Baseball will be played this weekend at Davenport Field.
Securing such an extended look at the top-ranked Virginia baseball team for locals took the efforts of two likely heroes performing in two unlikely fashions.
Rookie Branden Kline and junior Kevin Arico served as a masterful 1-2 punch en route to sealing the first super regional in Charlottesville.
Behind the two arms, Virginia won its first regional at home, something it failed to do three times prior, as the Cavaliers held off third-seeded St. John’s 5-3 in front of a sold-out crowd of 4,801.
An evening after squandering a lead, both heroic pitchers were not comfortable until the final out was recorded as left fielder Phil Gosselin parked under a fly ball lifted by Red Storm catcher Josh Daniel.
“What a relief,” said Arico, who pitched a career-best 3.2 innings in relief. “It was a great game. Both teams battled all game long.”
As the No. 5 seed nationally, Virginia (50-12) advances to the round of 16 and will host Oklahoma in the super regional in a best-of-three series format that will begin Friday or Saturday, depending on the desires of the NCAA and ESPN. The schedule for the regional itself will be announced today.
Getting to the super regionals took something special from Kline and Arico.
Called upon to start less than 48 hours after he made a three-inning relief appearance against Ole Miss, Kline went 5.1 innings, allowing just six hits and three earned runs.
Kline (5-0) said he took a deep breath, however, after he was spotted an early 1-0 lead.
In the bottom half of the first, Gosselin delivered his fifth hit of the regional with a leadoff single for the Cavaliers and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt from Keith Werman, and later to third when Dan Grovatt reached on error on a grounder that rolled up the glove of SJU first baseman Paul Karmas.
With Steven Proscia batting, Virginia grabbed its first run as it executed a double steal to near perfection - Grovatt was thrown out at second and Gosselin crossed the plate without a play.
“That was a big run,” said Kline, who struck out five and walked just one. “It allowed me to attack the strike zone.”
While Kline had faced the minimum of six batters to open the game thanks to a double play in the second, the Cavaliers tacked on another in the bottom of the second when catcher Franco Valdes, starting for the fourth straight game, scored on an RBI single from Gosselin. Virginia’s John Barr tried to cross the plate on the play as the trail runner, but the umpire at home Jeff Henrichs ruled that Barr’s foot never reached the plate before the relay throw reached catcher Joe Witkowski.
St. John’s, which made the NCAA tournament by winning the Big East tournament, cut the lead in half in the third as Paul Karmas connected on a solo homer.
Virginia wasted no time getting the run back in the third as Proscia drove home Werman on a sacrifice fly, putting the Cavaliers up 3-1.
In the fourth, Valdes continued his clutch ways by plating Hicks with a single through the right side on an 0-2 pitch off St. John’s starter Kyle Hansen.
Valdes was named to the all-regional team after collecting four hits and driving in four runs.
“It was great to contribute for my team,” he said. “I had a rough season and I am glad that the coaching staff had faith in me to put me in that situation.”
The game remained notched 4-1 under Kline’s care until Jimmy Brennan and Matt Wessinger hit back-to-back singles in the sixth inning.
Kline, who also made the all-regional team, promptly loaded the bases by walking Joe Panik on four pitches.
Virginia coach Brian O’Connor, who had been checking in with the bullpen, a rarity, had seen enough.
Jeremy Baltz, who hit two homers on Sunday — including a game-winning blast off Tyler Wilson — was due up.
O’Connor turned to Arico, who had 16 saves in 26 appearances, but had never appeared in the sixth inning this season.
“I sent Kevin a text message late [Sunday] night … and I just told him, ‘Hey, you’re our guy, and you need to be ready at any point for us for an extended outing,’” O’Connor recounted. “The plan was, if we got in a difficult situation where the game could potentially be on the line after the fifth inning, that we were going to go to him.
“It was time for him. He was either going to do it or he wasn’t. The guy continued to grind it out out there. It didn’t concern me that he needed to go three-plus innings.”
Arico gave up a fielder’s choice to Baltz, which drove in a run, and a run-scoring single to Jimmy Parque, but the right-hander was efficient enough to escape the frame with the Cavaliers leading 4-3.
Virginia added an insurance run in the seventh, something that Arico did not need as he completed his career-best outing.
For the game, Virginia finished with nine hits and stranded seven runners.
While not perfect, it mattered little to a team that celebrated with handshakes and smiles.
“It was exactly what we set out to do,” Valdes said. “It took a day longer than we would have liked but it feels just as good.”
In all, Arico went 3.2 innings and scattered five hits. Leaning on his slider and throwing 14 first-pitch strikes against 20 batters, the closer did not walk a batter.
Virginia must now study a new opponent - Oklahoma.
“I am very familiar with the history of Oklahoma’s baseball program,” O’Connor said. “I knew that they were a national seed last year. I can’t tell you a whole lot about their ball club, but I knew that they were at the top of the Big 12 this year, which has great baseball. They obviously faced great arms with the likes of Texas and Texas A&M.
“I am sure that it will be another battle.”
Here's the press release about the super regional against Oklahoma:
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - The NCAA announced today that Charlottesville, Va., has been selected as one of eight Super Regional host sites for the 2010 NCAA Division I Baseball Championship. Virginia will play host to Oklahoma in a best-of-three series, which will run June 12-14 at UVa's Davenport Field. The teams will play at 3 p.m. Saturday, 4 p.m. Sunday and 1 or 7 p.m. Monday (if necessary).
