When the home crowd at Davenport Field cheered sophomore Corey Hunt for trading belts with sophomore second baseman Phil Gosselin, all seemed right with Cavalier baseball. With no outs and no runners on base in the fourth inning, Gosselin dove for a sharp ground ball to his left and broke his belt buckle, prompting Hunt to jog out to the infield and the crowd to clap and holler for something unrelated to the Cavaliers’ 12-run lead.
In winning the Sunday game 17-2, the No. 10 Virginia men’s baseball team took two games this weekend against visiting Maryland to win its first ACC series in almost a month. Virginia (26-5, 8-5 ACC) came from behind Friday to win 7-4, but Maryland (14-17, 4-11 ACC) stole the Saturday afternoon match-up with an eighth-inning grand slam.
“You come into the series and I think some people think that you have to sweep a series like this,” Virginia coach Brian O’Connor said. “Anytime you win two out of three in this league, you have got to be proud.”
At the midway point of the ACC season, the Cavaliers lead the ACC in overall wins, but they are currently fourth in the Coastal Division, partly because of losses in the last two Sunday games against then-No. 4 Miami and at then-No. 5 North Carolina.
“If we repeat [the team’s 8-5 record] on the back half of the league, then we’ll be maybe second, third or fourth in the league,” O’Connor said. “And that’s a lot to be proud of.”
Virginia won the series opener Friday night behind strong pitching and clutch hitting in the late innings. Freshman pitcher Danny Hultzen limited the Terrapins to four runs through 6 2/3 innings, and Terrapin junior middle infielder David Poutier drove in all four of those runs. The Cavaliers put up two runs early and used a Terrapin throwing error on Hultzen’s sacrifice bunt in the seventh to score one runner and put two others in scoring position.
The young team showed resilience throughout the weekend, even in Saturday’s loss, O’Connor said.
“This team seems to respond when they are challenged within a game, and from game to game after we have a difficult loss,” O’Connor said. “They just play hard. It doesn’t seem like anything fazes them.”
Senior pitcher Andrew Carraway tossed seven good innings Saturday for the Cavaliers, a team that was a perfect 21-0 when scoring more than six runs until the loss that night. The bullpen picked the wrong night to be inconsistent against Terrapin senior outfielder Dan Benick, however, as he launched a home run to clear the bases with only one out in the eighth. The Cavaliers’ hitters, meanwhile, could not seem to find the gaps.
“Yesterday we had some tough breaks, and some guys were hitting some absolute seeds at people that were just getting caught, and that’s how baseball goes,” sophomore pitcher Tyler Wilson said. “For us to be able to bounce back today, and stay on the pitches, hit pitches we needed to hit, we found a way to make things happen.”
Virginia shook off the loss and came out on fire Sunday, scoring 12 runs in the first three innings to give Wilson plenty of support in his second start of the season, and first since March 11.
“I was very pleased with how we came right out of the gates, really strong,” O’Connor said. “We lost a tough game last night that we were disappointed on how the game finished, and our guys really responded today.”
Wilson went five innings, striking out five and surrendering Maryland’s two runs. The Terrapins only threatened in the fourth inning, loading the bases with no outs when Wilson tried to start a 1-6-3 double play but drew junior shortstop Tyler Cannon off the bag with a high throw. After a sacrifice fly scored one runner, Gosselin made a quick grab on a ground ball to the left, tossing a dart to Cannon who finished the 4-6-3 double play with a strong throw to first.
“And not only is the run support big time for us, but they’re playing great defense behind me too,” Wilson said. “I got in a couple jams there, and they turned some big double plays and helped us out a little.”
On the offensive side of the plate, eight Cavalier starters recorded at least one hit. Junior catcher Franco Valdes and Gosselin provided Wilson with run support early, hitting a grand slam in the second and a three-run home run in the third, respectively.
“It was fun to watch everyone get their hits and everyone contribute to the win,” Valdes said. “It felt great to be able to put a 17-spot on a good team. The power is there. Hopefully at Georgia Tech this weekend we [can] carry that on to them.”
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