The Cavaliers looked to make it four straight victories to start the year on Tuesday, as Virginia Military Institute ventured down I-81 for an early-season meeting with Virginia at Disharoon Park.
The Cavaliers (4-0, 0-0 ACC) entered Tuesday with the most runs scored across the nation in the season’s opening weekend, with a 69-run onslaught in a three-game set against Wagner. The Keydets (4-1, 0-0 SoCon) entered Tuesday not far behind, posting 67 runs in their opening series, a four-game sweep against Delaware State.
Coach Chris Pollard entrusted the first midweek start of the year to freshman righty John Paone for his first action as a Cavalier. His first inning yielded mixed results, as shaky control allowed VMI to post a run in the opening frame. Three strikeouts did much to vindicate Pollard’s decision to start Paone, as he displayed a fastball reaching 96 miles per hour with a mix of tight-breaking balls.
The Cavaliers were quick to respond to the early wake-up call, heaping on three runs in the top of the first off of senior pitcher Clark Driscoll. An early bobble at shortstop put junior outfielder A.J. Gracia on first with one out, moving to second on a walk courtesy of junior first baseman Sam Harris. Junior infielder Joe Tiroly strode to the plate with the stage set, and he was quick to cash in with a double to right-center field that scored both runners. Senior outfielder Harrison Didawick, who entered Tuesday’s matchup tied atop the team RBI charts with six against Wagner, wasted no time reinforcing the lead as he roped an opposite-field single to send Tiroly home, putting Virginia up 3-1.
Paone continued to find his groove in the second, striking out sophomore outfielder Cole Cook on three pitches to begin the frame. He then retired the side in order, fanning his last batter in what turned into a stellar debut from the promising young arm.
VMI head coach Sam Roberts was quick to the bullpen in the second, with Driscoll giving up a leadoff double to junior second baseman Noah Murray and putting junior shortstop Eric Becker aboard on a hit-by-pitch. A Gracia flyball to short left field flummoxed the Keydet defense, dropping for a base hit and loading the bases with no one out.
Roberts resorted to senior southpaw Hunter Sipe, a move that would come to define the passage of play through the next four innings. He quelled the looming Cavalier threat, only allowing Murray to cross the plate on an attempted double play that Tiroly barely beat out at first for his third RBI of the day.
Virginia would fail to reach base until the seventh as the deceptive pitching motion of Sipe befuddled the Cavaliers and kept VMI within striking distance. A pitching change to start the sixth produced much the same, with freshman Tyler Bassett retiring the side in order.
Luckily for the Cavaliers, the Keydets looked only marginally better with the bat in the middle innings, as a carousel of Cavalier pitchers did well to maintain the lead. A brief stint by freshman Noah Yoder was the only point of instability following Paone’s departure. A walk, a single and a hit-by-pitch loaded the bases with one down, forcing Pollard to turn to veteran senior Kevin Jaxel.
His 1.2 innings of scoreless work were followed by a brief appearance by junior Drew Koenen and what looked to be a calamitous start to the sixth courtesy of senior Joe Colucci. He walked the first two hitters he faced on just nine pitches, prompting a call to the bullpen that saw graduate student Lucas Hartman enter the ballgame.
Hartman was one of three members of the bullpen to notch a win in the series against Wagner, and he continued to put in good work against the Keydets. In the high-leverage situation he inherited, Hartman immediately induced a crucial comebacker that he took to home — it then went to first for a double play, ending the inning.
The Cavaliers tacked on one final insurance run in the bottom of the seventh, with Murray scoring for the second time on a ground ball from Harris to the first baseman. That tally was nullified when the Keydets came to the plate, as junior utility player Bradley Garner put one in the left field bleachers for the only home run of the game.
The Keydets recorded another single in the inning with nobody out, leaving little room for error for the Cavaliers in what remained a tight contest. Cook lined a ball to left field for a single and what would have been runners on first and second. A baserunning mishap as junior catcher Cole Raile rounded third meant that the Cavaliers had a chance to get him at the plate. Tiroly gathered the cutoff from Didawick and fired home to freshman catcher Thomas O’Connell. A strong tag left little doubt, even after an umpire review, and the Cavaliers had preserved the lead.
“We practiced that play in our IO,” Tiroly said after the conclusion of the game. “He kind of hesitated and then went home, and everyone was screaming ‘four.’ The goal is just to take a step up, get the ball, and get it out as quickly as possible to O’Connell, who made a great tag.”
For both teams, it was an uncharacteristically low-scoring affair when all was said and done. For Pollard and his staff, the more grueling play provided a fundamental lesson.
“I thought, obviously, it was a very different ballgame than the type of ballgame we played in this weekend, and that was great for us because you have to learn how to win all types of ball games to be a complete club,” Pollard said postgame. “Today, it was a little more of a pitcher’s duel, and you had to make some pitches to get off the field in big spots. Both teams did that.”
With a wealth of newfound insight acquired during the first four games of the season, the Cavaliers now look ahead to their first road trip of the year as they head to DeLand, Fla. for an early-season tournament. Their first matchup comes against Monmouth Friday.
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