All three games also will be televised on the ESPN family of networks. The Saturday game will be broadcast on ESPNU, the Sunday contest on ESPN and the Monday game on ESPN2 (if necessary).
Virginia (50-12) will serve as a Super Regional host site for the first time. The winner of the Super Regional will advance to the College World Series.
Ticket books may be purchased in person at the Virginia Athletics Ticket Office in Bryant Hall, by calling the Ticket Office at (800) 542-8821 or logging on to VirginiaSports.com. The Virginia Athletics Ticket Office is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.
After several expansions this season, Davenport Field now will seat 4,801 for postseason play.
Super Regional all-session ticket books currently are on sale and may be purchased for $24 for General Admission seating. Super Regional Reserved ticket books are sold out.
Customers may pick up their tickets at the Virginia Athletics Ticket Office in Bryant Hall through Friday or at Davenport Field Will Call on game day beginning two hours prior to first pitch.
If available, single-game tickets for the Super Regional will go on sale to the public on Saturday (June 12). Single-game tickets will be $16 for Reserved and $12 for General Admission, with $4 per ticket upgrades available from General Admission to Reserved on game day.
All parking will be paid parking for the entire postseason. Parking on game day will be $5.
Because of the success of the Virginia baseball team this season and increased ticket demand, the Super Regional games at Davenport Field are expected to sell out. Fans are strongly encouraged to purchase tickets in advance, as it is the only way to guarantee they will be able to attend all tournament games.
All sections of the grandstand (Sec. 101-109) and the first base bleachers (Sec. A-F) are considered Reserved seating for the entire NCAA Tournament. General Admission seating is located on the grassy hillside down the left-field line and in the bleachers beyond the outfield wall in both left and right field. Standing room is also available for General Admission ticket buyers.
For further information on NCAA baseball tournament tickets, please call the Virginia Athletics Ticket Office at (800) 542-8821 or log on to VirginiaSports.com.
GAMES BEGIN FRIDAY, JUNE 11 - All Times are Eastern
TCU (49-11) at No. 2 Texas (49-11)
3 p.m. (ESPN2HD), 1 p.m. (ESPNHD), 4 p.m. (ESPNHD)
Vanderbilt (45-18) at Florida State (45-17)
Noon (ESPN2), 1 p.m. (ESPN), 1 p.m. (ESPN)
Cal St. Fullerton/Minnesota winner at No. 6 UCLA (46-13)
10:30 p.m. (ESPN2), 7 p.m. (ESPN2), 10 p.m. (ESPN2)
Miami (Florida)/Texas A&M winner at No. 3 Florida (45-15)
7 p.m. (ESPNHD), 7 p.m. (ESPN2HD), 7 p.m. (ESPN2HD)
The following four best-of-three super regionals will be played Saturday, June 12, Sunday, June 13, and Monday, June 14 (if necessary).
GAMES BEGIN SATURDAY, JUNE 12 - All times are Eastern
Arkansas at No. 1 Arizona St. (50-8)
9 p.m. (ESPNU), 10 p.m. (ESPN2), 7 p.m. (ESPN2)
Alabama (41-23) at Clemson (41-22)
6 p.m. (ESPNU), 7 p.m. (ESPN2), 1/7 p.m. (ESPN2)
Oklahoma (47-15) at No. 5 Virginia (50-12)
3 p.m. (ESPNU), 4 p.m. (ESPN), 1/7 p.m. (ESPN2)
South Carolina (46-15) at No. 4 Coastal Carolina (55-8)
Noon (ESPNU), 1 p.m. (ESPN), 1/7 p.m. (ESPN2)
Rolling into this super regional, I'm feeling really good about three of our pitchers: Branden Kline, Tyler Wilson, and Kevin Arico. I'm nervous about Cody Winiarski, Danny Hultzen, and Robert Morey, the guys who will likely start the games this weekend. We really need Morey and especially Hultzen to bounce back from shaky performances in the regional.
Meanwhile, our bats are pretty hot right now. We should bring plenty of offense to the table against the Sooners.
It will be fun, no doubt.
GO HOOS! LET'S GET BACK TO OMAHA!
Note: Of college baseball's "Sweet Sixteen," 3.5 of the teams are from the ACC. Other than Virginia, 2-seed Clemson beat out Auburn to win the Auburn regional and Florida State dominated their regional. The 0.5? It's Miami, who is currently up 3-2 over Texas A&M after a rain delay stopped the game last night. I assume they'll finish that game today, so stay tuned. The ACC teams that lost in the regionals were 1-seed Georgia Tech, who succumbed to Alabama in the Atlanta regional, 3-seed NC State (Myrtle Beach regional), 2-seed Virginia Tech (Columbia regional), and 3-seed North Carolina (Norman regional). The Sweet Sixteen and super regional matchups are comprised of Arizona State vs. Arkansas, Clemson vs. Alabama, Virginia vs. Oklahoma, South Carolina vs. Coastal Carolina, Texas vs. TCU, Florida State vs. Vanderbilt, UCLA vs. Cal St. Fullerton, and Miami/Texas A&M vs. Florida.
Click HERE for the brackets.
No comments:
Post a Comment