Five takeaways from UVA baseball’s sweep of Virginia Tech

The Virginia Cavaliers baseball team ended the regular season with a bang, taking all three from the Virginia Tech Hokies.

Thursday and Friday night were relatively smooth sailing, as the ‘Hoos led almost the entire way en route to 7-3 and 13-3 victories. Saturday night was more of a classic. UVA found themselves down 7-0, just to do exactly what they do best.

The Cavaliers stormed back to tie it in the seventh before eventually, Harrison Didawick launched his 22nd bomb of the season, walking it off in the thirteenth. Virginia saved the best for last in their 17th comeback victory of the season.

UVA finishes the year 40-14 and 18-12 in ACC play. Here is what we are taking away from the weekend:

Virginia dominates the Commonwealth Clash

The Commonwealth Clash is a year-long battle between ‘Hoos and Hokies where every men’s and women’s sport is weighted equally. As a result of baseball’s series win over the Hokies, UVA will finish on top 15-7 this season, marking their second consecutive title and tied for the largest margin in the competition.

Getting smoked in football practically every season is demoralizing; any Virginia fan would be lying if they said otherwise. Still, there is something to be said about a well-rounded athletics department and how it keeps the fanbase engaged fall through spring.

Evan Blanco and Joe Savino have their best starts

Turning the attention back to baseball specifically, Virginia’s current number one and number two starters ended the year with their best performances to date in orange and blue.

Blanco went 7.1 innings, surrendering two runs (both unearned) and five hits. While only a pair of strikeouts is nothing to write home about, Blanco’s ability to induce weak contact early in counts allowed him to go deep into this game. Quite frankly, he did not get ahead in counts as much as he typically does. But from a results perspective, this is huge. Blanco finishes the regular season with a 6-3 record and a 3.79 earned run average.

Joe Savino followed that up with a quality start of his own. He allowed two runs in five frames, with four hits and four free passes. Again, not the sharpest command, but something you will take every time against a quality Virginia Tech lineup. Damage control is the name of the game with this staff.

Don’t take Harrison Didawick’s season for granted

I feel like Jake Gelof made us all numb to the significance of explosive home run hitters. Let’s not allow that to happen.

In addition to making his mark in front of over 5,000 in the season finale, Didawick has provided pop in the middle of the lineup throughout the year. He is getting on base at a clip of .425 with a total of 22 long balls. Virginia is a program that’s known for quality at bats and high batting averages. But they broke their team single-season home run record a while ago, in large part because of Didawick.

Eric Becker’s bat is too powerful to keep out of the lineup

When you think Virginia baseball and first years, Henry Ford is most likely the first name to pop into your head and for good reason. Keep Eric Becker in the front of your mind as well, though.

Becker reached base five times on seven trips this weekend, including his eighth bomb of the year. The only reason he is not getting more at bats is his shaky defense at third base.

However, his bat is too good to ignore. Jacob Ference and Ethan Anderson have the DH/catcher platoon locked up and you can’t stick him at first because that’s Ford’s spot. Becker will continue to make most starts at third with Luke Hanson spelling him in situations that require a more sure handed fielder.

It’s postseason time!

Well, on that note, we turn the page to the next chapter, the conference tournament.

A quick reminder of the weird ACC format:

• The top 12 teams participate, divided into four pools of three.
• It is round robin in each pool. If all three teams go 1-1, the highest seeded team wins the pool.
• From there, the semifinals are set and it is single elimination.

The Cavaliers earned the conference’s fourth overall seed and will be the top ranked team in their pool, which also includes #5 Florida State and #9 Georgia Tech. Virginia is scheduled to play against the Yellow Jackets on Wednesday and the Seminoles on Friday, both at 11 a.m.

The good news is that if Georgia Tech beats Florida State on Tuesday and UVA wins on Wednesday, the ‘Hoos automatically advance to the semis and Friday’s game is essentially meaningless.

As far as the NCAA Tournament is concerned, the sweep puts Virginia in good position to host a regional as one of the nation’s top 16 teams.