Canes’ bats end Cavs’ magic

By Jay Jenkins

Published: May 26, 2008

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — They were 23 of the longest minutes in Pat McAnaney’s life.
Nothing that Virginia’s starting pitcher tried worked during a 40-plus pitch first inning against Miami in the championship game of the ACC baseball tournament.
That, in essence, doomed UVa’s title hopes before its offense ever strolled to the plate. That operation was not much better, however, hitting into four double plays and failing to score until the sixth in Miami’s relatively easy 8-4 win at The Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville.
The top-seeded Hurricanes (47-8) won their first ACC title since joining the league as they completed an undefeated run through the four-game event. Virginia (38-21) closed out the event with its second straight loss, the first of which came at 1:10 a.m. Sunday morning against Wake Forest.
“It is obviously disappointing not to win the championship,” said Virginia coach Brian O’Connor. “Miami earned it; they have a great ballclub.”
In the lengthy top-half of the first inning, Miami scored four runs off McAnaney as it registered five hits and sent 10 batters to the plate. The biggest sign that the Cavaliers’ southpaw was struggling came after the second hitter, Jemile Weeks, walked after originally trying to sacrifice the lead runner over.
“Weeks was trying to bunt and we couldn’t throw him a strike,” O’Connor said, “and you just can’t make mistakes against a ball club like that. They will make you pay.”
Trailing 4-0, McAnaney ran into trouble again in third inning against a lineup that he mastered in April when he allowed just one run in eight innings. The senior gave up a leadoff walk to Miami’s Ryan Jackson, which set his career-worst mark with four, and a single to Dennis Raben.
After allowing a sacrifice bunt, O’Connor pulled McAnaney in favor of rookie reliever Robert Morey, who allowed both inherited runners to score and the surrended another on his own accord.
O’Connor said McAnaney’s downfall was miserable location and not a carryover from the knee injury he suffered in his first meeting with Miami on April 25.
“I thought the last couple weekends that [McAnaney] was close, but today it didn’t have anything to do with his health,” O’Connor said. “It had everything to do with his ball up in the zone, whether it was a fastball, change-up, slider. Everything was up.
“For him to go out there and give up six runs in the first three innings is not like him.”
Behind 7-0 in the sixth and long after McAnaney had been pulled, Virginia finally solved Miami starter David Gutierrez (five innings pitched, six hits, three earned runs, two strikeouts), scoring four runs on six hits.
“Just because they were up seven runs it didn’t mean we were going to let them walk away with the title,
especially after that four-run inning could have been five or six [runs],” said Virginia second baseman David Adams. “But a couple of things didn’t go our way and we didn’t pull through in the end.”
Virginia (38-21) finished with 10 hits in the contest and stranded seven runners, a number lowered by the four momentum-killing double plays.
Luckily for the Cavaliers, the two opening wins in the tourney over top-ranked North Carolina and fourth-ranked Florida State helped boost the program’s RPI and probability of making the NCAA tournament. Virginia will learn its fate today when the pairings are announced on ESPN at 12:30 p.m.
ACC leads field with 4 teams hosting regionals
Top-ranked North Carolina, the two-time College World Series runner-up, was one of four ACC schools selected Sunday as regional hosts for the NCAA tournament.
The Tar Heels, who lost to Oregon State in the championship game in Omaha the past two years, join conference champion Miami, Florida State and N.C. State as ACC hosts. Each of the 16 host schools are guaranteed berths in the 64-team tournament, which starts Friday. The rest of the field, including the top eight national seeds, will be announced Monday.
The Seminoles are hosting for the 27th time, while the Hurricanes, who could move to No. 1 in the national polls Monday after winning the ACC tournament, are hosting for the 22nd time.
The Big 12 was second among conferences with three schools hosting four-team regionals, including Nebraska, Oklahoma State and Texas A&M. The Big West (Cal State Fullerton and Long Beach State), Pac-10 (Arizona State and Stanford) and Southeastern Conference (Georgia and LSU) each had two schools chosen as host sites.
The other regional hosts chosen from 41 bids are Coastal Carolina, Michigan and Rice.