As he walked off the mound following the longest outing of his career, the home crowd’s cheers swelled louder.
Maybe it was because Evan Blanco had tamed their rival or because he offered some hope about what Virginia could be this postseason with meaningful length from a starter.
“That was special,” said Blanco, the sophomore left-hander, who became the first member of the Hoos to throw into the eighth inning this season and earned a standing ovation for doing so during No. 18 UVa’s 7-3 series-opening win over Virginia Tech on Thursday evening at Disharoon Park.
“I didn’t really expect it to be honest,” Blanco said of all the applause, “but to be able to be part of that was awesome.”
Virginia starting pitcher Evan Blanco delivers during Thursday’s game against Virginia Tech at Disharoon Park.
Said Cavaliers coach Brian O’Connor: “There were multiple times [Blanco] buckled down and made big pitches. That was fantastic. That’s what we needed and that’s what leaders do. He stepped up at the biggest moment for us.”
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Blanco wasn’t overly dominant, but he was particularly tough while showcasing an ability to navigate situations with runners on base and be at his best against the Hokies’ heart of the order.
Virginia Tech’s 3-4-5 hitters were 1-for-10 against Blanco and he retired Carson DeMartini, the Hokies’ star third baseman and a projected early-round MLB Draft pick, all four times they faced each other on Thursday.
“[Blanco] pitched through a lot of traffic,” Tech coach John Szefc said, “but he threw strikes and he was effective. He was good.”
The Hokies (32-18, 14-14 ACC) left nine men on base in total against the Cavaliers (38-14, 16-12 ACC) and DeMartini left four on. Blanco got him to pop out in the first with a runner on, ground out in the third with two runners on and ground out in the seventh with a runner on.
He said the plan against Virginia Tech’s strong left-handed hitting lineup was to locate his fastball and sliders low in the strike zone.
“I’ll tell you what Blanco did tonight, it was the execution of his fastball,” O’Connor said. “It was down in the zone and it was elevated when he wanted to elevate it. But it was at the bottom of the zone on the corners and he executed his slider good to those guys in the middle of the lineup.”
Blanco (6-3) limited the Hokies to two unearned runs and five hits over 7.1 innings, which was plenty good enough on a night when the Hoos hammered three home runs to provide him a lead.
Freshman third baseman Eric Becker made sure his two-run shot in the second inning was pummeled far enough that no opposing outfielder would be able to bring it back after Hoos first baseman and cleanup hitter Henry Ford was robbed of a homer in the home first when Hokies left fielder Sam Tackett, who extended his arm to reach above the fence, made an outstanding grab to keep the game scoreless.
But with two outs, Becker smacked his longball off Tech starter Brett Renfrow halfway up the scoreboard beyond the right-field wall to ignite UVa and for a 2-0 lead. The blast went an estimated 419 feet.
“It’s a pretty important series,” Becker said. “It’s the last one before postseason and our team is big on putting the score up first and it’s even better when it’s a two-out RBI.”
UVa players celebrate after Eric Becker hits a home run during Thursday’s game against Virginia Tech at Disharoon Park.
With the ACC and NCAA tournaments around the corner, UVa went into Thursday seeking to add to its résumé to be a potential regional host while Tech was squarely on the bubble for the postseason.
Entering the series, Baseball America and D1Baseball projected the Cavaliers as a host and slotted in as a No. 14-seed and No. 15-seed, respectively. Baseball America listed the Hokies as one of the last four in the NCAA tournament field while D1Baseball had Tech as one of the last four teams out.
Following Becker’s home run, UVa kept piling on.
Ford began the rally during a three-run third inning with a line-drive single to right ahead of Jacob Ference’s rope of a two-run homer into the left-field bleachers. That extended UVa’s lead to 4-0 and Henry Godbout’s RBI single to score Harrison Didawick, who doubled to reach base, pushed the advantage to 5-0.
Didawick became the fourth player in the history of program to hit at least 20 home runs in a season when he turned on a pitch up and in and yanked it over the right-field fence in the fifth inning. He’s now only three homers shy of tying the Cavaliers’ single-season record of 23 home runs set last year by Jake Gelof.
“Not really,” Didawick, a sophomore, said about whether he thought he’d hit 20 homers this season. “My goal is to hit the ball hard every at bat and just have a great season and I’ve been fortunate enough to hit 20.”
Didawick was 3-for-3 with a stolen base and three runs scored to go along with the homer that expanded UVa’s lead to 6-2 after the Hokies plated the pair of unearned runs against Cavaliers Blanco in the fourth.
But it didn’t both the southpaw and roommate of Didawick, who said Blanco was a thrill to play behind on Thursday. Blanco had only two strikeouts against the Hokies, but enabled his defense to stay involved.
“It keeps the whole defense locked in,” Didawick said. “Strike outs are good, but it can also put the defense asleep. So, whenever you’re getting quick outs and making the defense work, it’s good.”
Note: Friday’s game between the Hoos and the Hokies has been pushed up a noon start in an effort to beat the inclement weather in the forecast. The contest was originally scheduled to be played at 6 p.m.
