Jacob Selden, hitting .203 on the season, hit a two-run, walk-off home run in the 10th inning, his first homer of the season, to give VCU a 9-7 win over No. 11 Virginia on Tuesday at The Diamond.
The extra-inning blast spoiled a comeback effort by the Cavaliers who erased a five-run deficit to tie the game in the seventh.
The loss is the seventh in eight games for Virginia (27-10).
With one out and a runner on first, Selden took a 3-1 fastball from Jay Woolfolk over the wall in right field. The Rams (20-15) have won three straight games over the Cavaliers dating back to last season.
The two teams will meet again on May 3 in Charlottesville.
Junior Jacob Hodorovich was credited with the tough luck loss after a career night on the mound. The righthander totaled a career-high four innings and faced the minimum until he walked the second batter of the 10th inning.
Hodorovich also fanned a career-best five batters in his 11th appearance of the season.
“It was a great college baseball game and a really enthusiastic crowd tonight. I’m proud of our guys on how we battled back,” Virginia coach Brian O’Connor said. “They had the big five-run inning in the in the third and jumped out to a big lead, and we responded in the seventh inning with five runs of our own. You have got to be a little bit better on the road, and they certainly stepped up and got the big knocks there to win the game.”
After the first eight VCU batters of the game went hitless, the next five came around to score in a five-run third inning. Four of the five runs came in on a grand slam by Connor Hujsak to left field. The grand slam was the first hit against UVA this season and the first since May 10, 2019.
Nine-hole hitter Scottie O’Bryan made the score 6-2 in the fourth with a solo homer to the opposite field. The long ball was his second of the season. Selden pushed the lead to 7-2 in the fifth on a two-out single to left field.
Freshman Ethan Anderson, who came on as a pinch-hitter in the fourth, ignited a five-run, game-tying inning in the seventh with a leadoff double, his second hit of the day. Classmates Justin Rubin and Griff O’Ferrall followed suit with doubles of their own to quickly make it a three-run game.
O’Ferrall, the Richmond native, came around to score on an RBI ground out by Kyle Teel to make it 7-5 in favor of VCU.
With two outs, Alex Tappen beat out an infield single to keep the rally alive. The next batter, Devin Ortiz, tied the game with one swing. A 403-foot blast over the left field erased the five-run deficit, his fourth home run of the season.
Virginia had the go-ahead run on third base with two outs in the 10th, but O’Ferall’s sharp line drive to left was caught to end the threat.
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Chris Graham
