What was the lowest point of Tuesday’s home UVA baseball finale? When starting pitcher Jack Roberts was on his way to the dugout after getting just two outs in the first, after having given up three runs on four hits and a wakl? Or when Alec Bettinger came into the game in the top of the eighth, the game tied at 6, with runners on the corners, no one out?
It was most certainly the latter. Doom seemed foretold as Bettinger made his way to the mound. Virginia has been playing with its backs against the wall for weeks now, unfamiliar territory for a program that entered the 2015 season ranked #1 in several national polls, on the heels of 11 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances.
The Cavs, under .500 in the ACC, with 19 losses overall, could not afford a slip-up against Richmond, their margin of error to get another NCAA bid coming in wire-thin.
Enter Bettinger, who struck out the first two batters that he faced, Brandon Johnson and Tyler Beckwith, before getting Daniel Brumbaugh to ground out to first to end the inning.
The fire put out, Virginia rallied for two in the bottom of the eighth, getting things going with a Joe McCarthy leadoff double, finishing with a two-out, two-run single by Daniel Pinero.
Bettinger closed out the win with a 1-2-3 top of the ninth.
“It was a gutty team win,” UVA head coach Brian O’Connor said after the game. “Certainly falling behind 3-0 in the first inning wasn’t the way we drew it up, but we’ve been there before and our guys hung in there and a number of those guys in the bullpen did a nice job.
“We took advantage of some of our opportunities, and I was proud of our guys for picking each other up.”
Virginia (30-19) travels to Chapel Hill to close out the regular season with a three-game series that begins Thursday.
UVA has a one-game lead on Wake Forest for the 10th and final spot in the ACC Tournament, but depending on what happens on what could be a wild weekend in ACC baseball, the ‘Hoos could finish anywhere from fifth to 12th.
With an RPI at 30 entering the weekend, Virginia would seem to be decently positioned for an NCAA bid in the here and now, but it would seem just as likely that the Cavs could very well be left on the outside looking in if they can’t play their way to Durham.
Can Tuesday’s gutty win over Richmond serve as a springboard for UVA toward the postseason? Cavs fans sure hope so.
– Column by Chris Graham
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