Coming off of a deflating loss in the ACC opener to Boston College Friday, things looked as though they were careening toward an eerily similar result heading into the bottom of the seventh inning Saturday afternoon. Virginia’s pitchers were struggling, and a chance at victory was slipping away.
The Cavaliers (9-4, 1-1 ACC) trailed the Golden Eagles (5-6, 1-1 ACC) by a score of 9-8 after a nightmare top half of the seventh inning. Sophomore right-hander Drew Koenen walked the first two batters before he sent a throw on a routine comebacker into foul territory in right field, which plated two runners and tied the game.
What came next was a truly remarkable feat of offensive prowess, as 14 hitters came to the plate in the bottom half of the eighth inning. Nine of those Cavaliers returned to the dugout with a run to their name. After a quick fielder’s choice from sophomore outfielder Henry Ford and a swinging strikeout courtesy of junior catcher Trey Wells, a triumvirate of junior outfielder Aidan Teel, freshman designated hitter James Nunnalee and junior outfielder Harrison Didawick proceeded to collect three RBI doubles in succession.
Then came four more consecutive hits, all of them singles off the bats of junior infielder Luke Hanson, sophomore infielder Eric Becker, junior infielder Henry Godbout and junior infielder Chris Arroyo. After a couple more walks and a second hit in the inning for Teel that drove in two, the Cavaliers had a 17-9 lead with just six outs left to acquire.
It would be easy to point to this particular moment in the game as the end-all conclusion that solidified the Cavaliers as the better squad in this opening conference battle, but it does much to overshadow what was otherwise a tight contest up to that fateful point.
Much earlier, two errors in the top half of the first inning put freshman starter Tomas Valincius through his paces early, and that inning was not over until three runs had come across. The Cavaliers did well to answer though, with two quick tallies — one off the bat of a Ford double and another off of a sacrifice fly from Wells.
Unfortunately, the defensive nightmare also manifested in the form of fielding woes. In the fourth inning — Valincius’s final inning of work — a double led to a run when a ball was roped deep to left field for an RBI triple. Wells then made a wayward throw to third in an attempt to back-pick a runner at third to give up what was yet another costly run.
By the time Virginia’s grand explosive offensive explosion came to pass, the Cavaliers had conceded five errors — Virginia’s most in a single game since 2009.
And for all of the scoring in the seventh that was sure to put a fighting Boston College squad to rest, the rollercoaster simply would not cease. Soon, the Golden Eagles had responded with a four-run surge in the eighth inning — in which the first out was not claimed until the sixth hitter of the frame sent a fly ball to Ford in right field.
In the intervening time, Koenen had walked his final batter and sophomore reliever Charlie Oschell entered the game. Oschell gave up two quick singles before walking a batter of his own and allowing yet another single to bring in two runs. If not for the calming presence of senior left-handed pitcher Blake Barker to put out the flames, the Golden Eagles may have very well brought the game back to even in an extraordinary shift of fate.
And so, yet again, Virginia looked to its resident bashers in Godbout and Arroyo in the bottom of the eighth. In a lineup that had offered much production to account for the disarray on the other side of the ball, two stars glimmered more than any other. Godbout was on track for a cycle, needing only a solitary home run in what would be a four-hit masterclass. Arroyo had also done his fair share, mashing a two-run long ball in the fourth inning that sailed majestically just to the left of the scoreboard in right-center, not to mention three singles to go along with it.
They proved to be up to the task. After Becker doubled to send in Hanson and Godbout milked a walk, Arroyo sent yet another ball sailing, this time squeezing another towering blast between the scoreboard and Cavalier bullpen for a three-run home run that all but sealed the deal for Virginia.
Though Barker gave up a run early in the top of the ninth after he walked the first two batters, senior southpaw Matthew Buchanan came in to shut the door, coaxing the bottom half of the order into a double play and a strikeout to end the game. That final play was the 399th pitch thrown Saturday — an absurdly high number.
At the game’s conclusion, Virginia nearly scored as many runs against Boston College on the baseball diamond than the football team did on the gridiron. The Cavaliers beat the Eagles 24-14 in football Oct. 5. Saturday’s final score was 22-16, which speaks volumes as to how well the offense played, and arguably even more importantly, how badly the pitching staff struggled.
“A lot of those guys have been doing a nice job out of the bullpen all year, and they didn’t do it today,” Coach Brian O’Connor said. “But we hung in there, and found a way and kept fighting back, and that’s what I’m going to dwell on.”
As much as the adage that “a win is a win” holds true, the victory Saturday afternoon did little to provide any comforting affirmations to the Cavalier faithful about what lies ahead. At various points, the pitching looked frenetic and altogether out of control while numerous fumbled ground balls and overthrows resembled the defensive disposition of a high school team, not a squad that is considered to be amongst the very best Division I programs in the country.
Safe to say, Virginia yet again has much to prove in Sunday’s series decider at Disharoon Park. Interestingly, O’Connor has still not named a starting pitcher for the tiebreaker. Surely, after Saturday’s defensive disaster, the pitching staff will be under careful assessment.
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