Harrison Diderwick, a Virginian who grew up in Chesapeake, had one of the most memorable regular season finishes that any baseball fan has ever seen.
Didawicz, a slugger from Western Branch High School, hit a walk-off, two-run home run in the 13th inning on Saturday night, giving the 18th-ranked Cavaliers a 10-9 come-from-behind victory and giving the Hokies a 5,084-point lead in Desharon. We won 3 games in a row. Charlottesville Park.
The marathon game lasted five hours and 10 minutes, with UVA overcoming a 7-0 deficit it faced after two and a half innings. Both teams now head to the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The win gave UVA (40-14, 18-12) tournament privilege. UVA was the top seed in a three-team pool, increasing their chances of advancing to the single-elimination semifinals. The group also includes No. 5 seed Florida State (39-14, 17-12) and No. 9 seed Georgia Tech (31-21, 15-15).
Each of the 12 teams in the overall qualifier will play against the other two teams in the pool. Teams with a 2-0 record will advance to the single-elimination semifinals, but if all three teams in the pool are 1-1, the top seed will advance to the semifinals.
The Hokies (32-20, 14-16) earned the No. 10 seed and are in Pool C, which includes No. 3 North Carolina State (32-19, 18-11). That includes No. 6 Duke (35-18). , 16-14).
Before losing the final two games of the series, Virginia Tech was projected by d1baseball.com to be one of the first four teams out of the NCAA regional field. So the Hokies may need a deep run from Charlotte to get back on the right side of the bubble. It’s clear the Cavaliers will be in the 64-team field, but a strong showing in Charlotte could make them one of the 16 teams in the region.
The tournament begins at 11 a.m. Tuesday and will feature three round robin matches each day until Friday, barring weather issues. The semifinals will be played Saturday, followed by the championship game on May 26th.
For UVA, Casey Salk was 3-for-5 with two runs and four RBIs, and Henry Ford was 4-for-6 with an RBI.
In the seventh inning, Ford’s three-run homer cut the deficit to 7-6, and Jacob Ference hit a solo shot to tie the score at 7.
Both teams scored in the eighth inning, and in the top of the 13th, Ocean Lakes High School graduate Carson DiMartini walked and scored on Eddie Micheletti Jr.’s sacrifice fly, giving Virginia Tech a 9-8 lead. . But Cox High School graduate Ethan Anderson elected to walk, and Diderwick hit a liner over the right-center wall to find reliever David Shoemaker, sparking a Cavaliers celebration.
UVA’s sixth pitcher, Chase Hungate (7-1), pitched two innings in the win.
DeMartini, who recently moved to the leadoff spot, had one hit in five at bats, but scored two runs and gave up a run. For Tech, Clay Grady and Ben Watson each had three hits and two RBIs, and Micheletti had two hits and four RBIs for five at bats.
