Virginia Falls at No. 23 Coastal Carolina, 5-4
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Feb. 21, 2016
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CONWAY, S.C. — No. 23 Coastal Carolina rallied in its final two trips to the plate in scoring a 5-4 victory over the Virginia baseball team Sunday afternoon in the Caravelle Resort Tournament at Springs Brooks Stadium in Conway, S.C. Ranked between No. 4 and No. 13 in the preseason polls, the Cavaliers (2-1) walked seven Chanticleer batters in the defeat.
“Tommy Doyle settled in and gave us six great innings, but today is an example that you don’t beat good teams — and Coastal Carolina has a really good ballclub — when you don’t take care of the game,” Brian O’Connor said. “We had seven walks, with five in the last two innings, and we made two really crucial baserunning mistakes. That’s too much to overcome.”
Virginia reliever Alec Bettinger (Jr., Woodbridge, Va.) suffered the loss after allowing a run, hit and two walks in the eighth inning. Coastal Carolina reliever Andrew Beckwith (1-0) worked 4 1/3 scoreless innings to pick up the victory.
UVA starter Tommy Doyle (So., Vienna, Va.) worked six strong innings in his first college start, giving up two earned runs, four hits and two walks while striking out six. Over the course of the opening weekend, Virginia’s starting rotation of Connor Jones (Jr., Chesapeake, Va.), Daniel Lynch (Fr., Henrico, Va.) and Doyle allowed two earned runs over 18 innings.
Coastal Carolina starter Cole Schaefer pitched 4 1/3 innings, giving up four runs (three earned), seven hits and two walks while striking out three. Virginia out-hit Coastal (2-1), 12-6, with Ernie Clement (So., Rochester, N.Y.) going 3-for-4 to cap an 8-for-15 weekend. Matt Thaiss (Jr., Jackson, N.J.), Jake McCarthy (Fr., Scranton, Pa.) and Andy Weber (Fr., Aurora, Ohio) each recorded a pair of hits.
Both teams scored in the opening inning, as UVA got a run-scoring single from Thaiss, while Coastal countered with a two-run home run from G.K. Young.
The starting pitchers settled down until Virginia was able to break through for three runs in the fifth inning. After a one-out Weber single, Adam Haseley (So., Windermere, Fla.) launched a two-run home run over the left-center field wall. Clement followed with a single to knock Schaefer from the game. Facing Beckwith with runners on second and third and two out, Daniel Pinero (Jr., Toronto, Ontario) grounded in the hole at shortstop, but Michael Paez’s throw was wide and Pinero avoided the tag, with Clement scoring on the errant throw.
Coastal knotted the game 4-4 in the seventh inning against the UVA bullpen, taking advantage of three walks before Paez delivered a 2-out single with the bases loaded to score Cameron Pearcey and Billy Cooke.
The Chanticleers pushed the go-ahead run across in the eighth inning. After a pair of one-out Bettinger walks, Coastal got a two-out RBI single from Cooke to score pinch runner Dalton Ewing. UVA put runners on the corners with one out in the ninth inning, but Beckwith induced a 4-6-3 double-play ball from Thaiss to end the game.
Virginia heads back to Charlottesville to open its home schedule on Tuesday when it takes on VMI in a 3 p.m. game at Davenport Field. The Cavaliers play host to East Carolina next Friday through Sunday in a three-game series.