DURHAM, N.C. – One of the writers sitting next to me in Durham told me he couldn’t recall a Virginia baseball team booting the ball and throwing the ball all over the field like he had seen this season.
Well, he’s right.
Entering the season the Cavaliers had been the most effective defensive team in the ACC since Brian O’Connor came to Charlottesville. The Hoos’ .974 fielding percentage led the league over the last 11 years. Which is why 2015’s current position of eighth in the league defensively is so shocking.
It looked like things could be turning around near the back end of the season. UVa’s defense committed 56 errors in its first 42 games – an average of 1.3 per game. Since that time, it has improved to .45 per game.
But three errors were costly Wednesday in a 9-5 loss to Miami in the ACC Tournament. Cavalier mistakes led to virtually all nine of Miami’s runs and a crushing pool play loss that all but eliminated the Hoos from conference title contention. For the Hoos to make Sunday’s championship, Miami must lose its remaining two pool games and Virginia must win both of its games.
Third baseman Kenny Towns seemed to grasp the gravity of the loss.
“Obviously you want to get that win especially against Miami, one of the tougher teams in the pool,” Towns said. “If we get that win we put ourselves in a good chance to kind of move on. Obviously we’re going to take that loss hard, but we’ve got to go out there and we’ve still got two games left and we’ve got to take those as seriously as we did the one today and give ourselves a chance to at least make it to the next round.”
Miami scored its initial run in the first inning. With two outs and a runner on first, the Canes got a runner in scoring position off an errant pickoff attempt by pitcher Connor Jones – a runner that scored on Zach Collins’ RBI single. Miami’s second run began with the dreaded leadoff walk in the fifth. The runner advanced to third on a hit-and-run play when UVa’s shortstop and second baseman converged on second base, the confusion as to who should take the play causing the ball to slip under the glove of Daniel Pinero who was charge with another error. Pinero has doubled his error total with 18 as a sophomore vs. nine as a freshman.
The heart-breaking part of the story is that despite the two early miscues, Virginia had control of the game entering the eighth inning. Kenny Towns launched a three-run blast in the top of the sixth inning that gave the Hoos a 3-2 lead that grew to 5-2 in the top of the eight when Joe McCarthy delivered a two RBI hit. That’s a lead that used to be safe for many Virginia teams.
The most damaging blunder of the night, however, came in the bottom of the eighth inning when the Hurricanes blew the game open with seven runs. Jones forced Brandon Lopez to ground out for the first out of the frame. On an 0-2 pitch, Miami’s Jacob Heyward laced a shot to right center to get aboard – the first hit allowed by Jones since the second inning. Jones walked Ricky Eusebio on four pitches and gave way to Kevin Doherty. Doherty surrendered a single and the Canes scored making the margin 5-3. That was all for Doherty as O’Connor made the call to Alec Bettinger to close things out.
Bettinger did exactly what he was asked to do, induce a ground ball to produce an inning ending double play. Tailor made for exactly that, the next ball hit was a routine ground ball to second baseman Ernie Clement, who needed only to pick it up, flip the ball to Pinero, and on to first for the double play. Except, Clement had trouble securing the ball and instead of inning over and a 5-3 lead, the lead fell to one run and the inning extended for the Canes. That lead lasted just two more batters.
Miami coach Jim Morris, who as both a coach and a player has seen his share of bungled games, had some encouragement.
“You just try to get the guys to stay confident, keep working on them, make sure they work hard in practice and try to overcome it,” Morris said. “As an infielder and a former shortstop, I made one or two errors in my day, so I can relate. The fact is, you’ve got to work through it as a player and the only thing you can do is talk to them about working through it and being positive and forget about yesterday. I think that applies to either team really, or any player I’ve had. I’ve coached a long, long time, but a big part of this game’s a mental part of the game whether it’s hitting or catching a ground ball, so it’s a definite mental part of this game just to win.”
In addition to the three errors, Cavalier pitchers surrender three walks as well and all three led to runs. Coach O’Connor lamented the fact that when you give free bases, good teams punish you for doing so.
“The guys that we put in the game are talented so I had a lot of confi¬dence in them, and when you’re playing a really good offensive ball club like Miami, you know, you’ve got to make your pitches,” O’Connor said. “If you don’t make your pitches, they’re going to make you pay, and certainly Miami did.”
To be fair, the offense wasn’t perfect. Virginia missed plenty of chances offensively as well. The Hoos stranded six runners compared to Miami’s two. The Cavaliers went 2-7 (.268) with runners in scoring position while the Canes were 4-7 (.571).
Virginia has earned the right to play in the NCAA Tournament and I do not believe that is in dispute. But for the club to advance beyond a regional, it must do the little things. Field every playable ground ball. Don’t throw home and allow a runner to get to second or take an extra base. Be fundamentally sound.
I truly believe the pressure that the Hurricane offense can put on a team forced some of Wednesday’s mistakes and I also will submit that Miami may be the best team in the conference (sorry Louisville) and should make a long postseason run. For me, the frustration Wednesday was not losing to a very strong team like Miami. For me, the disappointment was having the Hurricanes on the ropes and letting the game slip away.
