Plating eventual game-winning runs in the bottom of the eighth inning, the No. 18 Virginia baseball team dashed Towson’s upset hopes in each of two afternoon games at Davenport Field.
The Cavaliers held a 3-2 advantage entering that bottom frame Tuesday. Freshman third baseman Andy Weber led off, sending the first pitch he saw skidding through the hole and into left field for his third hit of the game.
Sophomore utility man Justin Novak stepped into the box with one specific goal in mind — to advance Weber into scoring position and give his teammate waiting in the on-deck circle, senior pitcher Adam Haseley, a shot to drive in a big insurance run.
Novak did his job, deadening the baseball in front of the mound and forcing Tiger senior reliever Garrett Walther to make the throw to first. Weber reached second base standing and acknowledged Novak’s sacrifice.
Haseley — the man who’d already given Virginia a gutty performance on the mound seemingly without his shutdown stuff, allowing two runs, zero earned, on six hits, two walks and a hit by pitch — trotted to the plate and smacked another Walther first pitch into center field.
Weber got a great jump, rounded third with a headful of steam and scored the Cavaliers’ fourth run. It proved to be all-important since junior pitcher Alec Bettinger surrendered one run on two singles and a walk in the top of the ninth.
Two down, the game-tying run standing on second base, Bettinger induced a groundball out to save Virginia’s 4-3 victory.
“What I was proud of was the game is on the line and he stepped up and made big pitches there,” coach Brian O’Connor said. “They did a nice job of battling and didn’t go away. Then he had the walk. It proved that the insurance run in the eighth was huge for us, to give us that one-run cushion.”
The Tigers led 8-7 in the middle of the eighth Wednesday. When Virginia hitters could have lunged at early pitches outside of the zone in an overaggressive manner, they instead showed great discipline. Junior shortstop Daniel Pinero started things off with a 2-2 double up the middle.
Freshman leftfielder Ryan Karstetter, who has excelled in an everyday role for the Cavaliers since freshman outfielder Jake McCarthy’s injury, worked a 2-1 count in his favor and recorded his eighth hit over his last 17 at bats to drive home Pinero and level the score, 8-8.
Karstetter would later come around to score on senior pinch hitter Kevin Doherty’s single through the left side. An errant delivery from Towson junior reliever Kyle Stricker then smacked the next batter, Haseley, allowing him a free pass and Doherty to move up to second.
Sophomore second baseman Ernie Clement, 0-4 up to that point, jumped on a get-me-over first pitch. His single into left center plated sophomore pinch runner Jack Gerstenmaier. Spotted a 10-8 lead in the ninth, Bettinger produced a quick fly out, hit the next Tiger he faced and then recorded two outs on a strikeout and ensuing batter’s interference call. Virginia had escaped another upset bid.
“We were in a position where we certainly needed a couple of guys to step up,” O’Connor said. “It wasn’t pretty by any means, but you have some of those games during the year, and you feel fortunate enough to win them versus losing them.”
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