Wake blows past UVa

By Jay Jenkins

Published: April 20, 2008

Several patches of rainfall sent collections of 2,000-plus fans at Saturday’s Virginia baseball game scooting for the parking lot.
It was Wake Forest’s offense and Virginia’s poor defense, however, that created a monumental mass exit long before the contest was completed.
With 12 runs in the middle-third of the game, Wake Forest routed Virginia, 14-3, to even the three-game weekend series at Davenport Field.
The Demon Deacons (15-23, 7-12) hit three homers, including one of the inside-the-park variety, and pounded out 13 hits against five different Cavalier pitchers. Virginia fell to 30-11 overall and 12-8 ACC, snapping a four-game league winning streak.
“They beat us up tonight,” said Virginia coach Brian O’Connor. “We certainly didn’t play well enough to win a game in this league.”
Wake Forest pitcher Charlie Mellies, seemingly unfazed by several lengthy plate appearances by his offense, kept Virginia off balance as he scattered six hits over eight innings en route to his first win of the season.
Mellies (1-4) was near perfect after the first inning. In the opening frame, and after being spotted an early one-run lead, the right-handed pitcher allowed three hits, including RBI singles by David Adams and Jeremy Farrell, but he retired the final two Cavaliers to strand a pair of runners.
The squandered opportunity loomed large when UVa starter Jacob Thompson allowed a lone run in the third inning and failed to escape the fourth.
“Up to that point, Jacob was battling,” O’Connor said. “He was trying to grind it out for a while. Unfortunately, he gave up two walks to open the fourth inning.”
After allowing the two free passes, which were his only walks in the game, Thompson got Wake third baseman Tyler Smith to hit a ground ball to shortstop Greg Miclat. But the junior’s throw to second base eluded Adams’ glove and squirted into the outfield grass, giving Wake a 3-2 lead.
Following a sacrifice bunt, Wake scored on a passed ball with one out and later on a two-out throwing error by catcher Franco Valdes.
“We didn’t catch very well tonight behind the plate,” O’Connor said. “Mistakes like that will hurt you against a quality opponent and it did tonight.”
O’Connor pulled Thompson, who worked 3.2 innings, in favor of Matt Packer just moments before Allen Dykstra ripped a 3-2 pitch off the wall in right-center field that skipped away from two outfielders and resulted in an inside-the-park three-run homer, giving Wake an 8-2 lead.
The Demon Deacons continued the onslaught in the fifth and sixth innings and they plated six more runs. Both scoring sprees were fueled by the first two homers of the season from Smith.
Virginia answered for a lone run in the sixth after Dan Grovatt tripled and scored on a sacrifice fly to deep center from Farrell, but the damage was done.
“It was one of those things where the game got away from us,” Farrell said.
Thanks to the two miscues defensively in the fourth, only seven of Wake’s runs were earned, but that only compounded the pain suffered in Virginia’s first home ACC loss.
“I think it is time for a gut check,” Farrell said after a pair of team meetings. “We have to do that as a team.”
It was the third poor start in a row for Thompson, who fell to 4-2 on the season and lost at home for the first time since 2006.
“I don’t know what we can do,” O’Connor said. “He’s struggling and he’s the only one that can make the adjustment.
“I can’t touch a player and give him confidence. He’s just not making the pitches he needs to make. When he’s been good, he’s gotten action on the first three pitches.”
In what seemed like a fitting punishment, Virginia’s players spent several minutes following the game placing a massive white tarp over the infield.
That protection should help ensure that the third game of the series can be played today at 1 p.m., and O’Connor said Wake Forest agreed to stay well past the league’s mandated start time (6 p.m.) for a Sunday contest if it meant overcoming an expected dose of rain.