Strong Pitching, Late Fireworks Propel Virginia Past East Carolina 8-3

For the eighth time in program history, Virginia has advanced to the Super Regional round of the NCAA Baseball Tournament. And for the first time in eight years, UVA will host that Super Regional in Charlottesville. 

Behind yet another strong pitching effort, this time spearheaded by the regional's Most Outstanding Player Connelly Early, and some late fireworks from the Cavalier bats, No. 7 seed Virginia took down East Carolina 8-3 in front of another capacity crowd at Disharoon Park on Sunday night to clinch the Charlottesville Regional and advance to the Super Regional round of the 2023 NCAA Baseball Tournament. 

Virginia head coach Brian O'Connor has given roughly the same answer to the same question in three consecutive press conferences this weekend. When asked if he could have asked or anything more from his starting pitcher, the answer was a resounding "no way." After Brian Edgington pitched five perfect innings against Army on Friday and Nick Parker threw seven innings of one-run baseball on Saturday, Connelly Early did everything he could on Sunday to keep the Cavaliers in the game until their offense came to life. 

Virginia was the visiting team in its own ballpark on Sunday night, so by the time Early took the mound, the Cavaliers had already given him a lead from their first turn at the plate in the top of the first. Jake Gelof got on board on a dropped third strike, advanced to second base on another wild pitch, and then scored on a ground-rule double down the right field line by Kyle Teel. Unfortunately for the UVA offense, the next several innings did not match the production of that first inning, but rather paralleled the pitchers' duel seen in the first meeting between these two teams on Saturday. 

East Carolina quickly tied things up in the bottom half of the first inning as Jacob Starling hit a leadoff double, moved to third on a bunt, and scored on a sacrifice fly from Josh Moylan. From there, Early and East Carolina starter Zach Root stole the show, going toe-to-toe in an entertaining pitchers' duel, with only one run scored over the next five innings. 

UVA nearly regained the lead in the third inning as Teel hit a line drive that was just barely kept in the infield by ECU first baseman Josh Moylan to prevent a run from scoring and then Ethan Anderson popped out to strand the bases loaded. 

In the bottom of the fourth, the Pirates took the lead thanks to three singles from Moylan, Jacob Jenkins-Cowart, and Justin Wilcoxen. Early bounced back nicely and recorded back-to-back strikeouts to prevent further damage. 

Virginia threatened in the top of the fifth with a runner in scoring position and chased Root from the game, but ECU brought in Landon Ginn, who got Jake Gelof to ground out on the first pitch to end the inning. The Pirates looked to extend their lead in the bottom half of the fifth with runners on first and second, but Early picked up another clutch strikeout, one of ten strikeouts that matched a career-high for the Army transfer. 

"The way Connelly Early attacked the mound tonight and ate up that game was just really, really special," said Brian O'Connor. 

Both Ginn and Early pitched 1-2-3 frames in the sixth inning and then the Virginia offense finally came to life in the seventh. In 14 innings against the East Carolina pitching staff to that point, the nation's No. 1 offense (in terms of batting average) had managed only three total runs. Brian O'Connor said in his postgame press conference that he had no problem with his team's approach at the plate and he knew it was only a matter of time before the breakthrough came. 

"Extremely proud of our team. I spoke last night about the poise you have to have to win at this time of the year and sometimes you just have to hang in there," O'Connor added. "Their starter did a great job - Root - against us. We had opportunities early and couldn't capitalize, so credit to him. But certainly our team hung in there... I just felt that it was coming." 

O'Connor was right and the flood gates opened in the seventh inning. It started at the bottom of the UVA batting order as Henry Godbout reached base with a one-out infield single. Colin Tuft drew a walk to put two runners on base, but then Griff O'Ferrall struck out to make it two outs and the Cavaliers were in jeopardy of seeing another scoring opportunity go by the wayside as it was up to Ethan O'Donnell, who was a hitless 0 for 7 in this weekend's Charlottesville Regional at that point, to convert at the plate. 

