UVA Baseball: Another dispiriting mid-week loss for the once-mighty ‘Hoos

I keep writing about how the UVA Baseball team was #2 in the preseason national rankings. I’m now officially coming down on the side of, I don’t know that this team is even going to get an NCAA Tournament invite.

I say this as I note that Liberty completed a home-and-home sweep of the ‘Hoos with a 10-3 beatdown on Tuesday at The Dish.

This one drops UVA (20-15, 9-9 ACC) to 87th in the updated RPI rankings.

For reference, Liberty (23-14) is at 57 in the RPI numbers this morning.

Fifty-seven doesn’t get you an at-large bid.

Eighty-seven doesn’t get you in any conversation regarding one.

The Flames took control of this one with big innings in the second, third and fourth – knocking out Virginia starter Kevin Jaxel (1-1, 3.52 ERA) with a three-run second.

The big blows were a three-run homer from Tucker Moore off reliever Matt Buchanan in the second and a third-inning John Simmons grand slam off reliever Alex Markus.

Virginia scored two runs in the second on an Antonio Perrotta solo homer and a James Nunnallee RBI single, then didn’t score again until the ninth, on a Walker Buchanan RBI groundount.

The ‘Hoos are headed to Tallahassee for what seems like a rather critical three-game series with #7 Florida State (29-7, 11-4 ACC) that begins on Thursday.