No. 10 Virginia baseball was served a slice of humble pie this past weekend. An ugly series loss at Boston College, punctuated by a 17-0 shutout, quelled a hot streak.
“I told our guys in our pregame on Sunday, like, hey, the message doesn't change,” Coach Chris Pollard said. “Our approach doesn't change. The things that we do from a process standpoint, don't change. And so, you know, we looked at this as a one-day season, right?”
Right on cue, Coach Chris Pollard’s team displayed resilience. The Cavaliers (23-7, 7-5 ACC) salvaged the series Sunday and followed that up by reigniting their potent offense with a 16-2 home mercy-rule blowout at home over Old Dominion Tuesday.
The main architect of the midweek shellacking was junior infielder Sam Harris, who went 5-5 at the plate with six RBI and two home runs. Fellow star juniors also dominated — infielder Eric Becker, outfielder AJ Gracia and utilityman Kyle Johnson all contributed multiple hits.
Virginia’s offense got going early as Becker singled and stole second in the top of the first inning. A Harris single drove him in. Then junior outfielder Harrison Didawick walked and Johnson promptly launched a three-run homer, and the Cavaliers jumped out to a commanding 4-0 lead.
Virginia scored in each of the following four innings, but the dagger came through an avalanche of runs in the sixth inning. The Monarchs (13-15, 3-6 Sun Belt) could not keep up.
“Today, we just got our best swing off time after time after time,” Pollard said. “And we got back to what we do.”
Johnson singled to start the surge, although his evening was done early as Pollard inserted sophomore outfielder Zach Jackson as a pinch runner. Then the next five Cavalier batters all reached base — capped off by a Gracia grand slam.
With a 16-2 lead in tow, Pollard made a litany of substitutions. The game was almost certainly set to end prematurely. The game did in fact end after just seven innings as freshman pitcher Christian Lucarelli worked around a leadoff walk and struck out three consecutive batters. The Monarchs had been mercy ruled for the second game in a row.
“Christian Lucarelli is going to throw like that,” Pollard said. “He's gonna pitch high leverage innings for us.”
Freshman arms kept the Monarchs at bay. Jayden Stroman, Noah Yoder and Lucarelli tossed 4.1 out of the seven innings Tuesday. Stroman did give up the only two Old Dominion runs of the game, but the rest of the staff pitched a pseudo-shutout.
Yoder recorded the win for his two innings of work in which he gave up no hits and struck out three batters. Yoder’s earned run average now sits at a sparkling 0.53.
Virginia pitchers combined to strike out 10 different Monarch batters — Old Dominion totaled 13 strikeouts overall.
“I know this isn't a fun answer for a lot of people, but we don't approach the midweek any different than we do the weekend,” Pollard said. “We're gonna respect everyone and fear no one.”
If there is a team to fear, it is No. 7 Florida State — a fearsome crew headed to Charlottesville for a weekend series. The Seminoles swept then-No. 12 Wake Forest and won a series over then-No. 10 NC State. However, Florida State just lost its best player to a season-ending ankle injury. Sophomore infielder Myles Bailey has produced better statistics than every starting Cavalier but will not play in this series.
There is a major opportunity for Virginia Thursday through Saturday. If the Cavaliers can win the series, it will be their second series win over a top-10 opponent this season.
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