Virginia, ranked as high as fifth nationally last month, is now down to 14th after a third straight weekend series loss, dropping two of three to surging Duke in Disharoon Park.
The ‘Hoos (35-11, 13-11 ACC) is a mid 5-7 the past three weeks after getting out to a 30-4 start, and if you’re thinking you’ve seen this before, you have.
Last year, UVA started 26-3 and was ranked as high as third in the national polls, then finished on a 13-16 downer that ended with a thud in the regionals.
The Cavaliers have two mid-week games this week – against in-state opponents VCU and JMU – before getting the weekend off for final exams.
Needless to say, it’s go time with the mid-week games at home, and then there’s work to do when the team returns next week with Radford in the mid-week, and then Louisville in town over the weekend for what will be a key ACC series.
“We’ve just got to continue to get a little bit better, continue to work, you know, and play great baseball, a little bit tougher, and our execution has to be a little bit better from a pitching standpoint,” UVA head coach Brian O’Connor said after Virginia’s 7-3 loss to Duke on Sunday.
To that point, about the pitching, Virginia pitchers have a 6.94 ERA in the past 12 games, giving up 81 earned runs in 105 innings, after pitching to a 2.82 ERA as the team got out to that 30-4 start.
The weekend starters – Brian Edgington, Nick Parker and Jack O’Connor – have struggled over the past three weekends.
Edgington, the #1 starter, the Friday night guy, has gone 0-3 in his last three with an alarming 9.77 ERA, including getting touched up for six runs on eight hits in six innings of work in the 17-5 loss to Duke to open the teams’ weekend series.
Parker is 1-0 with two no-decisions in his last three with a 5.52 ERA, getting the win with a nice outing on Saturday in the 10-2 win over Duke, allowing two runs in 6 2/3 innings, with a career-high 12 strikeouts.
O’Connor is 1-2 with a 6.59 ERA in his last three, and didn’t get out of the fourth inning in Sunday’s series-finale setback, giving up five runs on five hits and three walks in 3 2/3 innings.
It will be incumbent for the Virginia pitching staff to get back to looking more like it did for the two months of the season.
“When it comes down to the stretch run against really good clubs, that’s the biggest thing that it comes to,” O’Connor said. “You’re gonna face really good arms, and runs are tough to come by, and we just needed to be consumed with, you know, getting quality starts and guys coming in and making the other team earn it.”
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Chris Graham
