Three days after losing closing out the regular season on Sunday with a loss to Clemson, the Virginia baseball team delivered some sweet revenge.
Behind clutch hitting and Dan Street's solid pitching, the seventh-seeded Cavaliers shocked the second-seeded Tigers, 7-3, in the first round of the ACC tournament in Fort Mill, S.C., on Wednesday. Street threw a complete game and allowed three runs - two earned - on six hits with four strikeouts. Senior shortstop Hunter Wyant provided all the offense Virginia would need with a three-run home run in the third that put the Cavaliers up, 4-0. Sophomore Robert Word added a solo shot in the ninth to cap the scoring.
The surprising win comes after Virginia ended its regular season with a disappointing 5-4 road loss to Clemson on Sunday. In fact, the loss summarized Virginia's entire regular season: Close, but not close enough.
After scoring four runs in the top of the ninth to tie the game at 4-4, Virginia (24-29, 9-15 ACC) fell to the Tigers (37-18, 17-7) after Zane Green singled in the winning run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth. Once again, the Cavaliers had victory within their sights, and again, they let it slip right out of their hands.
Virginia entered the year with high hopes of a breakout season and making some noise in the competitive ACC.
"I think a realistic expectation was somewhere between 30 and 35 wins," Virginia coach Dennis Womack said. "I felt like that was something very obtainable, and I say that as a minimum. We were going to have to play well, stay away from injuries and get off to a very solid start, and be able to win some of the close games that you have got to win, especially against those people within the state."
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How close were the Cavaliers? They lost 11 games this year by only one run. Five of those were against in-state teams and five came against conference foes. If just a few more bounces went their way, the Cavaliers could have had that 30-win season.
Virginia not only lost the important close games but also
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