Hoos Run Past Razorbacks In Omaha

 

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Kenny Towns delivered another key RBI in the NCAA Tournament on Saturday. ~ Ian Rogol

Lake Elsinore. Charlottesville. Omaha. Wherever the Virginia baseball team travels these days, it brings a little late-inning magic and a whole lot of moxie. The results so far have been flawless.

The Cavaliers opened play in the College World Series with a 5-3 win against Arkansas on Saturday. The game stood tied at 3-3 after seven innings, but the Hoos put up one run in each of the final two innings to improve to 6-0 in this year’s NCAA Tournament. UVa remains in the winner’s bracket of double-elimination pool play and plays Monday night at 8 p.m. on ESPN2.

“In the first World Series game of this year that was certainly an excellent ballgame, hard fought on both sides,” Virginia coach Brian O’Connor said. “Just really proud of our team for, again, continuing to find a way to win a ballgame. It’s kind of – that ballgame is kind of how we’ve played for the last couple of weeks.”

Yes, the Hoos have been turning out dramatic wins just like this one throughout the NCAA Tournament thus far. In fact, UVa has scored 27 of its 37 runs in the tourney after the fifth inning. In the Lake Elsinore Regional, Virginia broke a 1-1 tie with San Diego State by scoring two runs in the eighth inning and won 3-1. Against Southern California, UVa rallied out a 9-6 hold with three runs in the eighth inning and five more in the 11th to win 14-10. In the Super Regional against Maryland, UVa trailed 3-0 entering the eighth inning of game one but scored five runs in that frame to prevail 5-3. In the next game, the Wahoos were down 4-2 entering the ninth inning but walked off with a 5-4 victory.

In Saturday’s CWS opener, the 3-3 stalemate had see-sawed back and forth for seven innings. Joe McCarthy gave UVa an early lead with a solo home run in the second inning, but the Razorbacks responded with two runs in the third. The Cavaliers bounced back into the lead with two runs in the fifth inning when Daniel Pinero and Matt Thaiss each had hits. That 3-2 lead was short-lived, however, thanks to Arkansas’ Andrew Benintendi’s solo shot into the Virginia bull pen beyond the right field wall. Benintendi leads the NCAA with 20 home runs.

That’s what set up some more late-game drama for the Wahoos. In the eighth inning, Pinero singled with one out and then stole second and third base against closer Zach Jackson. After Thaiss struck out for the second out of the inning, Towns faced a two-strike count before connecting on a double to right field that brought home the winning run. UVa added an insurance run in the ninth inning when Thomas Woodruff, running for Robbie Coman after a lead-off single, stole second base and scored on a hit from Ernie Clement.

For Towns, that clutch RBI was his 22nd in the NCAA Tournament, the Virginia program record.

“Certainly I thought it was the at-bat of the game,” O’Connor said. “Jackson’s their guy. Kenny’s driven in runs for us all year long. Certainly falls down and works 3-2. What a great two-strike approach he had for those last three pitches. And Jackson throws him a 3-2 breaking ball and he’s got a great approach and just hits the ball the other way. Those are the kinds of the things that your players that have talent like Kenny does, and they need to rise up to win games like this.”

The hit from Towns was one of several at key moments in the game. Virginia scored all five of its runs with two outs on the board thanks to six two-out hits.

“One thing we like to focus on with runners in scoring position, especially with runners on second base, with two outs, you don’t want to do too much,” Towns said. “You just want to go out there and try and hit the ball on the barrel and hit a line drive or a ground ball somewhere. We were able to make some good swings in the situation.”

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Connor Jones teamed with Josh Sborz to slow down the Razorbacks from the mound. ~ Ian Rogol

That was enough to get the Wahoos to the winner’s circle behind the arms of Connor Jones and Josh Sborz. Jones made his third start of the NCAA Tournament and delivered another solid effort on the mound. He pitched six innings and allowed three runs, six hits, and two walks to go with two strikeouts.

Sborz came in for the final three innings and picked up the win to improve to 5-2 on the season with 14 saves. Sborz threw 40 pitches to end up with five strikeouts and one walk. Sborz now has four wins in NCAA Tournament play during his career, which has featured 11 appearances to date. He has 28 strikeouts in 25 tourney innings in his career.

“Josh’s stuff is really good,” O’Connor said. “Certainly he’s got a fastball on some days that touches 95, 96. He didn’t have his real good fastball today [for] whatever reason but maybe will the next time. Has a good slider. He has a curveball that he uses every so often. But he throws strikes. He attacks you. That slider is, what, 84 to sometimes up to 87, 88 miles an hour. It’s pretty darned good pitch. So you have a lot of confidence in him that he’s going to go at them and give his best. And he’s been pretty darned near as good as you can be all year long for us.”