Missed opportunities

OXFORD, Miss. — It had the makings of a Virginia thriller of epic proportions.

With the heroics of a bloody-nosed relief pitcher and later a captivating game-ending ping, it quickly turned into a horror flick.

Ole Miss first baseman Matt Smith belted the first pitch he was thrown in the 12th inning from Virginia reliever Kevin Arico over the wall in left field, propelling the Rebels to a 4-3 walk-off win as 9,213 fans roared for the end of the first contest of the Oxford Super Regional.

“It sort of felt like the ground was shaking,” Smith said. “I was so pumped up.

“The place just went nuts. I don’t remember much after that. I kind of remember coming home and I was on the ground with the team on top of me.”

The sophomore’s eighth homer of the season moved Ole Miss (44-18) within a victory of its first trip to the College World Series since 1972. Virginia (46-13-1), a loss away from being eliminated, had an eight-game winning streak snapped and must win the final two games in the regional to advance to Omaha, Neb., a slate that includes today’s contest at noon.

“Wow. It was one heck of a college baseball game,” Virginia coach Brian O’Connor said. “Unfortunately, we came out on the losing end of it. Nobody deserved to lose that game.”

Virginia certainly had its chances to take the opener.

In fact, the Cavaliers led 3-2 entering the bottom of the ninth before a misplayed grounder by rookie second baseman Keith Werman and a hit batter set the stage for the Rebels’ game-tying, one-out single from Logan Power.

“It was just a back-up slider,” said Arico, who entered in the ninth with both runners on base. “I missed my pitch and he yanked it on me.”

After Ole Miss tied the contest, reliever Jake Morgan was summoned from the bullpen to keep the game knotted despite having broken his nose prior to the game. The injury came during a routine pre-game throwing exercise from 70 feet away.

“It was still bleeding out on the mound,” Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco said. “It was dripping down his face. It was probably great for television.

“He looked like Rocky out there, but he pitched like Rocky as well.”

Morgan, loaded up on painkillers, worked three full innings to earn the win, fanning three batters and allowing just one hit and a walk.

The right-handed sophomore also worked out of a potential jam in the 12th by retiring Virginia third baseman Steven Proscia on a fly ball that was hit on a 3-0 pitch to the base of the wall in center, stranding two of Virginia’s 11 runners left on base.

“[Proscia] put a good charge into the ball. It just wasn’t enough,” O’Connor said. “We have played aggressive baseball all year long. Reality is, whether he walks or we get a hit, we need a hit to score a run.

“Unfortunately, it was about five feet short.”

Minutes later, Smith connected on a blast that did not come up short.

“It’s pretty simple. I threw a fastball, left it up in the zone over the heart of the plate,” said Arico, who dropped to 2-3 on the season. “[Smith] did what any good hitter is going to do — he hit it hard.

“He crushed it.”

Virginia opened the scoring in the second inning as Proscia raced home from first after catcher Franco Valdes ripped a double off Ole Miss starter Phillip Irwin.

After the Rebels answered with a run in the fourth, Virginia took a two-run cushion at 3-1 as Jarrett Parker and Phil Gosselin provided back-to-back run-scoring hits.

“They got to my curveball a little bit in the fifth inning,” said Irwin, who allowed nine hits over seven innings. “They are a great hitting ball club. They hit a lot of mistakes and they barreled a lot of balls today.

“Fortunately enough, the wind was blowing in and I got a couple of fly outs to the warning track.”

Ole Miss, the regular season champ from the Southeastern Conference, cut into the deficit in the sixth with a lone run that ultimately chased Virginia starter Danny Hultzen from the game. The rookie worked 5.1 innings, allowing five hits and a walk while striking out five.

“I thought Danny really had a really good fastball today and he mixed in his good change-up,” O’Connor said. “It’s a challenging environment to put a freshman in, but I gave him the ball because I knew that he could handle it. He has had great poise all year.”

Despite the one-run loss — Virginia’s ninth of the season — O’Connor said that his team merely needed to turn the page and go on a two-game winning streak.

“We have had a lot of difficult losses. It’s baseball,” he said. “We have 13 losses on the year. The Yankees would be happy with that.

“This is what has been so impressive to me about this club. It has been well-documented that there’s a ton of youth on this team. Ninety-five percent of this team will be back next year, but what I did not know was, how would they respond to losses like this. When we have had difficult one-run losses, they have responded every time and been ready to play the next day. They have not rolled over, so I would expect the same thing.”

Virginia, batting as the home team today (and Sunday if needed), will start sophomore RHP Robert Morey (3-0, 2.91 ERA). Ole Miss is slated to counter with sophomore LHP Drew Pomeranz (8-4, 3.46), who struck out 26 batters in two starts in the Oxford Regional last weekend.