Virginia Cavaliers baseball — Photo courtesy of Catey Goodrum/Virginia Athletics Communications

No. 3 Virginia Suffers First Series Loss in 5-4 Defeat at No. 8 Miami

The Cavaliers came up just short in the ninth and fell to the Hurricanes in game 2 on Saturday night

Author:
Matt Newton
Publish date:
Apr 9, 2022 11:38 PM EDT

For the first time this season, Virginia baseball lost a three-game series.

Trailing by one run in the bottom of the ninth, the Cavaliers loaded the bases, but Hurricane closer Andrew Walters made a great fielding play on a line drive from Kyle Teel to end the game and No. 3 Virginia fell to No. 8 Miami 5-4 to clinch the series win for the Canes on Saturday night in Coral Gables.

After a scoreless first two innings, Miami got on the board first in the bottom of the third as Jacob Burke took Virginia starter Brian Gursky deep to left field for a two-run home run with two outs. It was the fourth long ball of the weekend for the Hurricanes.

Virginia struck back in the top of the fourth inning, finally putting some pressure on Miami starter Karson Ligon, who began the game with three straight perfect innings. Griff O'Ferrall and Kyle Teel started the inning with back-to-back singles and then Devin Ortiz walked to load the bases. Ligon was timid in his approach to Jake Gelof with the bases loaded and no outs and ended up walking Gelof, which scored O'Ferrall for UVA's first run. Alex Tappen then came up and delivered a bases-clearing double down the left field line to give Virginia a 4-2 lead.

Miami homered off Gursky again in the bottom of the fourth as Zach Levenson hit a solo shot to left to make it 4-3. Gursky went four innings, giving up three earned runs on five hits and striking out five.

Jay Woolfolk entered in the fifth inning and sent the Canes down in order in the fifth, but ran into some trouble in the sixth. Woolfolk gave up a single and a walk and then the tying run came home on a wild pitch. Woolfolk struck out the next batter, but was then replaced by Brandon Neeck, who finished out the inning.

Neeck stayed in for the seventh inning and gave up a leadoff home run to Yohandy Morales, Miami's sixth home run of the series, which gave the Hurricanes their first lead of the game at 5-4.

That margin was enough for the Miami pitching staff, which continued to get the better of the Virginia batters. The Hurricanes used six pitchers in the game and, although UVA managed eight hits in game 2 as compared to just two hits in the series opener, Miami's arms were successful in getting out of jams as the Cavaliers stranded seven runners on base.

Just as in game 1, Miami went to Gage Ziehl on the mound in the eighth inning and Andrew Walters in the ninth. Ziehl pitched a perfect eighth, but Virginia came very close to tying the game in the top of the ninth.

Chris Newell hit a leadoff single, but Walters struck out Casey Saucke and Ethan Anderson and the Cavaliers were down to their final out. Max Cotier singled to center field to keep the rally alive and then O'Ferrall was hit by a pitch to load the bases.

Kyle Teel came up to the plate and hit a sharp line drive back to the mound that took Walters' glove off. Walters recovered and threw to first, but the throw was wide and took first baseman CJ Kayfus off the base. Kayfus managed to spin around and get his hand to the bag just before Teel's foot in a bang-bang play. Teel was just a split second away from being safe at first and allowing the tying run to score. Instead, Teel was out and the game ended.

Through the first six series of the season, UVA emerged victorious in each one, including three sweeps. Virginia lost the series opener at Miami 6-2 on Friday and then the Canes clinched the series on Saturday night, handing the Cavaliers their first series defeat of the season.

Virginia (26-5, 9-5 ACC) looks to avoid the sweep in game 3 against Miami on Sunday at 1pm.

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