UVA Baseball: ‘Hoos strand 16 in frustrating 6-2 loss to VCU

Twelve hits, eight walks, one hit batter – that adds up to 21 UVA baserunners.

The ninth-ranked ’Hoos could manage just two runs from among those 21 baserunners against a VCU staff that used six guys to close out the 6-2 win on Tuesday at The Diamond.

Virginia (26-12) was 4-for-22 with runners on base and 1-for-16 with runners in scoring position.

VCU (22-14) also turned three double plays.

All told, Virginia left 16 runners on base.

Frustrating day.

Worse news: first-year UVA coach Chris Pollard tried to get his struggling #2 starter, Max Stammel, a midweek inning to bolster his confidence, and it dramatically didn’t work.

Stammel only retired one of the six batters that he faced, giving up two runs on five hits in two-thirds of an inning – the other out came on a pickoff.

Stammel’s ERA is at 7.71 now.

Presumably, he’s still the #2 starter.

Michael Yeager (0-2, 11.48 ERA) took the loss, giving up two runs on a hit, two walks and two hit batters in 2.1 innings of work.

AJ Gracia hit a solo homer in the first, his 11th of the season, and plated the other UVA run with an RBI single in the eighth.

Harrison Didawick was 3-for-4 at the plate.