OMAHA, Neb. — Through seven innings, Virginia could do no wrong.
Starting pitcher Griff McGarry hadn’t allowed a hit, and the Wahoos held a commanding 4-0 lead.
Then an eighth-inning meltdown turned a potentially historic victory into a devastating defeat.
“Definitely a roller coaster of a night,” McGarry said.
Mississippi State used a six-run eighth inning to surge past Virginia and to a 6-5 win. The Cavaliers will face No. 2 Texas in an elimination game Thursday at 7 p.m. The winner will earn a Friday rematch with Mississippi State.
“All the credit goes to Mississippi State,” Virginia head coach Brian O’Connor said. “They had key players rise up and get big clutch hits and clutch at-bats. They won the ball game.”
McGarry stepped on the mound for the first time in the College World Series, winless on the season and sporting an ERA of 6.06. He left the mound in the eighth inning, having thrown one of the best starts of his career. He had given up just one hit — a two-run home run to Kellum Clark.
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“I thought their guy was for six, seven innings as good as a pitcher we've faced in the last couple of years,” Mississippi State head coach Chris Lemonis said. “It was electric. We couldn't get on it.”
The senior validated the coaching staff’s unwavering trust Tuesday night in the biggest moment of his baseball career, but UVa’s usually trusty bullpen couldn’t make good on the start.
Junior Zach Messinger and sixth-year senior Stephen Schoch recorded just one out in relief in the eighth inning. They allowed four runs.
After Messinger faced two batters and failed to record an out, Schoch entered the game with one out and runners on second and third. His first pitch to Tanner Allen, one of the SEC’s most fearsome hitters, was launched over the right-field fence.
Virginia opted not to walk Allen, even with first base open.
“He’s a tremendous player, the kind of player you could sit there and say, ‘You don’t want him to beat you,’ but you also don’t want to walk him because his run takes the lead, so you want to make him earn it,” O’Connor said. “And to his credit, he did.”
The Bulldogs led 5-4. Two of the three runs were charged to Messinger.
Schoch recorded an additional out on a hard-hit fly out. After a single and four-pitch walk, Brian O’Connor had seen enough from the fan favorite.
He pulled Schoch for sophomore Nate Savino. The lefty allowed the inherited runner to score before ending the frame.
The Cavaliers fought back in the eighth, using a solo home run from Chris Newell to pull back within a run. Newell’s ball rode the wind, just drifting over the left-field wall and into the UVa bullpen.
The late rally came up short, wasting an impressive first seven innings. Virginia falls to 30-2 this season when leading after seven innings.
UVa started the game hot, especially at the plate. Early innings suggested the Cavaliers might run away with the game.
“I know this sounds crazy. but the ability to take a punch and keep playing is one of our greatest assets we have,” Lemonis said.
Coming into Tuesday, UVa’s offense scored 15 runs in its last three games. Of those 15 runs, 13 came in the final three innings of games. Tuesday, the Cavaliers flipped that script.
Junior Zack Gelof led off with a single. A sacrifice bunt advanced him to second and freshman Kyle Teel delivered an RBI single up the middle to give the Cavaliers a 1-0 lead after one inning.
Virginia’s offense added three more in the second inning, once again using a sacrifice bunt to spark an inning. A Jake Gelof walk was followed by a Logan Michaels sac bunt and four consecutive hits. Consecutive doubles from Newell and Zack Gelof scored two runs, and Max Cotier used a single to score Gelof for a 4-0 edge.
The four runs seemed to be plenty for McGarry and company, but Mississippi State’s bats came to life in the eighth inning.
Add in missed chances at the plate – the Cavaliers stranded at least one runner in scoring position in the second, fourth and sixth innings – and Virginia will be kicking itself Wednesday as it prepares for Texas.
UVa was six outs away from a historic no-hitter and a critical victory. Instead, the team’s back is against the wall as it prepares for an elimination game.
“That’s just baseball,” McGarry said.