Fans arriving at Disharoon Park Saturday were treated to a wide range of temperatures — high 50s yielded to low 40s — by the end of a baseball-packed afternoon. They were also treated to explosive offense — on one side, at least. After opening the season with a 13-7 win Friday over Wagner, Virginia concluded the series with a doubleheader sweep featuring dual destructions of the Seahawks (0-3, 0-0 Northeast).
Coach Chris Pollard evidently decided that 13 runs was not enough. A four-hour marathon saw the Cavaliers (3-0, 0-0 ACC) put up 25 runs on the Seahawks in the first game of the Saturday doubleheader. They one-upped themselves with a 31-run showing in game two, setting a new single-game record — the previous record was 29 runs, set in 2007. Overall, it was a resounding success to kick off the Pollard era.
Sophomore lefty Max Stammel opened the game for Virginia and had little trouble in his outing. He cruised through three innings of shutout ball, posting five strikeouts and allowing just one hit. Stammel, one of several Duke transfers, figures to feature prominently in Virginia’s starting pitching plans.
Behind Stammel, the Cavaliers found their offensive footing quickly. They put up three-run frames in the first and third innings, interrupted by a single run in the second thanks to a solo home run by graduate catcher Noah Jouras. Jouras, making his season debut, reached base in each of his plate appearances — he posted a 3-for-3 day with two walks.
Virginia’s seven-run lead vanished as quickly as it arrived. Junior pitcher Charlie Oschell entered in relief of Stammel but struggled mightily, allowing five runs on a string of hits, wild pitches and walks. He recorded just one out before exiting in favor of senior righty Kevin Jaxel.
Jaxel induced a sacrifice fly and a ground ball that would have stopped the bleeding if not for a fielding error by freshman infielder Noah Murray. Fielding woes punished Wagner most heavily in the both games — the Seahawks committed five errors in each game — but the Cavaliers committed two errors of their own in game one, including Murray’s, to give Wagner life.
The Seahawks’ hope was short-lived. Jaxel posted a clean frame in the top of the fifth, bringing the Virginia offense back to the plate with a 7-5 lead. Three Seahawks pitched in the bottom half, but none of them could rein in the Cavaliers — six walks, a balk, two errors, two hit-by-pitches and two wild pitches later, Virginia held a 17-5 lead, posting 10-spot despite recording just two hits in the inning.
From there, Pollard’s Cavaliers cruised to the finish. Two freshmen righties made appearances for Virginia — Thomas Stewart and Jayden Stroman. They threw two innings each, with Stroman posting an effective no-run outing. Stewart allowed five runs, just two of them earned, but showed flashes of solid stuff in the showing.
For their part, the Virginia offense posted 25 runs on just 15 hits and 12 walks — bizarre numbers, but ones that are demonstrative of a patient, disciplined approach. Cavalier hitters allowed Wagner’s pitchers to dig themselves a hole, recording walk after walk instead of chasing pitches outside the zone.
Game two began on uneven footing for the Cavaliers, but the outcome was ultimately more of the same. Sophomore righty Michael Yeager started on the mound for Virginia but allowed six runs — four of them earned — in 2.1 innings of work, including a grand slam given up in the first inning.
The Virginia offense had no trouble closing the gap, though, as the Seahawks continued to flounder on defense. After notching one run in the first, the Cavaliers posted a four-run second inning courtesy of dual RBI doubles from junior infielders Eric Becker and Sam Harris, who hit first and third in both games of the doubleheader.
In the third, the Cavaliers closed the gap further thanks to two outfield drops by Wagner — two of five errors in game two, bringing the Saturday total to 10 errors for the Seahawks. On the pitching side, junior righty Drew Koenen held Wagner scoreless through the third inning and into the fourth, when freshman Christian Lucarelli finished out the frame.
In the bottom half of the fourth, the Virginia offense once again exploited major pitching and defense struggles on the Seahawk side. Wild pitches, errors and walks abounded as the Cavaliers put up 10 runs in one inning for the second time that day to take an 18-6 lead.
Still, the runs kept coming. Junior two-way player Kyle Johnson, who entered part of the way during game two as the designated hitter, suffered two hit-by-pitches until he got his chance to swing — a 2-RBI double to left-center in the sixth inning served as his greatest contribution.
In the eighth, with Virginia’s total now up to 28 runs, Murray once again stepped to the plate. His struggles over the doubleheader forgotten, Murray blasted a three-run bomb to extend the lead to 31 — setting the new single-game runs record. The Seahawks added another late run, but the 31-8 score finalized a foregone conclusion.
Wagner had no answer for the Virginia offense. Still, shaky pitching and defense gave the Seahawks occasional glimpses of hope early in both games. It is a flaw that time may rectify — particularly as Pollard continues to experiment with various defensive combinations and relievers in different roles.
As impressive as the offensive showing was, Pollard appeared to care little for the accomplishment postgame — he turned straight to the issues.
“We’ve got an enormous amount of room for growth,” Pollard said. “That’s nowhere near the best version of us and nowhere near where we’ll be as the season grows. But what I really liked about this weekend was every time something negative happened, we embraced it and we had a big response.”
Big response, indeed. Wagner stood little chance in the back half of either ballgame.
Virginia returns to action 3 p.m. Tuesday at The Dish versus the Virginia Military Institute. Then, the Cavaliers jet off to DeLand, Fla., for a three-game set against Monmouth, Stetson and North Dakota State. The Cavaliers will look to continue their winning ways and replicate some piece of the offensive dominance displayed Saturday.
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