Georgia Tech Series Recap

It was a hard fought series and might have come out differently if UVa and Georgia Tech were able to play a full game on Sunday, but that is baseball and that is the way the cookie crumbles sometimes. UVa had their chances and were not able to come through when they needed to. The first two games of the series, however, solidified what these two teams were all about.

On Friday the story was Georgia Tech's ace Buck Farmer. The Sr RHP showed why he was a preseason All-American and has one of the best records and ERAs in the conference. He was dominant from the beginning and was able to hold the mighty UVa offense to a lone run in the third inning. The Hoos were able to muster out ten hits against Farmer, but also struck out ten times which severely limited the amount of damage they could do. First year, Brandon Waddell started for the Hoos and had a good outing only giving up two runs in 5.2 innings on six hits. Normally, that would be good enough for a win, but as I am sure Brandon realized, Friday starters in the ACC are some dominant mo-fos sometimes.

Saturday was the Cavaliers day. The boys took the lead early scoring two runs in the 2nd and 3rd innings, and never looked back. Derek Fisher paced the offense with three hits, including his fourth home run of the year, and ended just a triple short of the cycle. Not to be outdone by his hitters, Scott Silverstein turned in his best outing of the season allowing only a single run on two hits while striking out nine. If Scott can pitch like that the rest of the year, the sky is the limit for this Cavalier team.

If you enjoy controversy and an upset fan base, Sunday was certainly the day for you. Rain fell gradually throughout the entire game and caused the matchup to end with one out in the bottom of the sixth inning. Many will (and have) asked why the game didn't start sooner? Or why they didn't play a doubleheader on Saturday? Or why Georgia Tech doesn't have a functioning tarp? Or why they were playing golf in Augusta and they could not play baseball in Atlanta? First off, Augusta is two hours to the east and they were playing Golf, not baseball. If there was a game cancelled in Charlottesville, would you look to Norfolk and see if ODU was playing that day? Didn't think so.

Anyways, while yes it does suck that they lost in such a fashion, it could have easily gone the other way. UVa could have been up 4-2 and the game could have been called. Nobody would have had a problem then. (GT might have put the tarps out or played a bit faster if that was the case, but that is what homefield advantage is all about) Some might say that UVa is above doing something similar, but I can tell you that we are not. I won't give the exact game or year, but I can tell you I have seen us pull the exact same trick on a top 5 team before, and they were none to pleased.

In all, it was a tough series to swallow, but certainly not the end of the world. The Hoos are still 31-6 overall and 13-5 in the ACC, which is one of their best starts in program history and one of the best records in the country. They will likely remain in the top ten in the rankings, thanks in large part to their #7 overall RPI ranking (3rd highest in the ACC behind FSU and UNC).

The boys have Monday and Tuesday off before returning to Davenport Field to take on ODU in their only midweek game this week. Til then, pray that Coach Bennett doesn't lose anymore players, and enjoy watching your third place Washington Nationals!