Baseball: #9 Virginia falls to ODU in mid-week road game, 7-4, on Tuesday

Sometimes your favorite baseball team loses because of the schedule. That was the case for #9 Virginia on Tuesday night.

The ‘Hoos (28-9) fell by a 7-4 count at ODU (19-17) at Harbor Park in Norfolk, getting just one run on five hits through eight innings against a Monarchs team that was throwing a staff day at them.

Three of the five ODU pitchers have ERAs over 7, including the winning pitcher, Brandon Pond (1-2, 7.32 ERA).

This one, you hang on UVA coach Brian O’Connor, for scheduling a game a two-hour, 44-minute bus trip down the road roughly 48 hours after his team got back from a road trip to Louisville.

If there was any good news, it was that Joe Savino was on the mound for the second time this season. The 6’4” righty, a grad transfer from Elon, where he was 5-1 with a 3.86 ERA in 2023, with an impressive 73 Ks in 53.2 innings, took the loss, giving up three runs, one earned, on three hits in one inning of work.

Down 7-1 entering the ninth, Virginia actually got the tying run to the plate after two-out RBI singles from Eric Becker and Griff O’Ferrall, but Ethan Anderson struck out swinging to end it.

Virginia, after the bus trip back, hosts George Mason (16-17) at The Dish on Wednesday with a scheduled 6 p.m. first pitch.