Strength and conditioning coach Ed Nordenschild looked to encourage the Virginia baseball team this week with a simple message from the world of poker: chip and a chair. Perhaps, Crazy Eights would have been more appropriate.
The Cavaliers came up clutch in the eighth inning for the third straight game this postseason and ended up with another win as a result. On Friday, the Hoos erased a three-run lead with a five-run eighth inning to topple Maryland 5-3. UVa needs one more win in this Super Regional to advance to the College World Series in Omaha.
“The way I look at it is that we have another opportunity to play tomorrow that we earned,” Virginia coach Brian O’Connor said. “Once you start thinking about being one win away from something, whether it be Omaha or a National Championship, you can cloud your thoughts a little bit. This team has certainly earned the opportunity to play tomorrow. They will come out and be aggressive and loose, like they have been in this postseason. I look at this as a treat. This is fun. This group has been a true joy to coach.”
In the NCAA Tournament’s Lake Elsinore Regional, the Wahoos had similar touch in the eighth. Against San Diego State in the second game, Virginia snapped a 1-1 tie with two runs in the eighth inning and won 3-1. In the decisive third game against Southern California, the Cavaliers trailed 9-6 before knotting things up with three runs in the eighth and eventually prevailed 14-10 in 11 innings. UVa even added an insurance run in the eighth during a 6-1 victory against USC in the regional opener.
In Friday’s game with the Terps, things again looked bleak as the Hoos faced another three-run deficit entering the eighth inning. Maryland pitcher Mike Shawaryn had been solid through 7.1 innings, scattering five hits to go with five strikeouts. The next two batters, however, each tallied a hit. Daniel Pinero lined one over the shortstop’s head for a single and Matt Thaiss followed with a seeing-eye grounder through the hole between first and second base. Virginia’s seven hits tied for the second-most allowed by Shawaryn this season.
That ended the day for Shawaryn as the Terrapins turned to closer Kevin Mooney to shut down the rally. Mooney, part of a Maryland bullpen that did not allow a run in last weekend’s regional round, entered the weekend a 1.21 ERA and 11 saves. In fact, he had allowed just five earned runs and 17 hits this entire season over the course of 37.1 innings. He pushed his school record to 33 saves in the regional round with three saves in UCLA’s park a week ago.
Despite Mooney’s usually lockdown work on the mound, Kenny Towns and Pavin Smith extended Virginia’s sudden hitting streak for two more batters and that finally erased UVa’s goose egg from the scoreboard. Towns provided a carbon copy of Thaiss’ single to score Pinero, while Smith battled with a tough at-bat that ended in a sharp single to center field to score Thaiss.
The runners moved up to second and third base during Robbie Coman’s at-bat to set up a two-out, two-on situation with Joe McCarthy up next and the Terps leading 3-2. Maryland quickly loaded the bases by deliberately walking McCarthy to get to junior Kevin Doherty, a player that had not played in the field until this season for UVa. One pitch later, that looked like a bad decision. Doherty laced a first-pitch fastball to the wall at left center field and it somehow escaped the glove of LaMonte Wade. The double cleared the bases and gave Virginia the final 5-3 margin after closer Josh Sborz notched a two-inning save.
“I knew there was a high percentage chance he would throw me a fastball because of prior at-bats,” Doherty said. “I took the mentality to be very aggressive and pretty much don’t let a fastball for a strike get past me. I was aggressive and it all kind of worked out from there.”
Terrapin coach John Szefc had no regrets, saying he would easily walk McCarthy again in that scenario.
“That was an easy one,” Szefc said. “McCarthy was right in the middle of all their success last year, played in Omaha, and I can sleep a lot better tonight facing [Doherty] as opposed to Joe McCarthy. It didn’t work out for us, but we have made decisions like that all year and Kevin Mooney has been very successful for us for three years.”
Virginia kept the possibility of a late-inning rally alive behind another strong start from pitcher Connor Jones. The sophomore finished seven innings with three hits and three earned runs allowed as well as five walks and four strikeouts. It marked the seventh straight game where Jones pitched into the seventh inning as he improved to 7-2 on the season.
A shaky fifth inning, however, almost unraveled this outing for Jones. In that frame, he issued a lead-off walk to Nick Cieri, a one-out walk to Jose Cuas, and a two-out walk to Kevin Biondic. Jones, who had faced just 13 batters through the first four innings, struggled to find his command and was in a jam. Wade lined a 1-1 pitch into center field where Adam Haseley attempted a sliding catch, but the ball bounced off his glove and two Terrapins scored.
“I felt like I kind of lost it there for a minute,” Jones said. “I felt like I was trying to be too fine at certain times.”
After that costly double, Jones got out of the inning with a groundout pitch, but it sure didn’t look like he would make it through seven innings again, especially when he walked the lead-off batter again in the sixth. He sat down six of the next seven batters, allowing a run on a squeeze bunt in the seventh, to get Virginia into the eighth inning within striking distance in a 3-0 hole. Then the eighth inning fireworks happened and a lot of Hoos left sold-out Davenport Field happy.
“For me, the story of the today’s ball game was Connor going out there and giving us the sixth and seventh inning to give us a chance to do what we did in the eighth,” O’Connor said. “I was hoping [after the fifth] that he could give us one more inning. I didn’t know that he could give us the seventh. I was really glad that we only gave up two in that fifth inning. There was a chance it could have been more. Coach [Karl] Kuhn and I talked and we agreed that he had to go out there and give us the sixth. After he got through the sixth, he needed to pitch us through the seventh. You want to win today, but you have to look at it as a three-game series. He has to do his job as our first starter and hold us there to give us a chance to not deplete our bullpen for the next day.”
Saturday, Virginia will start Brandon Waddell for the 50th time in his career, second all-time at UVa. The entire bullpen is available.
