Defensive gems lift Cavaliers to late-night victory

By Jay Jenkins

Published: May 23, 2008

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Long after the clock had struck midnight, Virginia closer Michael Schwimer hurled the 354th pitch of the game and immediately held his breath as the marathon contest with top-ranked North Carolina hung in the balance.

Ahead by two runs and with the bases loaded, Schwimer spun 180 degrees to watch as second baseman David Adams soared through the air to snag a bouncing ball with eyes for the outfield grass.

A similar heart-pounding moment ensued for Schwimer one pitch later in the Cavaliers’ opening game at the ACC baseball tournament late Wednesday night.

Once again, a position player came to Schwimer’s rescue — centerfielder John Barr mercifully ended the 11-inning affair, an 8-7 win for Virginia, with an awkward, yet effective, sliding catch.

“Every single person on the team picked me up,” said Schwimer. “It was completely clutch Cavalier baseball.

“All year long, our pitching staff has been picking our offense and defense up and now, and I give them all the credit in the world, they picked me and the pitching staff up.”

Without question, it was a role reversal for Virginia (39-17), which entered the tournament with the ACC’s 8th-best batting average. Yet the offense manufactured two runs in the ninth, another in the 10th and two more in the 11th.

The fact that UVa, the tournament’s sixth seed, was facing the Tar Heels (45-11) as the road team only added to the dramatic flair.

“We kind of defied the odds a little bit,” said Virginia coach Brian O’Connor. “Any time you are playing in a game that is tied or in a one-run game, it makes a huge difference. That is part of the reason that we lost four games between Florida State and Miami by one run.

“There is a major advantage to being the home team, and you’ve got to be that much better as the visiting team.”

Eventually, the Cavaliers were “better,” but it took countless timely hits, one critical intentional walk that went against baseball strategy and the two defensive gems.

O’Connor’s decision to intentionally walk Dustin Ackley in the 11th, which loaded the bases with one out, followed a lead-off walk, a single and a sacrifice bunt.

Ackley, who sports the ACC’s third-best batting average (.396), tied the game off Schwimer in the ninth with a triple on a slider the pitcher called a “terrible, terrible pitch.”

“I wish we would have walked Dustin Ackley two innings before that,” O’Connor said. “I should have, and I learned my lesson. Fortunately, we had a chance to do it again later in the ballgame.

“There was no question the second time that it was what we were going to do.”

Most baseball coaches would never have put the winning run on base, especially one with Ackley’s speed.

“That is the general rule,” O’Connor said, “but when you are playing a great team like North Carolina, you have to take some chances to win.”

Schwimer then fanned Ryan Graepel on four pitches, setting the stage for Adams’ leather-flashing play on the infield hit up the middle by Tim Fedroff.

Off the bat, Adams thought Fedroff’s chopper was headed to another player.

“I thought [Greg] Miclat was going to get to it,” Adams said. “I was moving to get behind him and saw it and just dove for it.”

The Tar Heels’ seventh run scored with ease, but did little to remove the luster from the play’s importance.

“From my angle I wasn’t sure, but when I saw him lay out, I was praying that he would get a glove on the ball,” O’Connor said. “Fortunately, he did.”

North Carolina coach Mike Fox added: “It was kind of ironic that the game ended on that. It’s a game of inches. [Adams] grabs a ball up the middle and I had to stop Seth [Williams] at third and that guy caught it by inches. Whoever coined that phrase, it was true tonight, because it was literally that they won by inches and we lost by inches.”

Barr admitted that poor recognition of the blooper hit off the bat that ended the game added to his made-for-TV catch.

“I should have caught it on the run,” he chuckled. “I kind of got a bad read, and then I am an awful diver, so I made it look a lot more interesting than it actually was.

“It was just a little flare, and it was just one of those things where I had to make sure it wouldn’t drop in.”

Barr, one of six Cavaliers who made their ACC tournament debut in the game, said winning a contest with so much meaning was easily the greatest moment in his young career.

“It was just back and forth with both teams competing and right now it is the best game that I have ever played in,” said Barr, who scored three runs. “It was an extra-innings win, we kept fighting back and forth … it was just an awesome group win.”

There was reason to think the Cavaliers were playing with an enormous amount of pressure on their shoulders after losing seven of their final nine league games.

Schwimer said that was not the case.

“We don’t ever listen to message boards,” he said. “We were not here trying to win just one game. We came here to win three and to win the championship.

“We are 1-0 and getting there was crazy.”

Virginia returns to action tonight at 5 p.m. against Florida State (47-9), the pool’s highest-seeded team.

With a win, the Cavaliers could secure a berth in Sunday’s championship game tonight, but that would also require a win by UNC over Wake Forest in the nightcap.

If the Cavaliers lose, they will be eliminated from playing in the title game regardless of the outcome in Saturday’s finale against Wake Forest due to the pool’s tiebreakers.

“I told them at practice [Wednesday] to take one game at a time,” O’Connor said. “It is the oldest cliche in the book, but we have a game against Florida State and if we win it, we are in the driver’s seat.

“The players know it.”

Extra bases

Virginia junior Jacob Thompson (5-4, 4.46 ERA) will start tonight. FSU will counter with senior Ryan Strauss (8-0, 4.10). ... The Cavaliers will be the home team in their final two games. … Adams snapped out of a 0-for-26 slump by finishing Wednesday’s game with back-to-back singles. By driving in a run against UNC, Adams moved into a tie for ninth place with Kent Savedge (1984-1987) in program history with 139 RBI. Adams needs just one RBI to join former Cavalier Ryan Zimmerman in eighth place. … Virginia reliever Matt Packer’s 1.09 ERA currently leads all pitchers in the ACC that have worked at least 35 innings.