Virginia blasts William & Mary in NCAA regional baseball – Virginian-Pilot

CHARLOTTESVILLE

His team had just banged out 20 hits and scored 17 runs in an NCAA tournament win over William & Mary on Friday, but the first person Virginia baseball coach Brian O’Connor wanted to talk about was his starting pitcher.

Offensive fireworks aside, right-hander Alec Bettinger’s six innings of two-run ball were the story of the Cavaliers’ 17-4 demolition of the Tribe in the opening game of the Charlottesville Regional, O’Connor contended.

“You can look at all (Virginia’s) runs, but William & Mary’s got a really really good offensive ball club,” O’Connor said. “And it says a lot to what he did to go out there and give us six strong innings in the heat of the day.”

The No. 4 seed Tribe had indeed been swinging the bat well of late, but Bettinger took care of that, and William & Mary pitching had no answers for a Virginia lineup that set a school record for hits in an NCAA tourney game.

With each swing of the bat, the No. 1 seed Cavaliers (38-20) looked like a team primed to defend its 2015 national championship.

“If there was a weakness, we certainly didn’t find it,” Tribe coach Brian Murphy said.

Any hopes the Tribe had of getting to Bettinger, who brought just a 2-5 record and 5.69 earned-run-average into the game, were quickly dashed. After allowing a run and two hits in the first inning, he retired the Tribe on six pitches in the second and settled in from there.

“I just had to make some big pitches in some big spots, and thankfully, I was able to do that,” he said.

Throwing Bettinger instead of ace Connor Jones on Friday was arguably a modest gamble. He began the season as a closer and was coming off a shaky outing against Wake Forest in the ACC tournament. As a starter, he was 2-1, with a 5.92 ERA.

But O’Connor had faith, and Bettinger’s performance Friday allowed him to save Jones, a Great Bridge High graduate, for Saturday’s game against East Carolina orBryant.

For his part, Bettinger said he approached it just like any other game, and with Virginia spraying the ball all over Davenport Field, he certainly had a comfortable cushion.

After a scoreless first, the Cavaliers scored in seven straight innings. They got as much pop from the bottom of the order as the top, with No. 8 and 9 hitters Jack Gerstenmaier and Cameron Simmons sparking the team early.

“Certainly, we were pretty locked in offensively after the first inning,” O’Connor said. “Throughout the entire lineup, there were guys who were right in the middle of the ball and taking aggressive swings, battling with two strikes.”

Gerstenmaier and Ernie Clement each hit two-run homers, and Simmons, Justin Novak and Adam Haseley had three hits apiece.

But Virginia also did the little things well. Novak advanced from first to second on a foul ball out down the right field line, and later scored. He also advanced on a wild pitch that didn’t roll far.

“Those are two aggressive plays that had nothing to do with his bat,” O’Connor said.

Much of the day was about Virginia’s bats, though. As the barrage continued, a succession of Tribe relievers began warming in the bullpen down the right field line.

Facing elimination, the Tribe (29-30) will call on all available arms today, Murphy said.

“We’ve got to find a way to extend this thing, got to find a way to use absolutely anybody we can out of the bullpen,” he said.