After losing each of the first two games in their weekend series against Pitt, No. 10 Virginia baseball needed a win to salvage its road trip. But the series finale felt like more of the same from the first two games as the Cavaliers (29-16, 12-12 ACC) fell 7-3 to the Panthers (28-14, 10-11 ACC).
“We just have to play better,” Coach Chris Pollard said. “We just have to play ourselves to the other side of this. We know we are a better club than we showed this weekend.”
The first frames seemed to be a continuation of game two of the series. Freshman pitcher John Paone took the mound for Virginia, but he could not stop a Pitt offensive onslaught. The Panthers got two men on early in the first inning before a double from junior infielder Kai Wagner drove a run in. They added three more in the third inning when junior catcher Sebastian Pisacreta and senior infielder Carter Dierdorf hit a short single and a double with the bases loaded.
Similarly following the earlier pattern, the Cavalier offense appeared to have left their bats back in the Commonwealth. They did not have a baserunner until the fourth inning, when they got their first run as well. After a walk and a single put runners on the corners, a wild pitch by junior pitcher Drew Lafferty allowed junior infielder Joe Tiroly to score and cut the deficit to three.
Despite this, Pitt continued to pour on runs. A double by senior outfielder Lorenzo Carrier put two runners in scoring position with no outs, setting up a sacrifice fly from Wagner to make it 5-1. Immediately after, a triple from junior infielder Trey Fenderson scored another, before he came home on another sacrifice fly. By the end of the fourth inning, it was 7-1.
The Cavaliers would attempt to rally in the fifth inning, but came up short with the bases loaded. However, they would get a run back in the sixth inning. A Tiroly double started the inning strong, and he later scored after consecutive groundouts allowed him to advance and cross home plate. Yet, this rally would be short-lived with Tiroly being the only one they got in that frame.
That missed opportunity would come back to haunt Virginia. They never were in a position to score multiple runs again, leaving them unable to generate a comeback. While the bullpen, notably graduate pitcher Lucas Hartman, held the Panthers off from scoring more runs, it did not matter. Though the Cavaliers scored a ninth-inning run on a single from freshman shortstop RJ Holmes, the game ended at 7-3.
In the end, simply nothing went right. Paone only went 2.2 innings before being pulled, but received no help from the bullpen. Hard contact was hard to come by at the plate, and virtually every bit of it was swallowed up by the Panther fielders. The Cavaliers were truly outclassed on the field, a rarity for the top-10 team that has now happened in consecutive games against unranked Pitt. This was the first time the team has been swept all season.
This loss and the series as a whole leave Virginia in a rough place. Now just .500 in conference play, they are well outside of the top four spots in the ACC that get a double-bye in the conference tournament. Looking further ahead, this will surely dampen the Cavaliers’ overall resume for the NCAA Tournament, likely taking them out of a regional hosting spot at the moment. That being said, they still have plenty of games to turn it around if they can flip the switch at the plate.
“We are going to play better,” Pollard said. “We are going to go home, going to regroup and we have got to get some guys going offensively.”
Virginia will have a chance to rebound with two midweek games, the first of which is Tuesday against George Mason. First pitch is set for 6 p.m., with the Cavaliers returning back to Charlottesville as part of a nine-game homestand.
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