Grand slam lifts Virginia past Dallas Baptist and into College World Series

By Jerry Ratcliffe

On the brink of elimination for the sixth time in postseason, Virginia beat the odds once again on Monday when freshman Kyle Teel smashed a seventh-inning grand slam to lift the Cavaliers to a series-clinching, 5-2 win over Dallas Baptist, punching their ticket to the College World Series.

With Jake Gelof aboard with his single to left, older brother Zack Gelof drew a two-out walk as Dallas Baptist made a pitching change. UVA’s Max Cotier, who had struggled at the plate in the Super Regional matchup, singled to load the bases, setting up Teel’s heroics.

The freshman phenom jumped on a hanging Peyton Sherlin breaking ball and ripped it to centerfield to clear the bases and put the Cavaliers out front for good as Matt Wyatt shut the door on the Patriots.

Centerfielder Chris Newell hauled in the final out of the game, setting off a wild celebration on the Founder’s Park infield, ending in the traditional dogpile. Boasting caps that read “Omaha Bound,” the Cavaliers jubilation continued in the locker room.

This will be Virginia’s fifth trip to the College World Series in Brian O’Connor’s 18-year career, and the first time since 2105 when the Cavaliers captured the national championship.

While each trip has been glorious, this one is different.

“I gotta tell you they’re all joyous, they’re all wonderful, they’re all unique in their own way, but this one  … the route that this team has taken, six times with their backs against the wall, speaks to the character and the resiliency and the type of young men that we have in this program,” O’Connor said.

After losing the opening game of the Columbia regional, and the Super Regional, the Cavaliers never surrendered, beating Jacksonville, South Carolina and Old Dominion twice, then back-to-back elimination games over Dallas Baptist.

Those are examples of why this trip to Omaha is so different than the others. Virginia hadn’t been to the postseason since 2017 (ironically eliminated by Dallas Baptist), so none of O’Connor’s present team had ever experienced the thrills of former UVA teams. The seniors especially didn’t want to be branded the class that couldn’t get there.

“We talked to the guys the other night,” O’Connor said. “Those veteran players, the seniors, the fifth-year guys, third-years, they came here for this. We talked to them about Omaha. We talked to every recruit about it.

“That’s a reality in this program that not only can they win championships, but they’re also going to get a great degree and get a chance in professional baseball. For these guys, these veteran guys that haven’t had the opportunity, now they have.”

This particular opportunity wouldn’t have occurred had it not been for near flawless pitching by starter Nate Savino (3.1 innings, five hits, two runs, three strikeouts) and Matt Wyatt (5.2 innings, two hits, no runs, eight strikeouts), along with strong defense and clutch hitting.

O’Connor and pitching coach Drew Dickinson decided to go with Savino on the mound because he had the freshest arm in the bullpen and was a pitcher that Dallas Baptist hadn’t seen. When Savino was done, there was no hesitation to go with Wyatt, who had delivered a strong performance in the sub-regional.

“[Wyatt] attacked the mound just like he did last weekend against South Carolina,” O’Connor said. “He just gave an amazing pitching performance, and the defense, man, it was great defense.”

Virginia played from behind most of the game after Dallas took a 2-0 lead in the top of the third on Jackson Glenn’s two-run blast to left. It remained that way until the Cavaliers’ Nic Kent ripped a bases empty homer to left in the bottom of the fourth, cutting it to 2-1.

Neither team threatened again until the seventh inning. Dallas opened up the inning with a long fly ball to center, seemingly headed over the fence until Newell made a spectacular leaping catch against the wall, robbing Sosa of a home run. With two outs, River Town’s fly ball caromed off the right-field wall and was picked up by Teel, who with a strong arm, appeared to gun down Town, who was trying to stretch it to a double.

Initially ruled out, which would have ended Dallas inning, umpires reviewed the play and said the tag at second was not in time. With Town at second, Wyatt intentionally walked the dangerous Glenn before George Specht flew out to end the threat.

Then came Virginia’s turn for drama.

Jake Gelof singled to left, reached second on Logan Michaels’ sacrifice bunt. Newell struck out for the second out before Zack Gelof walked. Dallas made the pitching change to Sherlin, a southpaw, who promptly gave up a single to Cotier to load the bases.

Teel was waiting on a slider and that’s what he got and took Sherlin downtown to center for the grand slam and a never-look-back, 5-2 lead that stood.

Wyatt struck out the side in the eighth and quickly retired the first two batters he faced in the ninth before giving up a single. Then Town flew out to Newell to end the game, setting off pandemonium for the Wahoos.

Wyatt quickly found himself at the bottom of the smothering dogpile, worried more about the stitches in his head from a recent weight room accident, than anything else.

“I just wanted to keep putting up zeros, obviously letting the defense work and I was confident eventually something would get rolling on offense,” Wyatt said. “I was thinking with the bases loaded and with Kyle up, I was thinking in the back of my mind, like he’s having a nice year and the guy was throwing a lot of sliders, so I was like come on Kyle, you’re going to get this one and he got it.”

Now that the Cavaliers are headed to Omaha _ Virginia will face Tennessee in its opening game _ there will be lots of comparisons to this year’s team and the 2015 squad, which no one expected to make the postseason early on that campaign. An injury-riddled team found a way to put things together late in the season and ended up as national champs.

“Certaily there’s parallels to the ‘15 team, right, but we didn’t have the injuries that the ‘15 team did, we just weren’t playing very good,” O’Connor said. “We did flip the switch and did what we had to do and rose to the occasion.”

O’Connor said he was reminded of the similarities between the two teams by a friend, Curtis Monk, who was behind a documentary about UVA’s magical ride in 2015. He saw Monk in the stands every game.

“So, we’ll see,” O’Connor said.