BASEBALL: Meaningless game leads to late-night loss

By Jay Jenkins

Published: May 24, 2008

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Chris Moore was given an important, yet originally unexpected, task Saturday night at the ACC baseball tournament.
Virginia’s first-year equipment manager served as a personal chauffer for starting pitcher Pat McAnaney, reliever Matt Packer and closer Michael Schwimer during the middle innings of Virginia’s all-but-meaningless contest with Wake Forest that ended at 1:10 a.m.
The decision made by Virginia coach Brian O’Connor as the clock approached midnight Saturday night told the complete story: the events today matter more. The Cavaliers will tangle with Miami at 1 p.m. for the ACC tournament title at The Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville.
With the Demon Deacons on their way to an eventual 7-4 win in a contest that started late at 10:20 p.m. after a 64-minute lightning delay, the Cavaliers’ skipper elected to send the three pitchers back to the team hotel for extra rest while many questioned why the contest was even played.
“I sent them home fairly early in the game to get a good night’s sleep and obviously those guys are going to be key for us today,” O’Connor said. “To protect the integrity of the tournament and the league, we needed to play this game.
“It was unfortunate that it didn’t start until after 10 o’clock, but we knew all along that it was going to be the late game, and the players are young and energetic and they don’t need much sleep.”
Against Wake Forest, however, Virginia (38-20) appeared lifeless during the early stages.
The Cavaliers did not register a hit until David Adams laced a single in the fourth inning, and did not score off Wake starter Brad Kledzik (3-5) until the sixth on Adams‘ RBI groundout that plated former Monticello star Corey Hunt.
By that point, the Demon Deacons (25-31) had seized control thanks solely to a three-run, fourth-inning homer by first baseman Allan Dykstra off Virginia’s Jeff Lorick, a late-announced spot starter after the Cavaliers clinched a berth in the title game against top-seeded Miami late Friday night.
Dykstra, almost certainly playing his final ACC game as the MLB draft awaits, changed Lorick’s fortune - and ERA - as he pulled the pitch.
“Even if you don’t start out there with your best stuff, you like to get breaks to end innings, like double plays and things like that,” Lorick said. “Unfortunately, allowing runners came back to bite me in the end. I left a pitch over the plate to Dykstra and he hit it out of the park and it kind of turned the whole feeling of the outing.
“It was kind of an unfortunate swing of events there.”
UVa attempted to mount a rally after numerous starters were pulled, but a pair of relievers sealed the win for the Demon Deacons after a three-run eighth, shifting the Cavaliers’ focus to the bigger task at hand.
“Obviously, Dykstra’s home run was a big play in the ballgame and you go into every game wanting to win,” O’Connor said, “but we go into [today’s] game with a chance to win a championship and we earned that in the first two games down here.”
A win over top-ranked North Carolina in 11 innings in the tournament opener and a stunning victory over Florida State on Friday made the contest with Wake extremely hard on the coaching staff. Few, if any players, had experienced a contest with less ramifications.
“I don’t think there are many people that have had that experience,” O’Connor said, “but the bottom line is that we have a chance to play one of the top teams in the country for a championship in the top conference in the country and that’s all that matters and it starts with our guy on the hill, Pat McAnaney.”
The senior will be pitching for the first time in eight days. Miami will not have that luxury, as it used its three weekend starters to win Brackett A with wins over Clemson, Georgia Tech and North Carolina State.
“I think Pat will be ready to go,” O’Connor said. “He is very well-rested and I know he is eager, and as a senior he came back for a reason, and now he can pitch his team to a championship.
“When I told him he was starting in the title game late Friday night, he said, ‘Coach, that is what I want. I want the ball for the chance to win a championship.’”
It would be Virginia’s second ACC crown in program history and the first since the miracle run in 1996.