Cavaliers claw back

OXFORD, Miss. — In mirror like fashion, Ole Miss returned the favor.

All but headed for a series-clinching victory, a costly error in the eighth inning by the Rebels opened the door for a 4-3 come-from-behind victory for Virginia in the Oxford Super Regional.

The win, which included ninth-inning heroics on the mound, kept Virginia’s season alive and evened the best-of-three regional. The Cavaliers (47-13-1) are now within one win of making their first trip to the College World Series.

“It was another great college baseball game,” Virginia coach Brian O’Connor said. “I couldn’t be more proud of our club. We hung in there all day long, continued to fight and didn’t quit.”

Trailing 3-2 with one out in the bottom-half of the eighth inning, Virginia freshman Danny Hultzen hit what appeared to be a routine grounder to Ole Miss second baseman Evan Button.

It proved to be anything but ordinary.

Button picked up the ball and flipped an errant throw into the dirt and past first baseman Matt Smith.

“It was a hard-hit ball that 99 times out of 100, I make,” said Button of his ninth error of the season. “I wish I could have it back.”

After Steven Proscia was walked by reliever David Goforth, Virginia catcher Franco Valdes turned on a fastball and drilled a run-scoring single into the outfield.

“I was way ahead on his first fastball, but I was locked in when it mattered,” Valdes said. “It felt so great coming off the bat.”

Valdes, a switch-hitter, was retired with relative ease in his first three plate appearances.

“I struggled a lot at the beginning of the game from the right side,” the junior said. “[Goforth] threw me a lot of fastballs [Friday] so I knew he was going to come with something hot because he throws pretty fast. He gave it to me and I got the barrel on it.”

With runners on the corners, Virginia sophomore John Barr grounded into a fielder’s choice that provided the game-winning run after he broke up a would-be double play by beating the relay throw to first.

Barr, who drove in Virginia’s second run in the fourth inning with a double, said it was great to hear the record crowd of 10,323 at Swayze Field go quiet.

“It was just great because we took the lead,” he said. “I was pretty fired up. As soon as I hit it I said, ‘Get on your horse,’ because I was not getting doubled up by these guys. That was pretty cool but it was also great that we took the lead with that crowd because it was dead silent.

“They were heckling me pretty much the whole game, so it was great to shove it back in their face by taking the lead.”

Playing as the home team, Virginia entered the ninth inning three outs away from its fifth one-run win of the season.

That appeared doomed after reliever Andrew Carraway allowed a lead-off double to Zach Miller that bounced off third base and trickled into foul territory.

After Miller advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt, O’Connor summoned left-hander Matt Packer from the bullpen.

“Y’all thought I might have been a little bit nuts to bring a left-handed pitcher in to face a right-handed hitter,” the sixth-year skipper said. “Sometimes you have to do things that are out of the box a little bit to win.”

Packer, who pitched in Virginia’s 4-3 loss Friday, responded.

The southpaw got Ole Miss shortstop Kevin Mort to hit a lazy fly to shallow left-center field that was tracked down by left fielder Shane Halley, a defensive replacement for Barr.

“Halley has probably our best throwing arm in the outfield, and when you are trying to protect a one-run lead defense is very, very important,” O’Connor said. “Fortunately, he was out there because I don’t know if anybody else could have caught that ball. I thought that was the big play in that inning to win that game for us.”

With two outs, Packer threw consecutive balls to pinch hitter Drew Ferguson.

O’Connor, going against conventional wisdom, elected to intentionally walk Ferguson and pitch to lead-off hitter Jordan Henry.

“Believe me, I was running it over in my mind very, very quickly,” O’Connor said. “I broke the cardinal rule of baseball ,and that’s to walk the winning run and put him on base.

“I just felt that could be the ballgame and I liked our matchup with Matt against Henry. Fortunately, it worked.”

Packer induced a softly hit grounder to second baseman Keith Werman, a defensive replacement that had booted a ball in the ninth inning to allow the Rebels to rally Friday for a victory that eventually came in the 12th inning.

“I said it Friday, really, it looks like two evenly matched clubs with very, very good pitching. It comes down to a clutch hit or a clutch play,” O’Connor said. “It’s going to be the difference with this series. I know we are looking forward to the challenge in front of us and it should be a great ballgame.”

Ole Miss is slated to start LHP Nathan Baker (4-2, 3.63 ERA). The junior has not started a contest since April 28, but has 63 strikeouts in 62 innings.

It was not known after the game, however, who would pitch for the Cavaliers in today’s winner-take-all contest. O’Connor was forced to use Carraway for three innings in relief of starter Robert Morey.

Carraway, initially slated to start today, said he was reminded Friday evening by pitching coach Karl Kuhn that Virginia would not play today without a victory Saturday.

“Knowing that and being in the situation before, I came to the field ready to pitch,” he said, “and I knew if my number was called that I had to be ready.”

Another pitcher that may be unavailable today was Ole Miss starter Drew Pomeranz. The sophomore dazzled through seven innings Saturday against the Cavaliers, striking out 10 batters as he threw 146 pitches while battling blisters.

Pomeranz started his third game in eight days and worked on four days’ rest, having hurled 17 innings in the regional round.

“Pomeranz did an excellent job,” O’Connor said. “Fortunately, we were able to battle him, and get his pitch count up. We were able to get him out of the game.”

Morey worked five full innings and held Ole Miss without a hit after the first. It was in the opening, however, that the Rebels struck first on a two-run homer by Logan Power.

“In that first at-bat, he threw me a first-pitch fastball and I didn’t see that the rest of the game. After that inning, he really settled down and threw it down in the zone,” Power said. “He just kept us off-balance all day. He was really good.”

With the victory, Virginia matched the best win total in program history. The Cavaliers won 47 games in 2006.