Off the heels of a series victory at Notre Dame, No. 9 Virginia baseball came back to the Commonwealth for one last stop on its road trip to take on VCU. The Cavaliers (26-12, 10-8 ACC) struggled to generate hits with runners in scoring position, which led to a 6-2 defeat at the hands of the Rams (22-14, 11-4 Atlantic 10).
Virginia started off about as well as possible, with junior outfielder AJ Gracia smashing a home run to center field in the first at-bat of the game. However, the hitting prowess died immediately from there, specifically in the clutch.
In four of the first five innings, the Cavaliers had at least one runner in scoring position. They scored on zero of those opportunities. Regardless of who in the lineup was up, Virginia just could not find a way to get a hit with runners on. A popped-out foul ball in the first inning, fielder’s choices in the third and fourth inning and a strikeout in the fifth kept the Cavaliers at just one run through five innings despite getting seven hits off the VCU pitchers.
Conversely, the Rams made the most of their opportunities. Freshman Christian Lucarelli started on the mound for Virginia and pitched well early, but he began to fade by his second inning. A single off the bat of junior outfielder Trent Adelman tied the game up.
“It’s the first opportunity [Lucarelli has] had to be in that spot,” Coach Chris Pollard said. “It was gonna be a bullpen day.”
Even more damage came when sophomore pitcher Michael Yeager took the mound. Three quick baserunners later and all it required to score runs was a passed ball on a strikeout and a groundout. The VCU lead grew even further when junior outfielder Michael Petite hit a no-doubt home run off senior pitcher Joe Colucci.
Yet again, the Rams would convert in the sixth inning as a single snuck past senior outfielder Harrison Didawick, extending the VCU lead to 5-1. Two more singles from junior outfielder Ethan Acevedo and DeFranco knocked in another run. The Cavaliers kept running through their bullpen, trying to stop the bleeding to no avail.
The Cavaliers continued to falter in clutch situations. The sixth also saw Virginia put runners on the corners with just one out, but junior infielder Joe Tiroly grounded into Virginia’s second double play of the game, ending another promising inning. The seventh inning saw junior infielder Sam Harris reach third base after advancing on an error and a fly ball. But, freshman outfielder Griffin Enis failed to reach base after an incredible play by graduate utility man Dante DeFranco.
It was not until the eighth inning that Virginia finally put another run up on the board. A double from freshman infielder RJ Holmes followed by a line-drive single from Gracia cut the deficit back to four runs. However, another Tiroly-induced double play followed by a routine groundout cut the spark of offense short before it could stoke a comeback.
Virginia was not even out-hit, with the hit total actually ending at 12-9 in favor of the Cavaliers. However, the timeliness of those hits, as well as some free passes, allowed for the Rams to reap the full benefits of its success relative to their Commonwealth counterparts. One-to-16 with runners in scoring position is abysmal, making it the obvious key ingredient in a recipe for a loss.
“Very few times in our sport will you win the hit total, same number of extra-base hits, fewer errors and less free bases given and still lose the ballgame,” Pollard said. “We hit into three double plays today. That killed innings.”
Missed opportunities cannot continue to happen down the stretch of Virginia’s season. The Cavaliers still have plenty of tougher opponents than the Rams left to play, the majority also being teams who would take advantage of opponents who fail to hit the ball with runners in scoring position. This loss also marks consecutive midweek blunders for Virginia to in-state opponents — a rough showing for the team ranked No. 9 in the country.
Virginia returns to Disharoon Park this weekend for a pivotal conference series against Clemson. With the ACC standings incredibly jumbled and only a month left in the season, every series is one that the Cavaliers have to win. The first game starts at 6 p.m. Thursday night, with junior two-way Kyle Johnson being the anticipated starting pitcher.
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