Cavaliers Now

Virginia Baseball Blows Lead, Drops ACC Opener to Boston College 7-4

Matthew Newton|
Virginia Athletic

Leading 4-1 at the midway point of the game, the Cavaliers looked poised to win their first ACC game of the season thanks to a strong start on the mound from Jay Woolfolk and a pair of two-run innings. But the UVA bats failed to provide any more cushion and a disastrous eighth inning resulted in Virginia (8-4, 0-1 ACC) squandering that lead and suffering its first home loss to Boston College (5-5, 1-0 ACC) since 2018 as the Eagles took the ACC opener from the Cavaliers 7-4 on Friday evening at Disharoon Park.

Before Virginia took that 4-1 lead, the first inning gave a glimpse of what was to come for UVA's offense, which is evidently still a work in progress. After Jay Woolfolk used just eight pitches to deal a 1-2-3 top of the first, the Cavaliers loaded the bases in the bottom half of the first, but failed to score.

Boston College took the lead in the top of the second as Nick Wang hit a leadoff double and came around to score on an RBI single by Jack Toomey. In the bottom of the third, Virginia answered as Chris Arroyo hit a triple into the gap in right center to score Henry Godbout, who had reached on a leadoff single, and then Henry Ford grounded out to score Arroyo to give UVA the lead.

Woolfolk worked around a walk in the third and then leaned on some awesome defensive plays in the top of the fourth as Aidan Teel robbed what could have been a home run, or at the very least an extra base-hit for Nick Wang at the center field wall, and Eric Becker later turned a double play to end the inning.

Virginia tacked on two more runs in the bottom of the fourth as Luke Hanson drew a one-out walk and then Eric Becker smashed a two-run home run off of the batter's eye in center field to make it 4-1 in favor of the Hoos.

Things seemed to be coming together for the Cavaliers at that point. Woolfolk was dealing and the UVA bats appeared to be coming alive. Instead, Virginia managed just three more hits for the rest of the game, giving no margin of error to the UVA bullpen, which blew the lead in the eighth inning.

After a 1-2-3 fifth inning for Woolfolk, Boston College got one back in the sixth as Josiah Ragsdale reached base on a catcher's interference call, advanced to third on a single, and then scored on a sacrifice fly. That ended the outing for Woolfolk, who was replaced by Matt Lanzendorfer, who proceeded to strike out the first five batters he faced to get Virginia through the sixth and seventh innings still leading 4-2.

Then came the eighth inning. Lanzendorfer gave up a leadoff single and then a game-tying two-run home run to Ragsdale. At that point, Lanzendorfer was pulled in favor of Ryan Osinski, who gave up a walk and a double and then intentionally walked the next batter to load the bases with one out. Vince Cimini came up next and delivered a two-run single to left and then Toomey hit an infield single to bring another run home. Suddenly, Virginia's advantage had turned into a 7-4 deficit with very little time for the Cavaliers to recover.

The UVA bats went down in order in the bottom of the eighth and then a two-out single by Arroyo was Virginia's only sign of life in the ninth as Boston College closed out the 7-4 win.

Arroyo went 3 for 5 with one RBI and one run scored and Eric Becker went 2 for 5 with two RBI and a run scored, but the rest of the Virginia batting order combined to go 4 for 29. UVA left nine runners on base and went 0 for 4 with runners in scoring position. Jay Woolfolk allowed one earned run on four hits and struck out four batters in 5.1 innings of work. Ryan Osinski took the loss.

Friday's game was just the second time Boston College has ever won in Charlottesville and the first time since 2018.

Last season, Virginia opened its series at Boston College by losing to the Eagles at Fenway Park, but then rallied to win the next two games to claim the series. The Cavaliers will look to do that again this year, starting with game 2, which is scheduled for 1pm on Saturday at Disharoon Park (ACC Network Extra).

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Published
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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