For fans that streamed in a few minutes late to Davenport Field last night, they likely were stunned to see a “5” on the scoreboard for the Stony Brook baseball team against Virginia in the first inning.
With a Virginia offense that averaged 9.5 runs per game going into the evening, however, fans also likely felt comfortable that the Cavalier bullpen could hold off the Seawolves and allow the offense to bring the team back.
But last night simply was not the Cavaliers’ night. Though the bullpen did its job for the most part, untimely hitting, fielding and baserunning errors contributed to Virginia’s first nonconference loss of the season, as the Seawolves defeated the Cavaliers 6-2 at Davenport Field.
“This game came down to our lack of playing good, fundamental baseball,” Virginia coach Brian O’Connor said. “You give [Stony Brook] all the credit in the world — they did a nice job, and they beat us in our own ballpark.”
It was junior Jeff Lorick who put Virginia in the early five-run hole in his fifth consecutive midweek start of the season. Lorick has had trouble with his command in spots all season and came into the evening with a 4.13 ERA in six midweek starts; yesterday certainly was his weakest performance of the season. After retiring the first two batters to start the game, Stony Brook batted through the rest of its lineup with two outs in the first, scoring five runs before O’Connor pulled Lorick for sophomore pitcher Shane Halley. With runners on first and second, Halley grounded out Stony Brook’s leadoff hitter, freshman catcher Pat Cantwell, to retire the side and finally end the damage.
Lorick “got the first two guys out, and looked very comfortable and pitched well,” O’Connor said. “It’s tough to come back when you fall behind 5-0 in the first inning.”
Virginia did take a chunk out of the deficit with two runs in the fourth off Stony Brook sophomore starting pitcher Evan Stecko-Haley. Freshman designated hitter Danny Hultzen led off with a triple over the head of senior centerfielder Michael Tansey, and sophomore right fielder Dan Grovatt was hit by a pitch, giving the Cavaliers first and third with no outs. Freshman third baseman Steven Proscia scored Hultzen on a sacrifice fly, and junior catcher Franco Valdes followed with a shot to the right center-field gap to score Grovatt from first.
Sensing an opportunity to steal a win from Virginia, Stony Brook coach Matt Senk then sent some of his best pitchers to the hill to keep the Cavaliers at bay. The four pitchers Senk sent out after the fourth inning included the team’s leaders in ERA who made at least two appearances this season. That list included freshman Nick Tropeano, the Seawolves’ Saturday starter.
All told, Stony Brook held the Cavaliers scoreless after Stecko-Haley was removed.
The four pitchers “all had pretty good arms and knew how to pitch,” O’Connor said. “When you have a deficit, that’s tough to come back from.”
Junior John Bivens gave Virginia some hope when he led off the eighth with a pinch-hit single. On the first pitch to the next batter, however, Bivens took off on a ball in the dirt and was easily gunned down by Cantwell.
“John knows in that situation, when you’re down four runs, you can’t do that — the ball’s got to go to the backstop,” O’Connor said. “He did a nice job of getting a hit to lead off the inning. We’ve just gotta be better at baserunning at that period — you can’t just give up free outs.”
Bivens’ baserunning error loomed large as the inning continued. With two outs in the inning, both sophomore center fielder Jarrett Parker and sophomore second baseman Phil Gosselin walked. With runners on first and second and two outs though — rather than the bases loaded and one out if Bivens had stayed put at first — Hultzen grounded out weakly to second to end the inning.
“It is [a big error],” O’Connor said, “but that play wasn’t one that cost us this ballgame. What cost us this game was you fall behind 5-0 in the first inning.”
The Cavaliers also threatened in the sixth, putting runners on second and third with two outs, but Valdes flied to deep center field to put another zero on the board.
“We got hits throughout the game,” Valdes said. “We just couldn’t get them all together in one inning like how we usually do.”
The Cavaliers were also not especially sharp in the field, making two errors and several other mistakes that led to runs. A miscommunication between Parker and Coleman on a fly ball to left centerfield led to a two-RBI double for the final two runs of the first.
Then, to begin the sixth, back-to-back blunders resulted in the Seawolves’ final run of the evening. First, Stony Brook sophomore second baseman Chad Marshall knocked a routine groundball back to Virginia junior Neal Davis on the mound, but it resulted in an infield single as freshman first baseman Jared King slipped on the grass and could not get back to cover the bag. Davis then attempted to pick Marshall off first base, but King could not handle the throw, moving Marshall to second. Sophomore designated hitter Nick Thode then shot a groundball down the first base line to score Marshall.
On the bright side for Virginia, both Halley and sophomore pitcher Justin Thompson — the younger brother of Jacob Thompson, a 2008 graduate and a first-team All-American in 2007 — had outstanding outings. Halley threw 3 1/3 no-hit innings behind Lorick; then, after Davis gave up a run in 1 1/3 innings of work, Thompson entered and allowed one run on no hits in two innings of work.
Another sophomore pitcher, Robert Morey, threw four shutout innings and allowed two hits in the Cavaliers’ 8-0 win Tuesday against Stony Brook.
“I think these two games [against Stony Brook] served us well,” O’Connor said. “Obviously I would’ve liked to have won both of them ... I’m liking what we saw in the middle of the week from a pitching standpoint as far as our depth goes.”
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