The Virginia pitching staff, in the 15-7 loss to Jacksonville State on Friday in the NCAA Tournament, gave up 17 hits, walked six batters, and hit two.
The defense was dinged, by the official scorer, for three errors, but that was generous – on top of the three errors, there were:
- two “singles” in the two-run third that were actually a grounder that Eric Becker let get through the wickets, and a bunt that starting pitcher Henry Zatkowski just flubbed, no other way to say it.
- an infield single against the shift to third that started the five-run uprising in the fifth, ahead of a dropped tag on a stolen base, and another bunt “single” to the pitcher.
- a botched pickoff in the seventh was the key to a three-run seventh, in which there was another “single” to the pitcher’s mound.
What do we have there – probably four more errors, plus an extra out from the dropped tag.
When your pitching staff is struggling, giving the other guys EIGHT extra outs, probably not advised.
The offense, in putting up seven runs, left 13 on base, with bad decisions by hitters with runners on base a big part of that:
- Joe Tiroly hitting a weak foul popup on a 3-1 count with two on and one out in the third, down 4-0.
- Kyle Johnson, after a leadoff Jake Weatherspoon double in the fourth, still down 4-0, hitting a weak popup to center on the first pitch of his AB.
- Harrison Didawick, on a 2-0 count, two on, nobody out in the fifth, down 9-1, retiring himself on a weak liner to short.
- Antonio Perrotta swinging at a 1-0 sweeper that was nowhere near, then flying out weakly to center with the bases loaded and two out in the fifth, down 9-2.
- Sam Harris, with two on and two out in the eighth, down 13-7, weakly grounding out to first on the first pitch of his AB.
Zatkowski, the ace, 8-1, 4.03 ERA, 1.12 WHIP coming in, got roasted – seven earned on eight hits in 4.1 IP, though the “seven earned” is somewhat the result of the generosity of the official scorer.
Either way, he gave up seven, Kevin Jaxel gave up two more, and then, bahgawd, first-year head coach Chris Pollard went to Lucas Hartman for the 35th time this season, down 10-2 in the sixth, and wouldn’t you know, Hartman, poor kid, overused as crap, gave up three runs, two earned, in his inning of work.
Is Pollard contractually required to use Hartman?
Asking for a friend.
Pollard’s the smart one here – he got himself ejected with two on and no outs in the top of the seventh, for arguing a pitch-clock violation on Hartman.
I don’t how many of the rest of you stuck around for the last hour after that; for those who did, that’s an hour of your life watching the most embarrassing performance from a UVA Baseball team in the past 25 years.
It’s no sin to lose a baseball game; but this one was a microcosm of everything that has been wrong with this program for the past two months:
- Pollard and pitching coach Brady Kirkpatrick didn’t develop depth in the staff beyond Zatkowski, Hartman and closer Tyler Kapa.
- Whoever wants to take responsibility for defense should be perp-walked out of The Dish when they get back home late tomorrow night.
- Along with hitting coach Eric Tyler, who clearly doesn’t prepare his guys for what they’re going to see from the other team’s staff.
Somehow Pollard and his group took Duke to three Super Regionals.
I get it, that this is his first season at Virginia, he had to mesh together the guys he inherited from Brian O’Connor, the guys he brought with him from Duke and some pick-ups from the portal.
That’s the job for a college baseball coach in the NIL/portal era.
With Top 10 resources, with two first-round picks on the roster, with a Top 10 recruiting class, there’s no excuse not to be losing a game in the NCAA Tournament – again, that’s no sin – but to lose with the other side getting 25 baserunners, eight extra outs, five too-easy outs from guys on our side who, 58 games into the season, don’t know how to leverage counts in their favor, man.
The staff put together a talented roster, and it has completely and utterly mismanaged what it has at its disposal since the trip to Boston College in March.
Yeah, I know, the season ain’t over yet.
On Saturday at 4 p.m. ET, Virginia (36-22) plays the top seed, Southern Miss (44-16), which lost 7-4 to the four seed, Little Rock (37-26). earlier in the day on Friday.
Southern Miss will trot out its ace, lefty Grayden Harris (8-1, 3.20 ERA, 1.20 WHIP, 100Ks/19BBs in 84.1 IP), to try to keep its season on the line.
Virginia will counter with either lefty Kyle Johnson (1-3, 5.86 ERA, 1.37 WHIP, 40Ks/20BBs in 35.1 IP) or righty John Paone (1-4, 5.88 ERA, 1.44 WHIP, 65Ks/23BBs in 56.2 IP).
And then, and you can bank on it, Lucas Hartman, coming out of the pen.
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Chris Graham
