No. 4 Virginia Squanders Chances, Drops Series Opener to No. 22 Georgia Tech

The Cavaliers left 12 runners on base in a 6-4 loss to the Yellow Jackets on Friday night

Matt Newton | Apr 2, 2022

Photo courtesy of Matt Riley/Virginia Athletics Communications

The Cavaliers had several chances to take the lead, including four at-bats with the bases loaded, but they were unable to deliver hits in critical moments. No. 22 Georgia Tech came into Disharoon Park on Friday night and took the series opener against No. 4 Virginia 6-4 to snap UVA's 19-game home-winning streak.

The Yellow Jackets jumped on Virginia starter Nate Savino early, putting up two runs in each of the first two innings and handing the junior lefty his first loss of the season. Savino walked two of the first three batters to start the game and then surrendered an RBI single to Colin Hall. Georgia Tech scored again on a fielder's choice, but Andrew Jenkins was thrown out at the plate to keep the score at 2-0.

Virginia scored in the bottom of the first on a Devin Ortiz sacrifice fly to score Kyle Teel, but the Yellow Jackets responded with two more runs in the next inning. Jadyn Jackson hit a triple into the left-center gap and then scored on a Tres Gonzalez double. Gonzalez moved to third on a wild pitch and then came home on an RBI single from Kevin Parada to make it 4-1.

Virginia chipped away at the deficit over the next two innings on RBI singles from Casey Saucke in the bottom of the second and Jake Gelof in the bottom of the third to make it a one-run game.

Georgia Tech pushed the lead back to three on a two-run home run from Kevin Parada off of Savino in the top of the fourth inning. Savino gave up six runs, five of them earned, on seven hits in four innings pitched. Dylan Bowers pitched the next two innings and Jay Woolfolk pitched the seventh, eighth, and ninth innings. Both Bowers and Woolfolk did not allow a single hit in their combined five innings of work and certainly did their part to give the UVA offense a chance to mount the comeback.

In the bottom of the fifth, Virginia got one back on a two-out single from Alex Tappen to score Griff O'Ferrall to make it 6-4, but the Cavaliers would not score again in the remaining four innings, despite having ample opportunities to do so.

After Tappen's RBI single, Chris Newell hit an infield single to load the bases with two outs. Georgia Tech lifted starting pitcher Chance Huff and inserted freshman Aeden Finateri, who was given the high-pressure task of getting the Yellow Jackets out of the jam and protect the two-run lead. Finateri did just that, needing just two pitches to get Saucke to fly out to right field to end the inning, as Virginia stranded the bases loaded.

In the next inning, Finateri got into a jam of his own as Ethan Anderson hit a leadoff single, Max Cotier walked, and Griff O'Ferrall reached base on an error. Georgia Tech pulled Finateri and brought in sophomore Zach Maxwell, who faced an even more difficult situation than the one Finateri had dealt with in the previous inning.

With the bases loaded and no outs, the Hoos had a golden opportunity to tie the game or even take the lead and had the ideal batter coming to the plate. In four plate appearances with the bases loaded this season, Kyle Teel was 4-4 with three grand slams and a triple for a total of 15 RBIs coming into this game.

Perhaps Teel was looking to do too much with one swing as he did the one thing he couldn't do in that situation, striking out in four pitches. Any ball put in play, even a double-play, would have at least scored a run to bring Virginia to within one. Up next to the plate was Devin Ortiz, who has his own history of heroic grand slams in his UVA career, but Maxwell sent him quickly back to the Virginia dugout after striking him out on three pitches. Finally, up came Jake Gelof, who remains the NCAA's leader in home runs on the season with 13. Gelof made contact with an 0-1 pitch with the end of his bat and blooped it into shallow left field. Shortstop Jadyn Jackson backpedaled and attempted to make the catch. The ball bounced off of his glove, but then Jackson amazingly managed to catch the ball with his barehand to end the inning. The Cavaliers went 0-4 with the bases loaded, including three straight outs after loading the bases with no outs to start the sixth.

Maxwell was lights out for the Yellow Jackets, going four innings and surrendering just one hit and two walks, while striking out six batters and picking up the win. After walking Alex Tappen to start the bottom of the seventh, Maxwell registered three-consecutive strikeouts against Chris Newell, Casey Saucke, and Ethan Anderson to end the inning. He gave up another walk in the eighth, but otherwise had no trouble retiring the side.

In the bottom of the ninth, Chris Newell got on board with a two-out infield single on a bunt to bring the tying run to the plate. But, Maxwell proved to be too much for the Cavaliers, as Saucke struck out swinging to end the game.

Missed opportunities ultimately doomed the Cavaliers, who outhit the Yellow Jackets 11-7, but stranded 12 runners on base. The loss snapped a program-record 19-game home winning streak for Virginia. It was the first loss for the Cavaliers at Disharoon Park since May 4th, 2021.

UVA (23-3, 7-3 ACC) will look to get back on track and even the series against Georgia Tech on Saturday at 4pm.

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