It had been 37 days since right-hander Brian Edgington finished on the winning side of a start.
“Everyone goes through rough stretches during the year,” he said. “But you’ve got to stick with it and stick to your process and keep the most utmost confidence in yourself.”
There might’ve been some added pressure to do so on Sunday, too, since fellow Virginia starters Nick Parker and Connelly Early earned victories in their appearances on Friday and Saturday, respectively, and were sharp in their first turns through the Cavaliers’ reshuffled rotation.
Edgington, the graduate transfer from Elon who mostly had started on Fridays for the Hoos this spring, was due to be moved to the bullpen for UVa’s weekend series against Louisville. But deep outings from Parker and Early enabled Hoos skipper Brian O’Connor to save Edgington for Sunday and deploy him on the fly.
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“And he shared with me this week,” O’Connor said, “that he came to Virginia to go to postseason play and have a chance to go to Omaha, and that it didn’t matter what role we used him in.”
The veteran — one seven Cavaliers honored on senior day during a pregame ceremony — pitched like one, rid of any nerves or uneasiness.
He threw six shutout innings while yielding only two hits and retiring 18 of the 20 hitters he faced to steady the No. 21 Hoos in their 8-3 series-sweeping win over Louisville at Disharoon Park.
“I was prepared to throw Friday and Saturday,” Edgington said, “but I’m ready to throw whenever my number is called upon.”
It was Edgington’s (7-3, 3.33 ERA) first win since April 7 when he tossed seven innings of one-run ball against Miami. He had dropped each of his last three starts — against Pitt, Notre Dame and Duke — heading into Sunday.
Mixing his fastball, slider and splitter, though, Edgington struck out eight to leave the Cardinals baffled throughout the afternoon.
“Louisville is aggressive,” O’Connor said, “and his splitter worked really well for him. He got some early outs on 0-0 counts. That’s the first time in four weeks he executed that pitch down in the strike zone. He’s been leaving it up and that’s what’s given him problems the last three weeks, but he found a fix and made an adjustment.”
Said Edgington: “I just trusted it and was making sure it was down in the zone because when it’s down in the zone, I’m not going to get hurt with it.”
He said he felt good when he was warming up in the bullpen and like he had a chance to have a strong outing.
In the third inning, Edgington used an elevated fastball to strike out Will Cook swinging. And on the very next pitch to Gavin Kilen, Edgington had Kilen flailing and missing on one of those keep-it-low splitters, displaying the disparity of pitches Edgington was capable of using on Sunday. That at-bat ended with a ground out and ended the frame — one of four consecutive 1-2-3 innings for Edgington, who retired 13 consecutive hitters from the end of the first through the fifth inning.
His start was the third in as many games of at least six innings for UVa (41-11, 16-11 ACC), aiding its sweep of the Cardinals (29-22, 9-18 ACC). It also helped the Hoos that they pounced on Louisville starter Carson Liggett, a contender for ACC Pitcher of the Year entering the bout, like no foe of his had this season.
UVa’s six runs and eight hits over the first three and a third innings against Liggett (7-1, 3.02) were the most he’s given up in any start this year, prompting his first loss of the year.
“We just wanted to be clear with what we do as an offense,” Cavaliers shortstop Griff O’Ferrall said, “and not let their pitching mess up our plan.”
Said catcher Kyle Teel: “[Liggett] had good stuff. Our guys just did a good job with our approach.”
After back-to-back singles from the leadoff hitter O’Ferrall and two-hole batter Ethan O’Donnell to begin the home first, Jake Gelof followed with a bullet of a sacrifice fly to left to score O’Ferrall. Then, Teel smacked an RBI double into left-center gap to score O’Donnell. Teel came across the plate on Casey Saucke’s first of two run-scoring singles in the contest to cap the three-run opening inning.
The Hoos tacked on two more runs in the second and another in the fourth.
“[Liggett] pounds the strike zone with three pitches,” O’Connor said. “But [the approach was] just to be tough and be tough with two strikes. We had some great hits with two strikes and we knew hits and runs were going to be hard to come by, and when we had opportunities we knew to beat him that we were going to have to cash them in and we did that. I’m just proud of our guys.”
Saucke’s second RBI base hit came as part of a two-run sixth.
Teel finished 3-of-3 with two RBI and two runs scored. Saucke and Ethan Anderson each drove in a pair of runs. O’Ferrall and O’Donnell each scored two runs.
The win for UVa coupled with Duke’s loss to Georgia Tech and Miami’s win at Pitt pushed the Cavaliers and the Hurricanes ahead of the Blue Devils and into a first-place tie atop the Coastal Division standings. Duke is a half-game behind UVa and Miami going into the final week of the campaign.
