Cavs win a wild one

Andrew Carraway sat motionless in the dugout for almost an hour.

Virginia’s starting pitcher Saturday, perhaps making the final start of his stellar career at Davenport Field, felt he was to blame for what appeared to be a series-dooming loss to Duke.

Those emotions shifted in improbable fashion as 11th-ranked Virginia mounted a 10-9 victory in a contest in which it trailed by six runs with just five outs left.

Perhaps in fitting fashion, the late-game heroics for the Cavaliers (36-10-1, 14-9-1 ACC) bailed out Carraway as John Barr drilled a walk-off single, preventing the senior from taking his first loss of the season.

“I went out there and gave up two home runs and eight earned runs and we still managed to win the game. Wow,” Carraway said. “It made me feel great. That’s all you can ask for, knowing that in any circumstance that your team has a chance to win.”

In the magical ninth, Virginia rookie Danny Hultzen opened the frame with a game-tying solo homer on a fastball that was grooved by Duke reliever Dennis O’Grady.

“I was just trying to get on base. I had a couple of rough at-bats before so I was just looking for a good pitch to hit,” Hultzen said. “I thought I got it and put a good swing on it.

“[O’Grady] had started everybody off with a fastball so I was looking for that too. I thought I hit it straight in the air but the wind pushed it a little bit.”

Dan Grovatt followed Hultzen with a triple into the gap in left-center field that narrowly eluded the outstretched glove of Duke center fielder Will Piwnica-Worms.

After O’Grady intentionally walked Steven Prosica — who had homered for the second straight day earlier in the game — Virginia catcher John Hicks struck out. Duke (32-19, 13-13) elected to load the bases by walking Tyler Cannon, but Barr fired the game-winning shot down the third-base line off O’Grady (1-1).

“I knew he was dumping in that slider so I thought he would come with that on the first pitch so I went out there looking for something off-speed,” Barr said. “He left it up a little bit and I put a decent swing on it. That’s pretty much where my mindset was and I put a decent swing on it. Everything worked out.”

Carraway, who allowed five runs in the second inning and left as Duke added three in the fifth, certainly agreed.

It would be easy to point at nerves. The senior that returned to live on the Lawn may not toe the rubber at Davenport Field again.

“I did think about that,” Carraway said. “Maybe I thought about it too much. It might have got me a little more pumped up for the game but it definitely got me a little more disappointed in the dugout.”

It marked the second time that UVa mounted an improbable late-game rally in an ACC contest. The first came in April at Georgia Tech.

“This was a great win for our ballclub. It was very, very similar to the Georgia Tech game that we found a way to win,” Virginia coach Brian O’Connor said. “This kind of game can carry your team a long ways. We were fortunate that our guys put a lot of hits together at the end of the game and Matt Packer pitched well out of the bullpen to help us get the win.”

Virginia and Duke will close out the series today at 1 p.m.