The vaunted Virginia pitching staff we bragged about in the preseason walked 11 Miami hitters. Nine of them came from stud pitchers Griff McGarry and Nate Savino.
And the ‘Hoos still had the winning run at the plate in the bottom of the ninth in what ended up an 8-6 loss to the ‘Canes on Friday at Disharoon Park.
Geez, Louise.
McGarry walked five in two innings before being lifted for not being able to find the strike zone.
Then Savino (1-1, 1.35 ERA) walked four in 3.1 innings of relief, giving up three Miami runs, one earned, and one hit.
Virginia (9-12, 3-10 ACC), which started the season ranked as high as #5 in the national polls, fought back late. A Devin Ortiz solo homer got UVA back to 8-5, and a Brendan Rivoli RBI single in the ninth got it to 8-6.
Freshman closer Carson Palmquist, with two runners on and nobody out, then struck out Christian Hlinka, Logan Michaels and Alex Tappen, the last one looking, on a 3-2 count, to finish things out.
The two continue their weekend series on Saturday at 1 p.m. Virginia will send out lefty Andrew Abbott (1-4, 3.18 ERA, 28.1 IP, 11 BB, 43 SO) to face Miami righty Victor Mederos (0-1, 4.56 ERA, 25.2 IP, 5 BB, 19 SO).
The game will air on ACCNX, which is is available to authenticated subscribers of ACC Network via the ESPN App.
Due to the limited number of tickets, the current attendance policy includes pre-sale ticket access for UVA students, 2020 baseball donors and season ticket holders.
If any tickets remain after the pre-sale process, they will made available to the general public.
Fans must purchase a pair of tickets. All tickets regardless of location will be $5. Tickets can be purchased on UVATix.com.
Story by Chris Graham