Oh it was a beautiful morning in Durham, N.C. on Friday, but nothing went Virginia’s way. Far from it. In the end, a picturesque day for baseball resulted in an 8-2 loss to Notre Dame. The defeat removed UVa, 0-2 in pool play, from the title hunt at the ACC Tournament.
The Cavaliers piled up walks, errors, and fielding miscues in the loss. They threw in a balk and a wild pitch for good measure too. The statistics finally settled at eight walks, eight hits allowed, one wild pitch, one balk, and two errors. Starting pitcher Brandon Waddell allowed seven hits and four earned runs in six innings of work.
“Certainly Brandon Waddell has pitched better the last few weeks than he did today,” UVa coach Brian O’Connor said. “But all the credit goes to Notre Dame, because they certainly capitalized on our mistakes, whether it was walks or not handling the baseball defensively. They did a good job of capitalizing on a few of those opportunities. So certainly we’ve played much better baseball the last three weeks than we did today. But that doesn’t take anything away from certainly what Notre Dame did.”
In Wednesday’s pool play game against Miami, the Wahoos put together a strong game until a disastrous eighth inning saw the Hurricanes score seven runs. That wasn’t the case Friday against the Irish. The issues started early and popped up throughout the day.
Waddell gave up a lead-off single in the first inning and labored through the frame. He eventually issued three walks and loaded the bases, but minimized the damage with a pair of strikeouts to trail just 1-0 on the scoreboard. That inning provided an outline for Waddell’s entire day, which unfolded in feast or famine fashion. He logged nine strikeouts, but five walks as well.
The experienced pitcher battled on the mound, but threw 125 pitches in six innings. He had gone at least seven innings in each of his three previous starts against NC State, Duke, and North Carolina.
“The thing with the first inning, the start of your job really sets the tone for the ballgame, sets the tone for your team,” Waddell said. “That’s something I failed to do. Three walks in the first inning, especially, you can’t expect results from that. I have to do a better job of controlling the offense.”
Despite the sluggish start, the Hoos hung around in a 3-2 ballgame through the first three innings thanks to a two-out, two RBI double from Matt Thaiss that scored Kevin Doherty and Daniel Pinero. Unfortunately, the Irish continued to press and the Cavaliers continued to blunder. Notre Dame scored at least one run in four of the final six innings as a result.
In the fourth, a wild pitch from Waddell put a runner in scoring position at second base. He then missed his pitch on a 3-2 count and watched Kyle Fiala’s contact bounce off the left field wall for a double. In the sixth inning, an errant throw to third base when ND’s Jake Shepski aggressively took third from first on a single to left field left runners at second and third. That miscue eliminated a double play ball and the coaches brought the infield in, which helped Cavan Biggio fire a triple up the first base line that scored two runs. The Irish added a run in the ninth inning after a throwing error from UVa third baseman Kenny Towns.
That doesn’t even mention a two-run third inning that was over with a strikeout before catcher Robbie Coman misfired on a throw to first base when he dropped the third strike. That throwing error allowed the runners to score from first and second base.
“It’s something you can’t get frustrated about, to be honest,” Waddell said. “It’s part of the game. He came right out after it happened and I’m like, look, I’ve got you, we’ll pick each other up. I think it’s what defines a team. How you pick each other up, pick guys up. You’re not going to get it done every time you want to. I think that’s what makes good quality teams, good teams, you pick each other up.”
The Hoos will be trying to do exactly that in an otherwise meaningless final game of pool play on Saturday. The Cavaliers wrap up its tourney with a 7 p.m. game with NC State and the team is focused on correcting their quality of play before waiting to see if they make the NCAA Tournament field as an at-large selection Monday (the Hoos are considered a lock for the tourney).
“Well, I think it’s really important from this standpoint, that we have an opportunity, like Matt [Thaiss] said, to go out there and respond,” O’Connor said. “And the way that we played the game today is not Virginia baseball. And we have an opportunity tomorrow to come out and show what we’re made of. We may not win the game, but we have a chance to come out and play the game the right way. And we look forward to that opportunity tomorrow night.”
Worth Noting: O’Connor said that if Virginia makes the NCAA Tournament field, then Josh Sborz would move back the bullpen after starting Tuesday’s ACC Tournament play-in game. He also indicated that Nathan Kirby, injured (and out with mono) since the Miami game on April 17, would be an option as of right now. Kirby has been throwing on the side and has been cleared.
