The wind was whipping towards left field this cloudless Tuesday at Davenport Field. Virginia’s unbeaten sophomore pitcher Adam Haseley toed the rubber in his first frame, ready to sit down pesky James Madison leadoff hitter Chad Carroll.
Haseley’s 2-2 delivery instead spun into the righty Carroll’s wheelhouse, and the 2015 First Team All-CAA third baseman turned on it. His towering, solo shot, aided by that breeze to left, gave the Dukes a quick 1-0 lead over No. 9 Virginia. That score, however, stood after one inning.
Again setting the table for James Madison in the top of the second, sophomore right fielder Adam Sisk’s chopper traversed the third-base line, hopped the bag and continued far into left field. Haseley found himself facing another unfavorable situation on the mound: a man on second and nobody out.
The Dukes’ sophomore shortstop Tanner Dofflemyer’s sacrifice bunt moved Sisk to third one pitch later. Opting to pitch to senior catcher Bobby San Martin, who entered Tuesday having recorded only three hits all season, Haseley and pitching coach Karl Kuhn in hindsight wish they had given JMU’s eight-spot batter the open base.
Martin doubled the Dukes’ advantage with a single through the right side. Seemingly never shaken, “The Reverend,” Haseley set down the next 10 JMU batters he faced. He and his Cavalier teammates finally scratched across a run in the bottom of the third inning.
Haseley slapped a leadoff single into left center and advanced to second on a wild pitch. The hand-eye coordination he developed playing youth hockey in Buffalo, N.Y. served sophomore center fielder Ernie Clement well, as he dropped down a beautiful, sacrifice bunt that moved Haseley over to third base.
Anxious to get his team on the board, Haseley drifted a little too far down the third-base line on junior catcher Matt Thaiss’s one-out grounder back to the pitcher. Haseley at least stayed in the rundown long enough for Thaiss to trot safely into second base.
Sophomore first baseman Pavin Smith picked up his starting pitcher. The Jupiter, Fla. native smacked a 2-2 pitch up the middle that drove home Thaiss and halved the Virginia deficit. Dealing another 1-2-3 frame in the top of the fourth, Haseley kept the momentum turning in the Cavalier’s direction.
“I didn’t particularly think our approach in the first three innings was that great,” coach O’Connor said. “Certainly, we flipped the switch and had a really great approach at the plate in the middle innings.”
On 12 hits and three more JMU errors, Virginia would plate 13 runs over the fourth, fifth and sixth frames and jump out to a 14-4 lead. The biggest base-knock jumped off the bat of freshman outfielder Cameron Simmons and the second-base bag, cutting into shallow left field. Smith and Thaiss both scored on the play, increasing the Cavalier lead to 5-2 in the fifth.
The bottom half of Virginia’s order, especially Simmons, freshman third baseman Andy Weber and sophomore catcher Justin Novak, continued to produce Tuesday. Together, those seven, eight and nine hitters combined for nine hits, six RBIs and six runs.
“It’s almost like it’s even throughout. You’re looking at the bottom of the lineup, and all the sudden, you’re almost up again,” Smith said. “I don’t know how many times I’ve hit twice in an inning that just means everybody is hitting.”
Afforded the luxury of another huge, home lead, O’Connor called on three freshmen arms to produce the bulk of the game’s remaining outs. Lefty Daniel Lynch – who missed his start over the weekend due to illness – contributed .2 innings of work, allowing two runs [zero earned] on one hit and a walk.
“I thought they really battled Haseley,” O’Connor said. “We would have loved to see him go six or seven, but he was at 95 pitches after five innings. I just felt it was time to get Lynch in there and get a look at those other guys.”
Those other guys, relievers Chesdin Harrington and Connor Eason, put up zeros in the eighth and ninth, respectively, to close out a 15-6 Virginia victory.
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