Wearing its orange uniforms and camo caps Sunday, No. 14 Virginia baseball hosted No. 23 North Carolina State in the rubber match of a weekend series at Davenport Field. Six gutsy innings from junior pitcher Ryan Williamson and two-out hitting lifted the Wolfpack (19-9, 5-5 ACC) past the Cavaliers (18-11, 6-6 ACC), 5-2.
Sophomore pitcher Tommy Doyle, who has assumed a spot in Virginia’s starting rotation this season after working out of the bullpen in 2015, got the ball in the finale Sunday. As amped up as ever, the 6-foot-6 right-hander walked the first batter he faced.
Doyle recorded outs on a sacrifice bunt and grounder to second base, but then left an 0-2 slider over the heart of the plate. A resulting single off the bat of junior catcher Andrew Knizner gave NC State a 1-0 lead in the first. Doyle muttered choice words into his mitt.
“You can’t do those things, and [Tommy] knows that,” coach Brian O’Connor said. “I know that he’s growing. … Hopefully, Tommy can continue to develop, because for us to take that next step forward and be a little more consistent, certainly he’s going to need to do some good things for us.”
Over five and a third innings of work, Doyle allowed five runs on 10 hits. The Wolfpack scratched across two more runs in the second inning, again with two men down. Both sophomores at the top of the NC State lineup — second baseman Stephen Pitarra and center fielder Josh McLain — had sent RBI singles into right.
Spotted an early 3-0 lead, Williamson went to work against Virginia hitters in the bottom of the second inning. Two walks, an airmailed pickoff throw and a base-knock later, the Cavaliers had loaded the bases for sophomore third baseman Justin Novak.
Williamson hit Novak with his very first pitch, and it appeared he and the Wolfpack might unravel. Credit to Williamson, though, who bore down in 3-2 counts and struck out Virginia’s star sophomores, center fielder Adam Haseley and second baseman Ernie Clement, to preserve a 3-1 advantage.
“We have to do a better job of executing in those situations, because with a pitcher on the mound like that, you’ve got to capitalize in those moments,” junior shortstop Daniel Pinero said. “We definitely didn’t do that today, and we really needed those runs.”
Williamson’s stress on the mound Sunday was mostly self-induced — after all, he needed 127 pitches to get through six innings. Mixing in a nasty breaking ball, Williamson yielded just three hits and sat down 10 Cavaliers, doling out sombreros [three strikeouts] to sophomore first baseman Pavin Smith and Haseley.
In the third frame, Williamson walked three Virginia batters to load the bases before spiking a delivery in front of home plate. Junior catcher Matt Thaiss barreled home from third on the wild pitch to cut the deficit to 3-2. Williamson induced a groundout to limit the damage, and from then on, the Cranford, N.J. native located his filthy off-speed stuff.
“He got people off balance,” Pinero said. “I think as the game went on, his fastball started to get slower, and then he had to rely on his breaking ball. We had a hard time staying back on it. Give credit to the guy — he pitched well, and we just couldn’t figure him out.”
Wolfpack senior pitcher Will Gilbert recorded three shutout innings in relief of Williamson. The lefty Gilbert exchanged Haseley and Smith’s sombreros for golden ones [four strikeouts] in the ninth, and NC State secured an impressive series win in Charlottesville. Defending champion Virginia is scuffling, having lost five of its last six games. But if the past is any indication, the Cavaliers have not sealed their fate.
“We’re still searching to find what it’s going to take for us to be consistent,” O’Connor said. “You understand what we went through, not only last year but the previous years, that this is not an easy thing. It’s a development process. We’ve got guys who are still learning.”
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