Watch: Virginia Baseball Turns Unconventional Triple Play After Near-Mistake

Members of the Virginia baseball team turned an impressive triple play in an ACC game against Pittsburgh on Sunday afternoon. However, the Cavaliers almost weren’t able to pull it off after a nearly disastrous blunder. 

In the bottom of the fifth inning with the bases loaded and no outs, Panthers infielder Bryce Hulett hit a chopper over to third base. Virginia’s Jake Gelof fielded the ball cleanly and threw home to Cavaliers catcher Kyle Teel to record the first out. Teel then fired the ball down to first base to nab the Pittsburgh batter for the second out of the inning. 

The play was far from over as Virginia first baseman Devin Ortiz started celebrating, appearing to think that the ‘Hoos were out of the inning. He flipped the ball nonchalantly back in the direction of the mound, not realizing that he was still in the middle of a live play.

The Panthers runner, who had advanced to third during the chaos, took off for home, so Ortiz scrambled back after the loose ball. He scooped it back up and threw a desperate heave to the plate, where Teel applied the tag to complete the triple play. 

The bizarre sequence of events resulted in the first triple play for UVA since 2004. Ryan Zimmerman, a recently retired MLB All-Star with the Nationals, was involved in that play back when he was a Cavalier.

Unfortunately for Virginia, this triple play wasn’t able to change the final outcome of the game. The Cavaliers (27–9) fell to the Panthers (21–13) for the second time in three days, 4–1.

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