Army baseball coach Chris Tracz knew coming into Friday’s NCAA Tournament Regional just how complete the Virginia offense is. Following UVA’s 15-1 win over his team, Coach Tracz summed it up with a chuckle: “I was right.”
The Hoos’ reputation remained reality in the opener as the Hoos plated 10 runs on 8 hits in the first 2 innings of the contest. By the end of the day, they had piled up 15 runs on 18 hits with 7 different players contributing an RBI. They also drew 8 walks and combined to go 18-41 (.439) at the plate.
Any hope an Army offense that averaged 8.1 runs per game could keep pace with Hoos was lost with Brian Edgington toeing the rubber for Virginia. The Pennsylvania native not only pitched a perfect first and second inning, he tossed 5 perfect innings of baseball to earn the win and improve to 8-3 on the year. The visitors eventually got on the board in the seventh with their lone run and they produced just 2 hits.
The fast start and overall firepower was just too much to overcome.
”As perfect as it can be,” Virginia coach Brian O’Connor said of this team’s start to the game. ”I mean Edge went through six hitters and was pitching great and we jumped them offensively and capitalized on every opportunity that we had. It was huge. You can be in all the regionals that you want, you can be in Omaha as many times as you want, a player, a coach, still has that excitement and a little bit of butterflies when playing your first game. To be able to jump out like we did and for the players to relax and just play the game was really important.”
Tracz admitted the combination of Edgington’s perfect pitching and UVA’s offense lighting up the scoreboard smothered his clubs chances of mounting a comeback.
“That was the nightmare scenario; the one thing we didn’t want to have happen,” Tracz said. “They’re the No. 7 overall seed for a reason. I thought their pitcher did a great job of not allowing us any momentum at all.”
Saturday’s win personified complementary baseball. Meaning, when all facets are operating at elite levels, the team performs at an elite level.
In baseball, that begins with starting pitching. In 5 innings of work, Edgington threw just 56 pitches, that’s just 11.2 pitchers per inning. When he left the game, Edgington had thrown 75% of his 56 pitches for strikes. He finished with 4 strikeouts, including the first pair of batters he faced in the first inning to help fuel that fast start.
Tracz said Army tried to get a knock to alter the complexion of the game but Edgington worked the outer part of the plate while having success with his breaking stuff. The Black Knights just couldn’t get settled in while the UVA starter mixed pitches with strong location.
“He didn’t give us much in the middle of the plate in a count that we wanted,” Tracz said. “He was ahead of a lot of guys and was able to use the outer part of the plate like we thought he would do. The breaking ball for him was good and we were off the barrel and he was able to get us to chase some pitches. He threw a ton of strikes.”
“He was trying to establish the fastball away, especially to me, and then work off-speed after he got his first strike,” Army first baseman Ross Friedrick said. “He pitched backwards to the middle of the order trying to throw us off-balance.”
With Saturday’s game in the books, Edgington now leads Virginia with 76.2 innings pitched and 81 strikeouts. He is second on the club with a 3.64 ERA and 8 wins. He says he tries to maintain a consistent routine and rarely alters his gameplan. That remained true even with the high stakes of an NCAA Tournament Regional in front of a packed house at Davenport Field.
“My gameplan doesn’t really change start to start,” Edgington said. “I do well when I’m working the bottom of the zone and filling the zone early and often. I think that’s usually what makes me pretty good.”
Of course, taking a pitcher out of a perfect game with only four innings left will always draw some ‘are you crazy’ looks from fan faithful or sports writers. When asked about the hook, Edgington said the did not know it was coming but was matter of fact in his response.
“I knew that Coach Oak and Coach Drew would do what was best for the team,” Edgington said.
Not surprising, the questions regarding Edgington’s exit came early during O’Connor’s postgame presser.
“I never go into a game assuming anything or even planning anything from the standpoint of, ok if this happens we’ll get him out of here early,” O’Connor said. “But, as the game goes on and we start to take hold of the game, and Edgington was so efficient with his pitches, the combination of the possibility of him coming back again later in the weekend and getting other pitchers out there and getting them experience [was intriguing].”
Even without ‘Perfect Man’ Edgington, Cullen McKay, Chase Hungate and Jack O’Connor limited Army to its lone run off 2 hits and 4 walks.
UVA’s offense was just as relentless as Cavalier pitching. Virginia first baseman Ethan Anderson led the offense with 2 hits, a home run and a double, that produced 3 RBI and 3 runs scored. Anderson said UVA’s talented lineup “feeds off one another” and you could see that momentum build against the Black Knights.
“Going up there with the right approach and consistency, it gives the best shot we have [at] getting the guy behind us a shot at driving in runs,” said Anderson. “Today was a great example of guys doing their best, getting out there, and competing, and having a great approach.”
On the afternoon the Cavaliers batted .439 overall. Their situational hitting was superb too. They were a strong .348 with runners in scoring position and .625 leading off an inning. In the end, 8 of their 18 hits went for extra bases and they drew 8 walks with 2 hit batsmen.
Army decided to go with Robbie Buecker, an experienced picture who he called “our Swiss-army knife,” against the potent Virginia offense. Buecker entered the game 5-3, having pitched 63.1 innings, both from starts and 13 relief appearances. He had allowed 54 hits and 26 runs on the season, while pitching well against teams like Arkansas. Tracz said “He’s been really good;he wasn’t today. He was elevated with everything, off-speed and fastball and they didn’t miss one. At all.”
O’Connor said it was the Hoos first inning at-bats that set the tone for the entire game.
“I thought our approach to their starter was as good has I’ve seen us have in my time against an opening starter in a regional,” said O’Connor. “Knowing he was going to throw a lot of sliders and changeups to our lefthanded hitters, if you’re overly excited as a hitter and try to do too much you can come out of your legs a little and roll over a ground ball. The discipline on fringe pitches that we showed against him looked like the experienced kind of lineup that we have.”
Virginia will take on East Carolina who flashed its own offensive prowess against Oklahoma in a 14-5 win Friday night. The two familiar foes will square off at 6 p.m. in the winner’s bracket game on Saturday at Disharoon Park.
