Cavaliers Now

Offense Falls Flat Again, UVA Baseball Falls to Oklahoma 5-4 for Third Loss

Matthew Newton|
Virginia Athletics

The college baseball season is long and every coach would rather his team be playing its best ball in June than in February. But every coach would also rather his team start the year playing good baseball as well.

Brian O'Connor is certainly hoping his Cavaliers will end up being one of those "start slow, finish strong teams" as Virginia is now 3-3 through the first six games of the season after suffering a 5-4 loss in 12 innings to Oklahoma (6-0) to conclude the Karbach Round Rock Classic on Sunday night at Dell Diamond in Round Rock, Texas.

This is the second time in this young season that Virginia has lost on an extra inning walkoff and the Cavaliers were held to four or fewer runs for the fifth time in six games and matched a season-low with six hits.

It didn't seem like it was going to be such a bad evening at the plate for the Cavaliers initially, as they put two men on in the first and got one of them to third before stranding him there and then put three runs on the board in the top of the second, as Aidan Teel hit a leadoff single, Trey Wells was hit by a pitch, and then an error on Harrison Didawick's bunt allowed Teel to score. With runners on second and third, Luke Hanson delivered just his second hit of the season, a single through the right side to score both runners to give Virginia a 3-0 lead.

Looking to build off of his 10 strikeout performance in his collegiate debut last weekend, freshman lefty Tomas Valincius started his second outing off strong, allowing no hits and just two baserunners through the first three innings. Then, Jaxon Willits got a hold of a 3-2 pitch from Valincius and drove it to left-center field for a solo home run to get the Sooners on the board. Valincius gave up a single after that, but retired the next two batters to get out of the inning.

More trouble came for Valincius in the fifth, though, as Oklahoma got a pair of RBI doubles from Scott Mudler and Jason Walk to pull the Sooners even with the Cavaliers at 3-3. Valincius struck out the next batter to end the inning and stayed out for the sixth, retiring the side in order to end his outing.

The UVA bats, meanwhile, had no success whatsoever after that three-spot in the second inning, managing just one hit over the next six innings. Oklahoma grabbed the lead in the bottom of the seventh, as Kevin Jaxel gave up a leadoff double and gave way to Blake Barker, who allowed an RBI single to Dayton Tockey to put Oklahoma ahead 4-3. That was the only batter Barker faced, as Drew Koenen entered the game and got the next two outs to keep it a one-run game.

Virginia manufactured a tying run without a hit in the top of the eighth as Jacob Ference drew a leadoff walk, advanced to second on a wild pitch, moved to third on a fly-out from Teel, and then scored as Trey Wells hit a fly ball deep enough to center field to bring Ference home to make it 4-4.

Koenen had some trouble in the bottom of the eighth, giving up a walk, a single, and then an intentional walk to load the bases with two outs, but he got the big-time out needed to keep it a tie ball game. Eric Becker hit a one-out single in the top of the ninth, but was then picked off of first base, a pivotal baserunning error at a big moment. Remaining on the mound for the bottom of the ninth, Koenen gave up a one-out single, but then induced an inning-ending double play.

Neither team threatened in the 10th or the 11th inning, which ended with Koenen again inducing an inning-ending double play to conclude his 4.2 innings of excellent work on the mound in the clutch. Virginia went down in order once again in the top of the 12th and then Oklahoma took advantage of UVA's new pitchers in the bottom of the 12th to win the game. Koenen was replaced by Matt Lanzendorfer, who walked Mudler on a full-count and was then pulled from the game in the middle of the next at-bat after falling behind 2-0. Joe Colucci came in and gave up a single to put runners on first and second with no outs.

Dawson Willis laid down a bunt, hoping to advance the runners to second and third, but Luke Hanson's throw from third was off the mark and it got away from first baseman Chris Arroyo, allowing pinch runner Brayden Horton to score from second base to give Oklahoma the 5-4 walkoff win. It was an eerily similar conclusion as Virginia's season opener two Fridays ago in Puerto Rico, where Michigan walked off the Cavaliers thanks to an error in extra innings.

Lanzendorfer took the loss for Virginia, which wasted another steady effort from its pitching staff with a bad offensive showing. Tomas Valincius pitched six innings, struck out six batters, and gave up just three runs, an outing that should have put the Cavaliers in good position to win. Instead, the UVA bats could string together only six total hits versus 12 strikeouts and not a single batter had multiple hits on the day. Virginia was 2 of 17 with runners on and 1 of 9 with runners in scoring position, stranding eight runners on base in total.

It's still very early and six games isn't a large enough sample size, but it's beginning to get concerning for a team that was supposed to boast one of the deepest and well-balanced lineups in the country. That lineup has just three players batting over .300 and five who are batting under .250. That has to change.

Up next, after having the original home opener canceled due to the snowstorms in Charlottesville last week, Virginia will finally play its home opener against VMI on Tuesday at 3pm at Disharoon Park. The game will be streamed on ACC Network Extra.

More Virginia Baseball News

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UVA Baseball Beats Villanova 3-1 for First Win of Season

Virginia Baseball Drops Opener to Michigan 5-4 in 11 Innings

Published | Modified
Matt Newton
MATTHEW NEWTON

Matt launched Virginia Cavaliers On SI in August of 2021 and has since served as the site's publisher and managing editor, covering all 23 NCAA Division I sports teams at the University of Virginia. He is from Downingtown, Pennsylvania and graduated from UVA in May of 2021.

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