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Sean Doolittle lost just his second game of the year Saturday. He is 11-2. |
Yes Virginia, superman is human. Do it all, two-way star and Second Team All-American Sean Doolittle apparently is not perfect after all.
The “Untouchable?” Touchable.
Virginia (47-14) ace and ACC Player of the Year Sean Doolittle retired the first six batters he faced, four by strikeout. But then the South Carolina Gamecocks did what they do best: put runners on base and then go for the long ball. USC’s Phil Disher broke open a scoreless game in the bottom of the third with a 390-foot grand slam over Davenport’s left centerfield wall and Virginia never recovered.
That hit proved to be all the Gamecocks (39-22) needed in route to an 8-2 win, sending Virginia to an elimination game with Evansville at 1 p.m. on Sunday. Freshman Jacob Thompson (10-3, 2.20 ERA) will take the hill for the Cavaliers in the matinee game. If the Cavaliers can prevail, they will meet the Gamecocks again Sunday evening at 6 p.m. with sophomore lefty Pat McAnaney (5-1, 2.95 ERA) likely getting the nod for the Hoos.
In the fateful third inning, USC’s Ian Paxton singled and with one out Reese Havens walked. While the home run was the killer blow, when asked if he was kicking himself for losing Havens, Carolina’s No. 9 hitter on a full count, Doolittle replied he was.
“In hindsight I kind of am. I walked a couple of guys and it came back to haunt me,” he said.
Three of the four batters Doolittle walked scored, although one was intentional.
With two outs in the inning, USC’s Chris Brown singled, reaching second when Virginia outfielders Brandon Guyer and Tim Henry collided in right center and failed to get the throw into the infield in time. The Cavaliers internally walked Justin Smoak to load the bases, setting up Disher for his heroics.
Doolittle (11-2, 2.38 ERA) intended to try and jam Disher with an inside fast ball that hung over the middle of the plate and Disher was waiting for it. O’Connor said they felt it best to walk Smoak, the freshman sensation that led the Gamecocks in home runs and RBIs and pitch to Disher who entered the game with just 40 at-bats.
“I respect a player like Smoak and that’s why we pitched around him in the first two pitches and decided to walk him in that situation,” said Virginia head coach Brian O’Connor. “We looked at the percentages and felt we had a better chance to get Disher out.”
“But that’s what makes South Carolina a good team,” O’Connor added. “They belong here in this tournament and they proved that tonight. They came into a tough environment, on the road and their guys stepped up. We each had eights hits. They scored eight runs and we scored two and that’s what that home run will do for you.”
Disher’s home run, just his 3rd of the season, was only the fifth hit out of Davenport Field by a Virginia opponent this season. It was the third homer in this weekend’s Charlottesville Regional and the second grand slam of the day, though.
“I was just trying to get some good pitches to hit on Doolittle,” said Disher. “I was trying to get some strikes to swing at and get some good swings and try and hit the ball somewhere. It was a fast ball right over the plate and when I hit it long, I was excited to give Harris [Honeycutt] some runs he could work with.”
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USC starter Harris Honeycutt allowed just 1 run and 5 hits against the Virginia line-up. |
The Cavaliers had their chances to close the gap, getting the lead-off runner on base in the first, fifth, and sixth innings. But Honeycutt, the USC starter on the mound, held the Cavs in check allowing just one Virginia lead-off runner to score.
“Virginia did a great job of getting the leadoff men on. I knew I was going to have to throw strikes to get them out and battle back,” said Honeycutt who remained undefeated (6-0) with the win. “I credit the defense for backing me up and giving us a chance to win and Phil for giving us the runs to put us ahead.”
South Carolina coach Ray Tanner joked that Honeycutt was more effective with runners on base than without.
“We are trying to encourage him to pitch to the lead-off hitter like he does when there are men on, but you can’t argue with what he was able to do tonight,” the coach said.
The lack of execution with runners in scoring position that plagued the Cavaliers at the ACC Tournament appeared to vanish Friday night against Lehigh, but reared its ugly head again Saturday as Virginia went just 2 for 10 with runners in scoring position. They stranded eight base runners, five in scoring position.
“We need to take advantage of our opportunities when we get them and we did not do that tonight,” O’Connor said.
Three base runners were erased attempting to steal on poor “dirt-ball” reads. O’Connor is the first to admit he plays an aggressive style of baseball, but says against Carolina that his team may have been done in by their approach.
“We we’re a little over aggressive on the bases from that standpoint,” O’Connor explained. “We’re always aggressive and we’re not going to change from that. But we didn’t make a couple of good decisions there and we ran ourselves out of innings”
Honeycutt labored at times, throwing 125 pitches in six innings of action, but consistently pitched his way out of trouble, never allowing the Hoos to take advantage of his inconsistency. Honeycutt gave way to Andrew Cruse in the seventh inning, allowing just one unearned run and five hits, while fanning five and walking three. Cruse pitched the final three innings for South Carolina, giving up just one run on three Cavalier hits and striking out four to earn his third save of the year.
“[Honeycutt] pitched a very good game; he kept the game under control,” said O’Connor. “It’s a little bit easier when you’re up by five runs to pitch more aggressive. He was able to change speeds; he used his change-up very well to both right- and left-handed hitters, kept the ball down, and tied us in knots at times.”
Virginia had two base runners on in the fourth and could not plate a run, but Honeycutt could not get out of the fifth inning unscathed. With runners at the corners and one out in the top of the fifth, O’Connor played hit-and-run baseball and a moving Carolina infield could not make a play on Tim Henry’s shot over the second base bag. That scored Jeremy Farrell and cut the USC lead to 5-1. Virginia could do no more as Brandon Marsh flied out and Doolittle struck out looking at a 2-2 fastball on the outside corner of the plate. Henry was the only Cavalier with more than two hits, going 2 for 3 with one RBIs.
The Gamecocks managed to get the run back in the bottom of the fifth on back-to-back walks and a single by Smoak. Doolittle departed for reliever Michael Schwimer. In Doolittle’s worst outing of the season, the sophomore southpaw surrendered six earned runs, five hits, four walks, and five strikeouts.
“I felt really good. I was ready to go,” said Doolittle. “I don’t think it was a case of myself or the team not being ready to play. I walked a couple of guys and missed a couple of spots in key situations and against a team like [South Carolina] you’re not going to get away with those pitches.”
Schwimer went one inning of scoreless relief. Alex Smith and Josh Meyers concluded the game on the mound for the Hoos, combining for three innings, three hits allowed, and two additional runs. Both teams would add meaningless runs in the eighth inning to complete the scoring.
