It was No. 25 Virginia's best 1-2-3 punch versus the ACC's best closer in the final inning of Sunday's game at N.C. State, but baseball's law of averages prevailed as the Cavaliers (20-7, 5-4 ACC) fell for the second game in a row, 8-7. The loss marks the Cavaliers' second straight ACC series loss since sweeping Georgia Tech.
Senior pitcher/designated hitter Joe Koshansky (4-1) put his team in a hole early on Sunday, allowing five runs in the first two innings, but had a chance to tie the game in the final at bat against freshman closer Joey Devine.
Devine reached up to 94 mph in the 1-2-3 ninth, retiring shortstop Mark Reynolds, third baseman Ryan Zimmerman and Koshansky -- the Cavaliers' top three in RBI's -- with an overpowering delivery to record his eighth save. Devine survived a scare when team home run leader Koshansky, who came up to bat with one out remaining and his team trailing by one, connected on a long fly out to deep center field.
"I thought I got it well," Koshansky said of the final out. "It's a big ballpark, and it doesn't carry that well to dead center field."
Dead center field is where the first and last pitches of the game ended up. N.C. State shortstop Matt Camp introduced himself to Koshansky by opening the fireworks with a triple over freshman Tim Henry's head.
A failed rundown after a deft Koshansky pickoff move allowed the Wolfpack (17-8, 3-3) to keep momentum alive in the inning, and three runs came home before Virginia touched a bat.
Execution of the fundamentals, which has been the backbone of Virginia's team philosophy in its strong start, was what did in the Cavaliers in the rubber match of the three-game series. Two errors and critical base running mistakes cost Virginia the game.
"We didn't play the fundamental baseball this weekend that has gotten us to where we're at right now," coach Brian O'Connor said. "We've got an impressive record and a good position in the conference -- we just need to get back to doing the things that make us successful."
Even with the mental mistakes that proved so costly, Virginia mounted two comebacks in the game that came up short, cutting leads of five and four runs to one before running out of gas.
The Big Three -- Reynolds, Zimmerman and Koshansky -- all had RBI's in the top of the third, whittling the lead down to one run with a rally off of N.C. State starter Derek McKee.
After the Wolfpack tacked on three more in Koshansky's final inning, the bottom of the sixth, Virginia responded once again with two runs in the seventh. Had senior second baseman Kyle Werman not been thrown out on the base paths, however, Reynolds' seventh home run of the year would have been a three-run shot, and the outcome of the series may have been different. Werman was picked off at second -- the second time it had happened to the Cavaliers on the afternoon -- and took away a crucial base runner for the power hitter Reynolds to drive home.
Reynolds' bomb to left, the highlight of a day in which he went three for five with three RBI's and two runs scored, left Wolfpack fans counting their blessings for the improbable pickoff.
"We play such an aggressive style of baseball that there's going to be times when you make mistakes," O'Connor said. "Fundamentally we weren't right on those pickoffs, and that's what we need to get back to."
Virginia started off the series with a bang, plating its first four batters of the game and riding staff ace Andrew Dobies' (4-0) complete game outing to a 9-2 win.
The middle game Saturday afternoon was all Wolfpack, all the time, as N.C. State scored four in the first and never looked back en route to their 12-1 throttling of Virginia to even the series.
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