The Virginia baseball team fell behind early and never caught up to Florida State in a 13-3 pool play loss at the ACC Tournament. Wednesday’s setback eliminated UVA from contention for the conference tourney semifinals with no angle to win any tiebreakers within its pod.

The bigger concern before Friday’s final pool contest against Notre Dame and the upcoming NCAA Tournament, however, must be how to fix some early inning issues. That’s because the FSU loss wasn’t an outlier in the slow start category. In fact, it’s been a theme.

The Hoos have lost 16 games this season and opponents have scored in the first three innings in 15 of them. In 14 of the losses, the opponent posted a multi-run inning within the first three innings and left Virginia to play from behind on the scoreboard. Here’s a look at it game by game:

• Duke on March 13 – 2 runs in 1st, 2 runs in 2nd, trailed 4-0, lost 7-6
• Wake Forest on March 27 – 2 runs in 1st, 3 runs in 3rd, trailed 5-1, lost 8-1
• Georgia Tech on April 1 – 2 runs in 1st, 2 runs in 2nd, trailed 4-3, lost 6-4
• Miami on April 8 – 1 run in 2nd, 2 runs in 3rd, trailed 3-2, lost 6-2
• Miami on April 9 – 2 runs in 3rd, trailed 2-0, lost 5-4
• Miami on April 10 – 5 runs in 3rd, trailed 5-3, lost 15-5
• Old Dominion on April 12 – 2 runs in 1st, tied 2-2, lost 9-2
• Pittsburgh on April 15 – 2 runs in 3rd, trailed 2-0, lost 9-4
• Pittsburgh on April 17 – 1 run in 2nd, trailed 1-0, lost 4-1
• VCU on April 19 – 5 runs in 3rd, trailed 5-1, lost 9-7 (10 innings)
• Virginia Tech on April 29 – 2 runs in 3rd, trailed 2-0, lost 5-2
• Virginia Tech on May 1 – 0 runs in 1st-3rd, led 4-0, lost 7-5
• Clemson on May 15 – 3 runs in 1st, 2 runs in 3rd, trailed 5-2, lost 8-2
• Louisville on May 19 – 2 runs in 1st, 1 run in 3rd, trailed 3-0, lost 4-1
• Louisville on May 21 – 2 runs in 1st, 4 runs in 2nd, trailed 6-0, lost 11-3
• Florida State on May 25 – 1 run in 1st, 6 runs in 3rd, trailed 7-0, lost 13-3 (8 innings)

As that list shows, UVA has trailed after three innings in 14 of its 16 losses. That’s not to say that the Hoos can’t generate a comeback – look at the 6-4 win against Georgetown, the 11-7 win against UNC, and the 11-6 win against Clemson as some examples of rallying from an early deficit. Frequently falling behind early in games, however, puts a lot of pressure on the Cavaliers to get back into it quickly even with a powerful offense. They’re 0-12 this eason when trailing after six innings.

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