Virginia's regular season ACC schedule had a notable omission — a series with the rival Blue Devils. First year Cavaliers (36-20, 14-16 ACC) Coach Chris Pollard’s showdown with his former team had to wait until the ACC Tournament — a tournament in which Pollard led the Blue Devils (26-31, 10-20 ACC) to the championship game, and later a regional victory, just last season.
Now, Pollard hopes to guide Virginia to similar postseason success, starting with a 6-4 victory over Duke Wednesday morning.
Sophomore left-hander Henry Zatkowski toed the rubber to start the day, bringing his 4.12 earned run average and team leading 74.1 innings of experience to the mound for the No. 8 seeded Cavaliers. Zatkowski’s six innings of work, two runs and four strikeouts earned him a quality start and put him in line for the win before handing the ball to fellow lefthander junior Kyle Johnson.
Both squads manufactured a run in the first inning — the No. 16 seeded Blue Devils used a double and stolen base from junior RJ Hamilton to score on a fielder’s choice, and the Cavaliers took advantage of a pair of leadoff hit batsmen to set up an RBI single from junior Sam Harris.
Hamilton continued to fuel his team's offense along with fellow senior outfielder Tyler Albright. Hamilton tallied a pair of doubles, a pair of stolen bases and scored two of Duke’s runs. Albright launched a ninth-inning home run to bring Duke’s total to four runs.
In the middle innings, dueling defensive highlights kept both offenses under wraps. In the third, junior outfielder and Second Team All-ACC honoree AJ Gracia was cut down at the plate attempting to score from first. In the fourth, Virginia responded — sophomore Zach Jackson settled under a fly ball to right, quickly unleashing a cannon throw to the plate to catch the runner tagging from third.
Nailing runners taking extra bases was a recurring theme Wednesday. A pair of would-be Cavalier base stealers were thrown out at second by Duke’s graduate catcher Matthew Strand. Virginia threw out another runner at the plate in the sixth inning, exploiting a moment of hesitation rounding third base.
Blue Devil senior Aidan Weaver kept Virginia quiet in 5.1 innings of work. He left the mound having surrendered only a single run, but his replacement in the sixth, junior lefty Marcello Mastroianni, allowed the inherited runners to score. Weaver’s final line included three runs and nine strikeouts.
Mastroianni was brought in to face lefthanded Cavalier batter senior Harrison Didawick. Didawick, junior catcher Jake Weatherspoon and Jackson combined for a trio of RBI hits. Jackson placed the exclamation point on the inning with a bases-clearing triple.
The offense explosion put Virginia in control with insurance runs and three more innings to play. Johnson tossed a scoreless frame before handing the ball to graduate Tyler Kapa, looking to record a two-inning save. Kapa benefited from an additional insurance run courtesy of a one-run blast from Weatherspoon.
Kapa could not finish the game cleanly, surrendering a two-run blast in the ninth and turning the ball over to graduate Lucas Hartman. Hartman pushed the Cavaliers over the finish line, recording the save and securing the ACC Tournament win.
"I thought our team overcame some mistakes today,” Pollard said postgame. “We didn’t play a perfect or clean game by any stretch, but we were tough enough to stay in the fight, and we were able to scratch across some runs there in the sixth and then [Weatherspoon] had a big swing. That was the difference.”
Virginia is now slated to take on top-seeded Georgia Tech Thursday at 11 a.m. The Yellow Jackets have leveraged their elite offense to a No. 3 national ranking. Georgia Tech led the nation in team batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage this season.
Like with Duke, Virginia never saw the Yellow Jackets during regular season play. Freshman John Paone will likely take up starting duties should the Cavaliers elect to forgo an opener.
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