Seventh-ranked North Carolina walloped #11 Virginia, 12-7, on Saturday, to salvage the finale of a three-game set in Charlottesville this weekend.
UVA (25-7, 9-6 ACC) took two of three in the series, which, great, but pitching, again, was an issue in the loss on Saturday, and as the season moves into its second half, it’s pretty clear that lack of pitching depth is going to be what keeps this team from being able to make a deep run this spring.
More on that in a minute.
First, on Saturday, the issue was starting pitcher Kevin Jaxel (4-0, 9.13 ERA) only lasting two innings, getting touched up for six runs on seven hits, with two walks and two wild pitches.
The bats actually rallied to tie the game at 6-6 in the bottom of the sixth, and the ‘Hoos had a chance, with the bases loaded and two down, to go on top, but Harrison Didawick (.317/.434/.683, 13 HR, 44 RBIs) struck out to end the threat.
Aiden Teel (2-2, 9.00 ERA), who started the season at UVA’s closer, gave up three runs in the seventh, on homers from Parks Harber and Luke Stevenson, and then UNC (26-6, 11-4 ACC) added three more in the eighth off relievers Blake Barker (2-1, 6.11 ERA) and Jay Woolfolk (1-1, 7.11 ERA).
Virginia got a throwaway run in the eighth on an RBI single from Casey Saucke (.383/.444/.602, 7 HR, 35 RBIs).
Midseason report card
UVA leads the ACC and is second nationally in hitting (.342) and runs per game (10.0), which, again, great, but is ninth in the ACC and 115th nationally in team ERA (5.59).
By my unofficial count, only two current Top 25 teams, Florida (#9) and NC State (#20), have higher team ERAs at this stage in early April.
And maybe worse, Brian O’Connor, because of the lack of consistency up and down his staff, still isn’t set on a starting rotation, and is still stuck trying to figure out not only how to get the ball to the back end of his bullpen, but then, who can get outs in the back end of the bullpen.
Evan Blanco (3-1, 3.86 ERA) is the only reliable starter at this point, and he’s not even averaging five innings per start.
Cullen McKay (2-1, 6.35 ERA), who got knocked around in a no-decision in Virginia’s 14-11 win in the series opener on Thursday, giving up four runs in an inning of work, has only gone five or more innings in three of his seven starts.
Jaxel, who has been the #3 starter for the past three weeks, went five innings each of the past two weekends before getting bombed in his start on Saturday.
Woolfolk, who gave up football last summer to focus on baseball, began the season as the #3 starter, but in his two starts in ACC games, against Miami and Wake Forest, he was touched up for 10 runs on 12 hits in seven and two-thirds innings, for an atrocious 11.74 ERA.
Opening Day starter Jack O’Connor (0-1, 7.50 ERA) ended up being relegated to the bullpen after three straight awful starts to begin the season, then was put on the shelf in mid-March with a season-ending injury.
Odd broadcast on Saturday
The poor guy working the broadcast on ACCN/X was all by his lonesome, and a little stressed – to the point that he forgot to introduce himself at the beginning of the broadcast, and I was only able to catch his first name, Jason, there at the end.
Not only was Jason working without an on-air partner, which I had to do once or twice in my eight-plus years doing college baseball on ESPN+, he was working without commercial breaks, which I only had to do back in my days doing Valley League games on internet radio.
Between innings on Saturday, the broadcast substituted a graphic with the UVA and UNC logos in the place of commercials, with stadium noise – and occasionally Jason talking with the director, when said director forgot to turn Jason’s mic off – in the background.
This serves as your latest example of how this ACC Network thing can’t be making anybody any money.
At the damn least, the ESPN folks could stick in two or three spots between innings so that they could report to the advertisers at the end of the quarter that they got additional run.
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Chris Graham
