Virginia’s Harrison Didawick, who grew up in Chesapeake, delivered one of the most memorable finishes to a regular season any baseball fan ever will see.
Didawick, a slugger from Western Branch High, smashed a walk-off two-run homer in the 13th inning Saturday night to give the 18th-ranked Cavaliers a 10-9 comeback victory and a three-game sweep of the Hokies before 5,084 at Disharoon Park in Charlottesville.
The marathon game took 5 hours and 10 minutes, and UVA overcame a 7-0 deficit it faced after 2 1/2 innings. Both teams now are headed to the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The victory brought a tournament perk for UVA (40-14, 18-12): the highest seed in its three-team pool, and thus a better chance of advancing to the single-elimination semifinals. Their grouping also includes No. 5 seed Florida State (39-14, 17-12) and No. 9 seed Georgia Tech (31-21, 15-15).
Each team among the 12 overall qualifiers plays the two others in its pool. Any squad going 2-0 will advance to the single-elimination semifinals, but if all three teams in a pool go 1-1, the highest seed will go to the semis.
The Hokies (32-20, 14-16) got the No. 10 seed and are in Pool C, which also includes No. 3 North Carolina State (32-19, 18-11) and No. 6 Duke (35-18, 16-14).
Before losing the last two games of the series, Virginia Tech was projected by d1baseball.com as one of the first four teams out of the NCAA regional field. So the Hokies might need a deep run in Charlotte to return to the right side of the bubble. The Cavaliers clearly will make the 64-team field, but a strong performance in Charlotte could make them one of the 16 regional hosts.
The tourney will begin at 11 a.m. Tuesday and, barring weather problems, will feature three round-robin games each day through Friday. The semifinals will be Saturday, followed by the championship game May 26.
Casey Saucke was 3 for 5 with two runs and four RBIs for UVA, and Henry Ford was 4 for 6.
Ford’s three-run homer trimmed a 7-3 deficit to 7-6 in the seventh, and Jacob Ference followed with a solo blast to tie the game at 7.
Each team scored in the eighth, and Virginia Tech went ahead 9-8 in the top of the 13th as Ocean Lakes High alum Carson DeMartini walked and scored on Eddie Micheletti Jr.’s sacrifice fly. But Cox High graduate Ethan Anderson drew a walk, and Didawick greeted reliever David Shoemaker with a liner over the wall in right-center field to spark a Cavaliers celebration.
Chase Hungate (7-1), UVA’s sixth pitcher, worked two innings for the victory.
DeMartini, recently moved to the leadoff spot, was 1 for 5 but scored twice and drove in a run. Clay Grady and Ben Watson each had three hits and scored two runs for Tech, and Micheletti was 2 for 5 with four RBIs.
