Cavaliers Drop Finale and Series

I guess it had to happen sometime. Better to get it out of the way in the final series of the regular season than do it in the coming weeks where you lose and your season is over.

The offense did almost all that it needed to do, but 9 hits usually amounts to more than just 3 runs. Combine that with the 6 walks Wake pitching issued and it seemed like it would be a recipe for a victory. In the end, 11 left on base on base, including leaving the bases loaded in the 9th, would come back to haunt the boys.

The pitching didn't even have that bad of a game. Waddell did what is normally enough to win a game in the ACC. He held Wake to 3 runs over 5.1 innings. Connor Jones, David Rosenberger, and Austin Young combined to hold Wake to 1 run over the final 2.1 innings. Unfortunately, that just wasn't enough as Wake's pitching was just a little bit better.

The loss signaled the first regular season series loss for the Cavaliers since April of 2013. Pretty good run.

In the end, the loss likely won't affect UVa's postseason at all. Miami won their finale against UNC and clinched the #1 seed for next week's ACC Tournament. Even if the Hoos had won, they would have still been the #3 seed. As for the NCAA Tournament, the boys were assured a National Seed no matter what happened in Winston Salem. Boyd's World's current RPI report still has the Hoos as the #1 RPI team in the country. At worst, I think the Hoos fall to the #2 national seed.

For next week's ACC Tournament, the Hoos will be joined by #2 Florida State, #6 Maryland, and the winner of the #7 UNC and #10 NC State game. The other side of the bracket will be #1 Miami, #4 Duke, #5 Clemson, and the winner of the #8 Wake Forest and #9 Georgia Tech game. Both play in games will be held on Tuesday. The rest of the game times will be announced later this afternoon.