NCAA Baseball Super Regionals 2011, Virginia Vs. UC Irvine: UVA Reaches Second CWS

Few would’ve expected to see the No. 1 overall seed Cavs nearly fall to UC Irvine, but there we were.

With two outs in the bottom of the ninth and down by a run, David Coleman stroked a grounder up the middle, with Mitchell Shifflett taking over as pinch runner.

Andrew Thurman takes the victory for the Anteaters (can’t say it often enough!) after allowing just one run in four innings, and Branden Kline sustains the loss after giving up two late earned runs.

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UC Irvine started Game 1 of their NCAA Baseball Tournament Super Regional against Virginia with high hopes, but when UVA caught them in an unorthodox double play in the first inning, it seemed like everyone knew that they had blown their best chance at the upset. Anteaters ace Matt Summers didn’t have his best day at the office while their offense struggled, and UVA won Game 1 by a score of 6-0 as a result.

Danny Hultzen, the No. 2 overall pick in the MLB Draft, went five-plus strong innings, as he combined for a shutout with Cody Winiarski, who came in and pitched a great game in his three-plus innings. UVA went up 2-0 in the 3rd inning, but they stuck in the dagger in the 5th when Jared King hit a three-run home run off of Summers to make it 5-0. With Virginia’s great pitching and UC Irvine’s smallball style, that shot effectively ended the game, and UVA eventually added another run to take an emphatic win.

There’s a small, but pretty nasty looking thunderstorm passing through Charlottesville, VA at the moment, and as a result Game 1 of the NCAA Baseball Tournament Super Regional between the Virginia Cavaliers and the UC Irvine Anteaters is in a rain delay. Through three innings, UVA leads by a score of 2-0. The rain delay was called in the top of the 4th inning with UC Irvine batting. They currently have a man on second with two outs and Tommy Reyes at the plate.

The Anteaters looked like they were going to get a run off of Danny Hultzen in the first inning, but some poor baserunning lead to a double play with batters on second and third while they had one out, meaning they got nothing out of the inning. Hultzen has walked three batters, but he’s getting better as the game goes on after a poor start.

This was supposed to be the feature Super Regional in the NCAA Baseball Championship. It was going to be the Super Regional that everyone had their eyes on. Star power galore and conference champions from two of the nation’s top leagues. This wasn’t just any kind of star power. This was elite star power.

This was going to be the top three picks in the MLB Draft. Gerrit Cole, Danny Hultzen and Trevor Bauer. UCLA vs. Virginia for a spot in the College World Series. That is what it was supposed to be, but UC Irvine had other thoughts.