Virginia desperately needed to defeat NC State Sunday. A second consecutive ACC series win would signal, finally, that the Cavaliers (17-13, 7-8 ACC) were back to playing winning baseball, that good things were on the horizon.
Instead, the Wolfpack (20-12, 8-7 ACC) came roaring back from a six-run deficit, tallying seven runs on two swings — a seventh-inning grand slam and a three-run home run in the ninth — to win 9-8 in walk-off fashion. In both cases, runners were in scoring position, the only two times NC State had that opportunity in the entire game.
“Obviously gut-wrenching,” Coach Brian O’Connor said. “When you’re on the road in this league you gotta find a way to finish it off and we just didn’t do it.”
For a period, Virginia was definitively in control. The Cavaliers opened the top of the first inning with three consecutive extra-base hits — doubles by junior outfielder Aidan Teel and sophomore infielder Eric Becker followed by a two-run blast by junior utility man Henry Ford.
The bottom half of the inning was a similar story for NC State’s offense, as freshman pitcher Tomas Valincius allowed a walk and a home run to quickly deplete Virginia’s lead to one run. After a shaky first frame, though, Valincius had no trouble mowing down the NC State batters — retiring 15 of 17 batters over the next five innings.
After a few rough starts in recent games, Valincius’s solid showing was a welcome sight for a Cavalier rotation still seeking stability and consistency. His final line showed four earned runs, but he was far more dominant than the score suggests, as he allowed just two hits over 6.1 innings and struck out seven. Rather than a win, though, Valincius was saddled with a no-decision thanks to the bullpen’s collapse.
“I thought Valincius, after the first inning, settled down and pitched the best game he’s pitched all year,” O’Connor said. “What hurt us in the later innings was the walks.”
On the other end, it was another banner day for the Virginia offense, which, despite struggling to score for a stretch after the second inning, found life again when it mattered. After scoring two unearned runs in the sixth inning, the Cavaliers extended their lead to six runs in the seventh thanks to a double by Teel, followed up by Ford’s second two-run homer of the day.
That was the last shot fired by the Virginia offense — it was the Wolfpack’s turn to respond, and they did so with flair. After walking one batter and hitting another with a pitch, Valincius yielded the mound to junior pitcher Ryan Osinski, one of O’Connor’s go-to arms out of the bullpen.
Osinski quickly walked the bases loaded, however, and with just one out in the inning, sophomore Drew Lanphere entered as a pinch hitter. A few moments later, Lanphere blasted a grand slam, slicing the Cavaliers’ lead to just two runs. Senior pitcher Matthew Buchanan quickly entered in relief of Osinski, but the damage was done.
Still, Virginia held the lead with a chance to extend it — over the next two innings, though, the Cavaliers failed to capitalize, stranding one runner in the eighth inning and two more in the ninth. Graduate pitcher Wes Arrington worked a clean frame in the eighth and exited in favor of graduate pitcher Matt Lanzendorfer, who sported a 2.84 ERA entering Sunday’s contest.
Lanzendorfer quickly struck out the first two NC State batters, leaving the Wolfpack down by two runs with two outs and no runners on base. A single and a walk later the winning run was suddenly batting — junior outfielder Josh Hogue, who was 0-4 entering the at-bat.
One opposite-field three-run home run later, Lanzendorfer was walking off and Virginia was packing its bags with a series loss. There will be more opportunities, absolutely, but the Cavaliers undoubtedly feel as if this was a series they should have won. Instead, they fall back below .500 in conference play.
A midweek road trip to Richmond to play VCU awaits the Cavaliers Tuesday, followed by a series at home versus Pittsburgh beginning Friday. As ACC play keeps moving along, Virginia is quickly running out of chances to rebuild its resume — nevertheless, the Cavaliers have to move on from Sunday’s heartbreak and regain their momentum.
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