Virginia Falls to Florida 6-5 After Devastating Ninth Inning Collapse

The Gators scored three runs in the bottom of the ninth and handed the Cavaliers a heartbreaking loss on the opening night of the College World Series

Steven Branscombe-USA TODAY Sports

If the Cavaliers are to reach the College World Series Finals for the first time since 2015, they'll have to do it the hard way. 

UVA brought a two-run lead into the bottom of the ninth, but behind a pair of solo home runs and then a bases-loaded sacrifice fly from Luke Heyman, No. 2 seed Florida (51-15) erased that two-run deficit and handed No. 7 seed Virginia (50-14) a heartbreaking 6-5 loss in walk-off fashion on the opening night of the College World Series on Friday in Omaha, Nebraska. 

The loss drops the Cavaliers into the losers' bracket, where they'll have to win four games in a row in order to advance to next weekend's CWS Finals. That will begin with an elimination game against TCU on Sunday at 2pm Eastern. 

It was a pitchers' duel for the first two-thirds of the game with only one run crossing the plate through the first six innings. Florida took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second as BT Riopelle drew a walk and Luke Heyman followed that up with a single through the left side. A fielder's choice moved Riopelle to third and he then scored on an RBI single to left center by Colby Halter. 

Virginia starter Nick Parker didn't have his sharpest stuff on Friday, admitting in the postgame press conference that his outing was a "grind" from the get-go. To his credit, however, Parker grinded out a high-quality start, working around baserunners in the first, second and fourth innings and tossing 1-2-3 frames in the third and sixth. Florida had a chance to extend its lead in the bottom of the fourth after Riopelle hit a leadoff double to left center, but Casey Saucke made an incredible throw to turn a double play, as he caught a fly-ball and fired a laser to third base on the fly to catch Riopelle trying to tag up to advance a base. 

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Parker's counterpart on the mound was even better, as Florida starter Brandon Sproat gave up just two hits through the first six innings and kept the vaunted UVA offense completely off the board until the seventh frame. Sproat entered that seventh inning having struck out five of the last seven Virginia batters, but the Cavaliers finally put a crack in his armor with some patient at-bats. 

Ethan Anderson started things off with a full-count walk and then Saucke battled back from down 0-2 and singled through the right side to put runners on the corners with no outs. Anthony Stephan hit a sharp grounder to third base and Florida third baseman Colby Halter bobbled it before recording the out at first, but that allowed Anderson to score from third on the RBI groundout to tie things up. Henry Godbout worked another long at-bat and singled to center field on the eighth pitch he saw. That spelled the end of Sproat's outing, as he exited the game and then watched as Cade Fisher gave up a two-run double down the left field line to Griff O'Ferrall followed by an RBI single by Ethan O'Donnell, giving Virginia a 4-1 lead. 

Nick Parker didn't return to the field to start the bottom of the seventh inning with a pitch count of 90. His evening ended with a statline of one earned run on four hits with three walks and a strikeout in six innings of work. Parker also would have been in line for the win, had the UVA bullpen gotten the job done. Unfortunately for Parker and the Cavaliers, that was not the case. 

"I thought Nick Parker did a terrific job of battling, and he was at about 90 pitches. It was time to make the change," said UVA head coach Brian O'Connor. "And [Florida] did a tremendous job against our bullpen."

Florida got one run back in the bottom of the seventh as freshman lefty Evan Blanco walked a batter and was then replaced by fellow freshman Jack O'Connor, who gave up a double to Ty Evans to put two runners in scoring position. Cade Kurland hit an RBI groundout and then an error from O'Ferrall at shortstop extended the inning further and caused Brian O'Connor to bring in Jake Berry out of the bullpen. Berry issued a walk to Jac Caglianone to load the bases, but then got Josh Rivera to hit a soft bouncer back to the pitcher's mound to end the inning with no further damage. 

Florida reliever Brandon Neely pitched a quick 1-2-3 inning in the top of the eighth and then the Gators drew within one run on a solo home run from BT Riopelle that just barely cleared the fence in left center field to make it 4-3. Berry retired the next three batters after that to move the game into the ninth inning. 

UVA tacked on a critical insurance run in the top of the ninth and it again began with the bottom of the Cavalier lineup. Casey Saucke drew a leadoff walk, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt from Stephan, and after a fly-out from Godbout, freshman Harrison Didawick came up with a clutch hit, sending a fly-ball into the right field corner and legging out an RBI triple to make it 5-3. 

Needing only three outs to open the College World Series with a pivotal victory over the No. 2 seed Gators, the Cavaliers kept Jake Berry on the mound to begin the bottom of the ninth, but Jay Woolfolk was warming up the in the bullpen, presumably ready to come in if Berry got into trouble. Emphasis on presumably. 

With a 2-1 count on the leadoff batter Ty Evans, Berry sent a fastball right down the middle and Evans crushed it over the bullpen in left field to pull Florida back within one at 5-4. Berry bounced back to strike out Kurland looking for the first out, but then made another mistake, leaving a hanging changeup in the middle of the zone and Wyatt Langford demolished the ball deep over the bleachers in left field for the game-tying home run. 

Berry had clearly lost whatever mojo he had at that point, but UVA stuck with him as Woolfolk remained in the bullpen. Woolfolk hadn't been sharp in his last couple of outings - giving up base hits to three of the only four batters he faced in the NCAA Tournament - but a change was needed after Berry gave up three home runs. Instead, Virginia kept Berry in the game and he gave up a hard-hit single to right field from Jac Caglianone to put the winning run on base. 

UVA pitching coach Drew Dickinson visited the mound to talk things over with Berry, but there was still no pitching change. Berry proceeded to issue a full-count walk to Rivera and then hit Riopelle with his next pitch to load the bases. At long last, Brian O'Connor approached the mound and made the call to the bullpen for Jay Woolfolk, who was now put in an impossible situation as the Gators had the bases juiced with one out, needing only one run to win the game. 

After throwing a couple of balls to Luke Heyman, Woolfolk put a fastball down the middle and Heyman got good contact on it, sending a line drive into center field that he knew right off the bat was deep enough to score Caglianone from third. Sure enough, Ethan O'Donnell retreated to make the catch and Caglianone tagged up and came home easily to score the game-winning run. 

When asked about the decision to leave Jake Berry in the game as long as he did, O'Connor had this to say in his press conference: 

"I have zero regret. Jake Berry has done the job for this team all year long. He's been tremendous when we've had a lead and closed games out for us. And they did a terrific job against him and got his pitch count up and executed very, very well."

UVA's two best batters - Jake Gelof and Kyle Teel - were a combined 0 for 6 in the game, reaching base only once each on walks. The Virginia bats were held in check by Brandon Sproat until erupting for four runs in the top of the seventh. That seemed to be enough to win the game thanks to another quality start from Nick Parker, but the Cavaliers' bullpen couldn't get them to the finish line. 

Now, the Hoos have their work cut out for them as they will look to climb out of the losers' bracket by winning four-consecutive games.

"No one wants to lose the first game, but it is what it is and we're going to ride with our guys no matter what," said UVA shortstop Griff O'Ferrall. "So basically, we're not going to put blame or be down on ourselves. We're just going to get back to work."

"Not ideal to lose the first one, but who cares, right? Going to come out, keep winning ballgames. That's what we're going to do," added Nick Parker. 

No. 2 seed Florida will meet Oral Roberts in the winners' bracket game on Sunday at 7pm, while Virginia will look to extend its season against TCU in an elimination game on Sunday at 2pm Eastern on ESPN. 

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