O'Donnell chose an incredible time to record his first hit of the weekend, hitting a ball deep the opposite way that cleared the fence in left-center field for a momentous three-run home run. With one swing of the bat, O'Donnell erased Virginia's one-run deficit and replaced it with a two-run lead, completely reversing the momentum of the game and igniting the sellout crowd that had been just waiting to erupt. 

Pitching with the lead for the first time since the first inning, Early started the seventh inning by recording his 10th strikeout, but then gave up a single to Lane Hoover and was subsequently pulled from the game in favor of closer Jay Woolfolk. On his first, and as it turns out, only pitch of the weekend, Woolfolk gave up a single to Jacob Starling to put runners on first and second with one out. With most of East Carolina's batting order consisting of left-handed batters, Brian O'Connor and the Cavaliers opted to bring in a lefty reliever to face the rest of the lineup over the righty Woolfolk. That chess move ended up paying off, as freshman lefty Evan Blanco retired the next two batters to keep the score at 4-2 Virginia. 

Momentum continued to swing in UVA's favor in the top of the eighth as Kyle Teel hit a leadoff single and advanced to second on a successful sacrifice bunt by Ethan Anderson. ECU pitcher Carter Spivey intentionally walked Casey Saucke to occupy the empty first base and pitched to Anthony Stephan, who made the Pirates pay for that decision by hammering a ball to deep center field. On first glance, it appeared that the ball hit off the wall in center field and bounced back into center field as a live ball. The umpires ruled it that way, but the ECU outfielders - who saw that the ball had actually hit above the yellow line and was therefore a home run - let the ball sit in the middle of center field untouched. Thinking that the ball was still live, Anthony Stephan raced around the bases - nearly passing Saucke in the process - and slid headfirst into home to ensure that he would get the home run. 

For what it's worth, the play was ultimately scored a normal out of the park three-run home run, as opposed to the inside-the-park home run initially ruled by the umpires. The outcome was the same either way, another clutch hit that gave the Cavaliers a 7-2 lead. 

East Carolina answered in the bottom of the eighth as Cam Clonch hit a leadoff double and scored on a single by Wilcoxen. Evan Blanco issued a walk to put runners on first and second with one out and was replaced by Angelo Tonas, who gave up a single to load the bases, but managed to work his way out of the jam without allowing any runs to keep the UVA advantage at 7-3. The final out of the inning came on a deep fly ball from Starling that took Colin Tuft to the warning track in left field, missing out on a game-tying grand slam by just a few feet. 

Kyle Teel put the cherry on top in the top of the ninth, crushing a ball off the batter's eye in center field for his fourth hit of the game, matching the program record for hits in a single postseason game. The homer also gave Teel his 101st hit of the season, breaking the Virginia single-season hits record. 

Jake Berry shut the door on the Pirates on Saturday night with six-straight outs to preserve UVA's one-run lead. It was almost too easy for Berry to repeat that effort again on Sunday night with a five-run lead, retiring the side in order in the ninth and picking up back-to-back strikeouts to end the game. 

East Carolina proved to be a worthy challenger in both games against Virginia, but the Cavaliers made the clutch plays at the big moments to successfully defend their home stadium and win the Charlottesville Regional for the first time since 2014. 

"You see it across the country where teams that are highly successful during the regular season something have a tough time winning a regional and so I'm just proud of our guys that we, in every facet of the game, we played at a very, very high level," said Brian O'Connor. 

Virginia placed nine players on the Charlottesville Regional All-Tournament Team, headlined by the regional's Most Outstanding Player Connelly Early. 

Virginia (48-12) advances to the Super Regional round of the NCAA Baseball Tournament for the eighth time in the last 15 years and the Cavaliers will host a Super Regional in Charlottesville for the first time since 2015. UVA will face either No. 10 seed Coastal Carolina or ACC rival Duke in the Super Regional next weekend. The Chanticleers and Blue Devils are set to play a game 7 to determine the champion of the Conway Regional on Monday at 6pm. 

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