UVa extended the Columbia regional. Founders Park might host more games after it ends
EDITOR”S NOTE — Because of rainy weather in Columbia, the final NCAA regional game between Old Dominion and Virginia will be played at 9:06 a.m. Tuesday.
The cheers around Founders Park were scattered and accentuated.
Gone were the roars of garnet and black faithful and the raucous crowds of nights past. Founders Park was instead smattered with coating of baby blue, navy and orange as an announced attendance of 3,993 fans speckled the seats around the lower bowl at the Gamecock-less ballpark.
On a day in which Virginia ended South Carolina’s 2021 campaign, UVa extended its season for the second time in less than 24 hours with a 8-3 win over first-seeded Old Dominion in the Columbia regional final.
“I told them after the game this is one of the great days in our baseball program’s history,” Virginia head coach Brian O’Connor said.
The optics of Sunday’s contest were assuredly bizarre. There were no celebrity appearances from South Carolina head football coach Shane Beamer or all-time great New York Yankee coach Bobby Richardson.
The choruses of “Let’s go Cocks” were replaced with cheers of “O-D-U” echoing off the metalic railings and plastic chairbacks of Founders Park.
Sans a Southeastern Conference crowd, Virginia starter Griff McGarry momentarily silenced the critics that have mounted over his erratic 2021 campaign.
McGarry’s stuff has never been in doubt. He can paint 99 miles per hour on the radar gun — which he did six times in the first inning. He then masks his heater with a breaking-ball sits in the low 80s.
Consistency, though, has been a problem as he marched into Sunday’s start with an 0-5 with a 7.56 ERA.
Against the Monarchs, McGarry matched his dynamic arsenal with the control that made him a Friday night starter during the COVID-19-shortened 2020 campaign.
He struck out the first six batters he faced on just 32 pitches. His 1-2-3 first inning was his first such frame since a March 13 appearance against Notre Dame. McGarry’s eight strikeouts also marked his most in an appearance since a five-inning start against North Carolina on Feb. 27.
But after finally finding a semblance of a groove, McGarry was forced from the game when a cut on his hand continued to bleed as he gripped the ball.
“I’ll tell ya, he’s been throwing in our midweek intra-squad scrimmages and he’s been throwing really, really good,” Connor said of McGarry. “So we had a lot of confidence going into tonight that he could give us a good quality start.”
Following McGarry’s departure, Virginia reliever Brandon Neeck promptly added to the absurd Cavalier strikeout totals UVa rung up over its pair of Sunday contests.
After UVa’s staff set down 14 batters via strikeout in the win over South Carolina Sunday afternoon, Neeck fanned 10 Monarchs of his own in his first 3.2 innings of work and 16 overall to set a new school postseason record.
Tying a Virginia NCAA tournament team record with his 10th strikeout of the night and the Cavaliers’ 18th as a squad, Neeck blew a 1-2 pitch past Matt Coutney to escape a two-man on, two-out, seventh inning jam and send Virginia into the final two frames with a 6-3 lead.
The southpaw then set down the side in the eighth inning with a trio of strikeouts. Three more followed in the ninth to set a rematch.
“I felt confident I could go longer than an inning or two like I had been used througout the season,” Neeck said. “I was hoping I’d get an opportunity to go longer and I got it and took advantage.”
Under normal circumstances, the regional finals would be the last games played in Columbia this spring. But a minor blip in NCAA baseball tournament rules for this season may add another series to the ledger at South Carolina’s home ballpark.
The regional being played in Columbia is paired with that going on in Fort Worth, Texas, where host TCU was eliminated Sunday. Given both TCU and USC have seen their seasons end, two teams not initially slated to host will advance to the super regional between the two brackets.
Under the unique tournament rules set by the NCAA amid the COVID-19 pandemic, 16 host sites were determined prior to the tournament field being announced. Host sites that will be left vacated thus could be called upon to host a super regional between two teams that weren’t previously picked to host.
“I don’t have any idea,” O’Connor said when asked if he’d received any guidance on where a super regional might be played.
Virginia’s victory over South Carolina Sunday marked the first time since 2004 that it won back-to-back NCAA tournament games after dropping its first. With the win over Old Dominion, Virginia — and subsequently Founders Park — will see one more game.
A super regional in Columbia might also be in play, even without a pro-Gamecock crowd.
This story was originally published June 6, 2021 at 11:34 PM.
