performance of the year.
“Knowing that we were back-to-back games, we needed somebody like him to go extended a little bit,” O’Connor said. “Our struggles in the middle of the week these last couple weeks have been the result of not getting off to good starts from a pitching standpoint, so certainly collectively [the pitchers] did the job on the mound tonight.”
Virginia’s bullpen has been strong all season, but O’Connor was glad to be able to get a couple new faces on the mound Tuesday, and he hopes it will signal success later in the season.
“It’s no secret that we’re going to need a couple more guys,” O’Connor said. “We’ve been mainly pitching eight guys all year. As it rolls into postseason time, you’ve got to have ten … and you’ve got to try to find another guy out of that group who hasn’t pitched much.”
Richmond threatened at times late in the game, but the visitors were not able to push a run across after the third inning. Mayberry struck out four batters in his two innings of relief, and ended the game with an emphatic strikeout. The win was the Cavaliers’ fifth straight, and after a monumental weekend against Florida State, the team feels they can keep their success rolling.
“We’re red hot right now,” Howard said. “We’re going to try to keep it going.”
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