Virginia’s postseason story easily can be labeled unlikely, a cross-country three seed weaving late-inning magic into a trip to the College World Series Finals. The story added another welcomed chapter Tuesday night in Omaha when the Cavaliers staved off elimination with a 3-0 win against Vanderbilt.
The path to victory fit perfectly into this postseason’s narrative for UVa as unlikely stars rose to the occasion. Freshman Adam Haseley, pitching for the first time in one month, tossed five innings of shutout baseball and then gave way to super closer Josh Sborz for the final 12 outs. As if that wasn’t enough serendipity for one night, senior walk-on Thomas Woodruff, playing in the outfield only because Haseley pitched, delivered two RBIs during a 3-for-4 outing. Add in another clutch RBI hit from Ernie Clement as well and the night ended up full of fascinating storylines.
“What chance would that have happened is basically what you’re saying?” Cavalier coach Brian O’Connor said in response to a press conference question. “I don’t know. I would have told you that I know what these two guys [Adam Haseley and Thomas Woodruff] are made of. I know the kind of people they are. I know how much they care about their teammates. I know that they’ll go out there and give us everything that they have. I don’t like to put percentages on things could this possibly happen. Anything can happen. And it doesn’t surprise me because I know how hard these two individuals work and I know how much their teammates mean to them.”
Haseley last pitched in a game exactly one month earlier when he took the ball against NC State in the ACC Tournament on May 23 and allowed two runs on three hits in 4.2 innings. He didn’t know he would start the CWS elimination game until Tuesday morning, but he showed little sign of nerves during a solid performance.
In just his fifth start of the season and 11th overall mound appearance, he scattered four hits and three walks with only one strikeout. That came during a career-high five innings of work. He allowed at least one base runner in five of the six innings he pitched, but each time Virginia worked out of the situation.
“You just don’t know how it’s going to go,” O’Connor said. “But I know this: He’s got a lot of pride. He’s got a lot of pride in his teammates. This guy has been, in high school, he’s been on the world stage, playing for U.S.A. Baseball and performed at a very, very high level. And so I knew that he wouldn’t be in awe of the situation. You know, 25,000 people, everything on the line. I knew he would go out there and throw strikes and give us a chance. I had no idea how deep he’d pitch. And I’m glad he gave us five strong innings.”
“Not a whole heck of a lot, to be honest with you,” Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin said when asked what his team know about Haseley. “We had scouting reports on him. He had 10 appearances, four starts. We didn’t know a whole lot about him. Yeah, very commendable. Freshman. Usually a reliever. Comes into a situation, stops a good offensive team. We really didn’t do much against him. He did a nice job of slowing us down. Again, you just have to give a kid like that credit, especially being on the mound for the first time. Now, I know he’s played, but being on the mound for the first time, pitching like he did, he did a nice job.”
Sborz took care of the rest as he picked up his third win of this year’s College World Series and his fourth career win in Omaha, which is tied for second all-time at the CWS. Sborz has gone 27 innings without allowing an earned run. He made his program-best 14th appearance in the NCAA Tournament.
Of course, it wasn’t all smooth sailing in the final innings. The conclusion dripped with drama. Sborz needed 31 pitches to get through the ninth and final inning as Vanderbilt batters fouled off pitch after pitch. He ended at 77 pitches for the night, six more than Haseley as the starter. Sborz finished with three strikeouts and three allowed hits over four innings.
“Josh Sborz, since he has been here, and really specifically the last two years, has every time we’ve asked this guy to pitch a big ballgame for us, whether it be Game 3 of the Super Regional last year against Maryland, whenever it’s been this year, numerous times last year he has taken his game to a different level,” O’Connor said. “And you can see how talented he is and he’s just a model of consistency. And in order to have a chance to win this thing, you need somebody like that to really step up, and he’s done the job all year. But certainly during these two weeks he’s been really exceptional.”
With Haseley and Sborz shutting down the Vanderbilt offense, the Hoos needed runs to break a scoreless tie. They produced those runs in the sixth inning with two outs already in the books. The Cavaliers have scored the go-ahead run in the sixth inning or later in all nine of their NCAA Tournament victories.
Pavin Smith started things off this time with a single to left and Kevin Doherty followed with a seeing-eye single that bounced free by hitting the second base bag. Joe McCarthy reached on an error when Vandy first baseman Zander Wiel misplayed what should have been the final out of the inning.
That brought Clement and Woodruff, the eight and nine hitters in the line-up, to the forefront. Clement, who had the walk-off hit against Maryland in the Super Regional win that sent UVa to Omaha, shot a 1-0 pitch through the hole between shortstop and third to bring home Smith. Woodruff stepped up next and belted a 2-2 single to center field that scored both Doherty and McCarthy.
For the day, Clement and Woodruff combined to go 6 for 8 with all three of the team’s RBIs. The Hoos’ first seven hitters went 4-27 so the bottom of the order really came through when the team needed it.
“I’m also a big believer that to be in this position, to compete for a National Championship you need guys to rise to the occasion that maybe hadn’t yet or what people didn’t expect,” O’Connor said. “I think if you go back and look at the history of this event, there’s been players that have emerged and got big hits or pitched quality innings for their team. And tonight was certainly a case of that.”
“It’s definitely a little surreal,” Woodruff said. “But I think the approach that I try to take in practice and treat it like a game and treat it like every repetition matters. You get out there and everything is just like practice, and it kind of slows down and you don’t expect it, but you know and you’re confident in your abilities and you can trust your preparation much better.”
The two teams meet in a winner-take-all Game 3 on Wednesday night at 8 p.m. on ESPN.
