Virginia (44-17) hosted its first baseball Regional in school history this past weekend and faced a number of ups and downs throughout what became their final four games of the season. Forced to attempt to win four games in a row to advance because of a first round loss to Princeton (28-20), the Cavaliers fell short, losing to Vanderbilt (45-17) 7-3 in Game 6 of the Charlottesville Regional Sunday evening.
Because of a rain delay that caused the postponement of their first round tilt with Princeton, the Cavaliers took on the Tigers Saturday morning. The 11 a.m. game was a pitcher's duel, featuring Virginia ace Andrew Dobies and Princeton junior Ross Ohlendorf. Dobies carried a 3.37 ERA into the first round game, and Ohlendorf came in at 6-3 with an ERA of 3.66.
Despite Dobies' effort in which he gave up just three runs on eight hits in seven innings, the Cavaliers could not produce enough offense to knock off the Tigers, as they lost 4-2. Ohlendorf held the Cavaliers to two runs on eight hits through 8.2 innings, with junior Brian Kappel picking up the save by getting Virginia junior Mark Reynolds to fly out to right field for the last out.
Virginia's top four batters in the lineup hit a combined 1-16 in the game, with sophomore Ryan Zimmerman registering the only base knock. Without any substantial offense from the top of the order, the Cavaliers struggled and were forced to try and win four straight games to advance from the Regional.
"To win an NCAA tournament, your marquee players, your guys you count on, need to rise up in clutch situations," Virginia coach Brian O'Connor said after the loss to the Tigers. "We didn't do that in this ballgame."
Against George Mason (39-19) in the game that followed the Princeton loss, those "marquee players" rose to the occasion. All year the Cavaliers have relied on both the arm and bat of ACC Player of the Year Joe Koshansky. In Game 2, he showcased both, as he pitched a seven-hit, two-run complete game, where he struck out seven Mason batters and hit a two-run home run in the third inning that carried about 400 feet as Virginia won 7-2.
Besides Koshansky, Reynolds also found his swing in the game against the Patriots. After going 0 for 5 against the Tigers, the shortstop ripped off a 3 for 6 outing with four RBI including a home run that provided the Cavaliers with three insurance runs in the top of the ninth inning. Reynolds was only a double away from hitting for the cycle, and on top of his offensive contributions made a series of crucial plays at shortstop, including a diving catch on junior first baseman Chris Looze's fly ball to shallow leftfield that prevented the tying run from coming to the plate.
"We got some clutch hits in this ballgame that we didn't get in the first game," O'Connor said after the victory. "This game showed the character of our kids."
The Cavaliers didn't need as many of those clutch hits in their next game, as they faced Princeton in a rematch of the first round after a Tigers loss to No. 2 seed Vanderbilt in Game 4. Instead the Cavaliers relied on sophomore Matt Avery's right arm as they demolished the Tigers 9-0 and advanced to Game 6 against the Commodores.
Avery pitched his second complete game of the season, throwing a four-hit gem of a shutout and striking out seven Princeton batters along the way. Through Virginia's first three games of the Regional, the Cavaliers bullpen had pitched just two innings, both by freshman Casey Lambert in the first round loss to Princeton. Avery's brilliant start earned him All-Tournament team honors, and came despite a two week layoff between starts.
"On the day I normally would have a start we were fortunate enough to have an intra-squad scrimmage, so I still got to face live batters," Avery said. "So I didn't feel that I lost out on anything by missing a start."
Offensively the Cavaliers got a major boost from the bottom part of the order, with junior catcher Scott Headd going 4 for 4 and scoring two runs and senior second baseman Kyle Werman knocking in two runs. Headd made the Regional All-Tournament team at catcher.
With the victory against Princeton, Virginia advanced to the Championship game against Vanderbilt without a proven weekend starter left who was ready to pitch. Avery, Koshansky and Dobies had all pitched, leaving the Cavaliers with few options for the sixth game of the tournament, where a win would push the series to a decisive final Game 7.
Vanderbilt, on the other hand, had only played two games to the Cavaliers' three, and while they pitched their ace, junior lefty Jeremy Sowers, the No. 6 overall pick by the Cleveland Indians in the MLB Draft Monday, against George Mason in Game 1 (8.2 innings pitched, 4 hits, 1 run, 11 strikeouts against Mason), they had their third starter, sophomore Matt Buschmann, who was 7-1 with a 3.13 ERA on the season. Virginia started their fourth man in the rotation, midweek starter and senior Chris Gale, who was 4-2 with a 4.61 ERA coming into the final game of the tournament.
The first half inning did not go as planned for the Cavaliers, as Gale gave up two doubles and three runs before Zimmerman closed out the inning with a tough throw on a ground ball to third for the final out. Gale was then relieved by junior Scott Morgenthaler who pitched 2.2 innings and gave up two runs during his time on the mound.
Virginia answered with three runs, but all were unearned and came mostly as a result of three errors by the Vanderbilt infield, including a muffed play at the plate by Buschman on a grounder by Virginia DH Tom Hagan that allowed right fielder Matt Dunn to score. Buschman just needed to flip the short grounder to the catcher, but it slipped past his glove as Dunn crossed the plate.
Despite having plenty of chances, the first three runs were all the offense the Cavaliers could muster. As in the first game, Virginia could not get production from top of the lineup when needed. Koshansky came to bat with two on and two outs as the tying run with the score 6-3 in the bottom of the seventh. He failed to take advantage of the opportunity and lined out to second base, ending the inning and adding to a total of seven runners left on by Virginia.
"When you fall into the losers' bracket, you really have to do something special offensively for a couple of ballgames to overcome that," O'Connor said.
Zimmerman and Koshansky both set single season school records in the Princeton game for hits and RBI respectively. Despite the disappointing season ending loss, the Cavaliers may have changed the entire direction of the program this year.
"They should really walk out of here with their heads held high because I believe, and it's probably backed up by statistics,that this is the greatest team in the history of this school," O'Connor said.
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