UVA Baseball Survives William & Mary in 12-Inning Thriller

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After winning their first ACC series this past weekend against the best team in the ACC, Tuesday’s home game against William & Mary was supposed to be an opportunity for the UVA baseball team to keep things on the right track until the weekend. The Tribe, after all, came into the game with a .315 winning percentage and all things pointed toward momentum building for the Wahoos. What ended up happening was a near-nightmare, even though they wound up escaping with a thrilling 7-6 victory in extra innings.

For the first few innings, it seemed like Virginia was headed for the cakewalk most had expected. They held a 4-0 lead after three innings, thanks in part to a two-run single from Zack Gelof, but the Tribe proved they were in for a fight by plating three combined runs in the fourth and fifth innings. Between the sixth and eighth, neither team scored, setting the stage for high drama in the ninth inning.

Up 4-3 in the top of the ninth, Virginia needed just one more out to escape with a win. Instead, Tribe senior Matt McDermott hit an opposite-field home run with two on and two outs off Virginia closer Stephen Schoch to give William & Mary a commanding 6-4 lead.

Red-hot Devin Ortiz came to the rescue for Virginia in the bottom of the ninth, however. After Brendan Rivoli and Nic Kent reached base to start the inning, Ortiz gapped a double to tie the game 6-6 and send the rival programs to extra innings.

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In extra innings, the drama didn’t subside. Virginia closed the top of the 10th with a laser beam off the arm of right-fielder Alex Tappen. The throw came after William & Mary got what looked like the go-ahead RBI single. Virginia catcher Logan Michaels made a textbook tag off Tappen’s toss and the umpire crew agreed the bang-bang play went Virginia’s way after an official review.

Neither team scored in the 11th, but William & Mary imploded in the bottom of the 12th. Tribe relievers walked three straight batters to start the inning, bringing Gelof to the plate for another RBI opportunity. Smartly, Gelof got a pitch he could drive on a 1-0 count, sending it deep into the outfield for a walk-off sacrifice fly. Max Cotier scored the game-winning run for the Wahoos, giving them their first walk-off win since 2018.

“I’m just proud for our guys, we hung in there,” head coach Brian O’Connor told Virginia Sports.

Gelof finished with three RBIs to give him a team-best 18 on the season.

On the William & Mary side, McDermott reached base four times in the game. In addition to his big three-run homer, he doubled, singled, and walked. Mark Trotta also had three hits for the Tribe and Justin Pearson threw 2.2 hitless innings of relief.

The win gave the Wahoos their first three-game winning streak of the season and needed momentum before their big series this weekend against Clemson. Virginia hasn’t beaten Clemson since 2017 and the Tigers are 6-1 in their last seven ACC contests.

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