Virginia, down to its last out, scored twice to force extra innings, then walked off VCU in the 11th to post a 7-6 win on Saturday.
The ‘Hoos (9-1) were down 6-4 in the bottom of the ninth. Noah Jouras, with two on and two out, singled to shallow left to score Harrison Didawick from second base, and one batter later, Eric Becker reached on an error by VCU second baseman Cade Tousa, allowing Noah Murray to score the tying run.
Both teams went down in order in the 10th. VCU (4-6) got two on in its half of the 11th, on singles by Quinn Maher and Dante DeFranco, before Tyler Kapa (2-0) got Brendan Horne to strike out looking to end the threat.
In the bottom half, Noah Murray was walked on four pitches by reliever Cooper Campbell (0-1), then took second on a sacrifice bunt from Kyle Johnson.
And here you thought Chris Pollard wouldn’t play small ball.
Jouras struck out for the second out, ahead of Becker, who put the ball in play to first base, where the grounder was booted by first baseman Nate Kirkpatrick, allowing Murray to scoot home with the winning run.
There are more than the three true outcomes, is the lesson there.
The game-tying and -winning runs scored on balls put in play that were misplayed by the defense.
Which doesn’t happen on Ks.
Ahem.
AJ Gracia and Sam Harris each went deep for Virginia.
Max Stammel started and went 4.2 innings, giving up three earned runs on three hits, two walks and a hit batter, while striking out five.
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Chris Graham
