Credit to Brian O’Connor, at least, for emphatically not second-guessing himself, when everybody else in Virginia Baseball Nation is wondering what the heck was going through his mind Friday night on the sport’s biggest stage.
“I have zero regret,” Oak said, pointedly, after Virginia’s 6-5 walk-off loss to Florida in Game 1 of the College World Series, after he put his bullpen, and specifically, left-hander reliever Jake Berry, in the most awkward of awkward positions.
Berry will go down as having given up four runs in an inning and two-thirds, three of them on absolute bombs, including a 456-foot blast off the bat of top MLB Draft prospect Wyatt Lankford that tied the game in the bottom of the ninth.
Why Berry was even out there to start the ninth, with Virginia up 5-3, and Florida’s due-up hitters, Ty Evans, Cade Kurland and then Lankford, all hitting from the right side, with O’Connor’s closer, right-hander Jay Woolfolk, warmed and ready in the bullpen, is a great question.
“Jake Berry has done the job for this team all year long. He’s been tremendous when we’ve had a lead and closed games out for us,” O’Connor said.
Berry does, indeed, have six saves this season for Virginia.
Woolfolk, a righthander, has nine, though his last one dates all the way back to May 20, getting close to a month ago now, and he gave up a run on three hits, with a walk, in the ninth inning of that one.
O’Connor, earlier this week, declared that he had “full confidence” in going to Woolfolk in a tight late-game situation, but not only did he not summon Woolfolk from the pen to start the ninth, with Florida sending three righthanded hitters to the plate, but, inexplicably, he left Berry out there after two of those three hitters went deep to tie the game.
The next hitter after the Lankford moon shot, Jac Caglianone, singled sharply through the shift to right-center, ahead of Berry walking Josh Rivera, then hitting BT Riopelle to load the bases.
It was only then that O’Connor went to Woolfolk, who threw all of one pitch in Virginia’s three-game run through the regional round, then faced three hitters, giving up two hits and eventually getting charged with two runs, and the loss, in Virginia’s 5-4 Game 1 setback to Duke in the Super Regionals.
Woolfolk got Luke Heyman to line out to center, but with the bases loaded and one down, that lineout turned into a game-winning, walk-off sacrifice fly.
Oak was asked postgame how he felt about his bullpen going forward, as if he hadn’t already shown his hand with the botched endgame that led to the Game 1 defeat.
“Certainly I don’t feel great about how we pitched out of our bullpen tonight, and it’s been a little bit of a mixed bag all year,” O’Connor said. “But the plan coming into the game is, if we had a lead in the eighth inning, was to go with Jake Berry. And that formula’s worked for us a lot this year. I don’t know for sure, but I would be surprised if all year that we’ve lost a game putting Jake Berry in in the eighth inning or beyond with a lead. And, so, that said, when you’re in this situation that we are on Sunday, we’ll do whatever it takes to win that game to try to advance on to the next one.”
I went back and fact-checked there, and not to dump on Jake Berry, because it wasn’t his decision to keep himself out there when he was getting shellacked, but, um, yeah.
Berry’s first loss of the season came after giving up three runs in the bottom of the ninth in a 5-4 defeat at NC State on March 18.
And while it wasn’t Berry who was tagged with the loss to Duke last week in the Supers, he was the guy on the mound in relief of Woolfolk when the two runs were scored, on a fielder’s choice and a two-out RBI single.
So, that would be two losses this season in games in which Berry was sent out in the eighth inning or later with a lead.
The theatrics in the ninth could make you forget about the other questionable decision that set the final three innings into motion: Oak lifting starter Nick Parker, who had held a potent Florida lineup to a run on four hits in six innings of work.
Parker was at 90 pitches through the end of the sixth, and had retired the last seven batters that he faced.
Virginia scored four in the top of the seventh to take the lead, and it was a long half-inning – Florida coach Kevin O’Sullivan went to his bullpen twice in the top of the seventh to try to stanch the bleeding.
O’Connor didn’t mention the length of the half-inning in his postgame explanation of why he took Parker out.
“I thought Nick Parker did a terrific job of battling, and he was at about 90 pitches. It was time to make the change,” was what he said.
Looking back at that call, assuming O’Connor knew that he really, really didn’t want to have to use Woolfolk, even when it was obvious that he should, it doesn’t seem to stand to reason that he wouldn’t have wanted to at least try to get another inning out of Parker.
As it turns out, O’Connor used Evan Blanco to face two batters, throwing six pitches, Jack O’Connor to face three batters and throw 12 pitches, and Berry to face (checks notes) 12 batters and throw 46 pitches.
And yes, of course, I get it – you’re not supposed to question or criticize Brian O’Connor, any more than you’re supposed to question Tony Bennett, two guys who are among the best and brightest in their respective professions.
I’ll be the heel here: in Oak’s case, Friday night is on him.
Jake Berry gets tagged with the loss, but, all due respect, no, just, no.
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Chris Graham
