RATCLIFFE: Sick ending for Hultzen, Virginia at CWS

OMAHA, Neb. - What began as a mismatch and developed into a marathon, ended in a sudden, shocking manner late Friday night for top-seeded Virginia in the College World Series semifinals.

After four hours and 26 minutes, the Cavaliers’ dreams of reaching the national championship came crashing down when a pair of throwing errors by relief pitcher Cody Winiarski allowed South Carolina to take a stunning 3-2 win in the bottom of the 13^th inning. By the time the winning run crossed the plate, many of the record crowd of 25,882 had headed for home.

What they had witnessed was some of the gutsiest pitching performances of the season by both teams, including perhaps the most impressive three-inning performance of UVa hurler Danny Hultzen’s career.

Apparently having come down with a stomach virus earlier Friday, Hultzen answered the bell in All-American fashion. Sick as a dog, the junior lefty gunned down the Gamecocks’ batting order, turning TD Ameritrade Park into his own personal shooting gallery.

Get this. Hultzen needed only 24 pitches to strike out the first six batters, 12 pitches each of the first two innings. He fanned eight of the 10 Gamecocks he faced, gave up one hit and forced the other to pop out to short.

And then, POOF, he was gone.

As dominant as Hultzen had started, he was out of the game in a flash and the Gamecocks’ collective exhale must have been strong enough to blow the Nina, the Pinta and Santa Maria across the Atlantic.

“The game starts and we’re having to face Hultzen and we’ve got (USC All-American ace Michael) Roth out there,” said South Carolina coach Ray Tanner. “You figure maybe it’s going to be a pretty good battle.

“And we get in the box and it’s strike out, strike out, strike out,” Tanner added. “I’m thinking, ‘Wow,’ [Hultzen’s] outstanding. It was really a mismatch. We didn’t have an answer. He was that good.”

The Gamecocks coach went on to say that it would have been difficult for his team to score if the Virginia ace had stayed in the game and he was right, that is, if Hultzen hadn’t been vomiting in between innings.

“Certainly, Hultzen is as good as it gets … we’re very fortunate to be able to win,” said Tanner of South Carolina’s eye-popping, record-setting 14th straight win in NCAA Tournament play.

Even though the Cavs’ starter was out after three, Coach Brian O’Connor also got gutsy performances from middle reliever, freshman Kyle Crockett (four innings, two runs, four hits, no walks, three strikeouts) and closer Branden Kline, whose previous longest outing this season was 3.2 innings. Kline went on Friday night to throw 107 pitches over five innings, scattering three hits, no runs, walking four and striking out seven.

“Danny Hultzen showed why the Seattle Mariners picked him No. 2 in the draft,” O’Connor said after the deflating loss.

The Virginia skipper said that after talking to Hultzen during the day that the plan was to have him throw for a short stint, but that no way would O’Connor put his star pitcher’s career in jeopardy. Hultzen said he would give the team everything he had.

“He was gutting it out after the first inning,” the UVa coach said. “The kid was in bad shape after that first inning. I’ve always put the players in front of winning the championship. Their health and future in the game are always going to be in the forefront . That kid has always given us everything he’s had.”

Obviously, Hultzen was unavailable after the game due to his physical condition, but O’Connor couldn’t say enough about his best pitcher.

“I told myself I was going to give [Hultzen] three innings max,” the coach said. “Even though he was throwing well in that first inning, when we talked to him, I immediately got some guys going because I didn’t want to put the kid in a compromising position and have it to impact our team.

Fortunately it still worked out. We still had a chance to win the game without having your No. 1 out there. That’s why you call it a team.”

O’Connor said he talked to Hultzen a couple of times and the pitcher said, “Coach, I’m just not feeling right. It’s my stomach. I’m just not feeling right,” the coach explained.

In spite of his stomach churning, Hultzen kept the Gamecocks shaking their heads on their way back to the dugout.

“That tells you how great stuff that this guy has,” O’Connor said. “His stuff

Tonight was lights out. You can see why he’s going to be in the big leagues in a very, very short time.”

While Crockett held the Gamecocks at bay for four innings, Kline showed why the Boston Red Sox wanted him so badly out of high school two years ago.

After the Cavaliers had tied the game at 2-all in the top of the eighth, Kline loaded the bases with USC’s cleanup hitter, Jackie Bradley Jr., and five-hole hitter Adrian Morales, up next in the lineup, Virginia’s situation was shaky.  But Kline struck out both of the Gamecocks to squelch the threat

Kline kept South Carolina at bay until turning things over to Winiarski in the 13th.

It was inning that Winiarski will never forget for all the wrong reasons.

After USC designated hitter Brady Thomas singled to lead off the inning, and the next batter, Peter Mooney laid down a bunt, Winiarski fielded the ball and instead of going to first base for the sure out, wheeled and fired to second to get the lead runner. However, Winiarski’s throw was off the mark and sailed into centerfield, leaving both runners safe and no out.

South Carolina catcher Robert Beary followed with a bunt down the third base line and Winiarski again fielded the ball and ignored the easy, sure out to first and went for the lead runner at third. Again, the ball was off target and zipped past third baseman Steven Proscia, allowing pinch-runner Adam Matthews to score the winning run.

Winiarski didn’t make any excuses afterward.

“It’s simple,” he said. “Those are plays we practice every day and I just didn’t execute.”

On the throw to second, Winiarski said he didn’t move his feet on the routine play. On the throw to third, he believed there was a window there or he wouldn’t have gone that way.

O’Connor took all the blame for the two plays.

“Cody took a chance based on a decision on the bunt back to him to throw the ball to second base,” the coach said. “Had he made an accurate throw I think the guy would have been out. I absolutely take the hit….It’s my responsibility to make the decision on what bunt coverage we’re going to have with runners on first and second. And I took a chance.

“Quite frankly I went against my baseball book that I use,” O’Connor said. “Typically I collect the out and we might walk somebody and set up a double play. I felt like the guy that was bunting in that situation was not one of [USC’s] better bunters in my opinion and I thought we had a chance to get the lead out.”

What a difficult night it was for the Cavaliers, watching their aspirations to finish the job vanish before their collective eyes in a matter of seconds.

The No. 1 ranking most of the season, the ACC championship, the regional and Super Regional championships, the second trip to Omaha in three years, were all grand achievements.

But it was a job left undone in the eyes of the Cavaliers, whose 68-game greatness unraveled with a stomach virus and a couple of errant throws.

It wasn’t the finish they had dreamed of. Their script had a happier ending.