Christian Hlinka was standing in right field at Disharoon Park in the ninth inning of a 5-5 ballgame on Sunday afternoon with Virginia trying to further bolster its NCAA Tournament resume by completing a critical sweep of Wake Forest.

But Hlinka couldn’t help but find his mind drifting to the memory of one of his closest friends.

Sean Hanczaryk was a senior catcher at DeSales University in Pennsylvania. He and Hlinka had been teammates in Little League (with their dads as their coaches) and at Delaware Valley High School. On March 6th, Hlinka got an early-morning phone call from his father: Hanczaryk was one of three DeSales students killed in a single-car accident near Allentown.

One of 12 Virginia players honored during a Senior Day ceremony before the series finale against the Demon Deacons, Hlinka was wearing a blue sleeve with Hanczaryk’s initials and old high school No. 23 on his right arm. He had another tribute etched on the inside of the brim of his hat.

Hlinka, who tagged a game-winning RBI double in the bottom of the ninth Sunday to give the Hoos the win and their second walk-off W in a row, said he saw the game as Hanczarak’s senior day too.

“I was like Senior Day, Sean, I’m taking this out onto the field with (me),” Hlinka told reporters afterward. “I was like, ‘Listen. You’re going to be with me. No matter what happens, I want you to be out here on the field with me and enjoy this opportunity.’”

Hlinka entered Sunday’s game as a pinch hitter in the seventh inning. He was due up second in the bottom of the ninth inning for the Wahoos, who had tied the game with a two-out RBI single from Nic Kent in the eighth. Jake Gelof led off the ninth with a walk but Hlinka was unable to get bunt down that would have advanced the potential winning run to second.

After working a full count, Hlinka got a fastball low in the zone. He made the most of it.

“I knew I hit the ball in the gap. I knew I hit it where nobody was,” he recalled. “I got jammed on it a little bit. If I got the barrel on it, it would have been off the scoreboard.”

The ball fell just short of the warning track in right-center field, plenty deep enough for Gelof to score the winning run from first base. With the 6-5 victory, the Wahoos completed a three-game sweep to move to 16-17 in the ACC (25-21 overall) with three games left in the regular season.

While talking to reporters after, Hlinka admitted he was still processing the ramifications of his game-winning double. He was still thinking about what it meant to honor Hanczarak with the hit.

“I know that he’s right here with me. I know I’m going to get that opportunity to do something special. I know you’re going to be with me Sean,” Hlinka said. “Then when I hit that I was running, I just had the biggest smile on my face. I didn’t know what to do. I had the arm sleeve on for him. I just gave it a kiss and kept patting it, and all the guys came out. It was just an unbelievable moment.”

When he first got that early-morning call from his father about Hanczarak’s death, a mourning Hlinka headed to Disharoon Park and stood in the dark by himself at home plate. He wrote Hanczarak’s initials in the dirt. Hlinka wanted to return home for the funeral but decided his friend would have wanted him to stay in Charlottesville.

“I knew Sean would have been like, ‘Why would you come home?’” Hlinka said. “’You’re playing baseball at UVa. You’re playing in this amazing stadium. Just take me with you.’”

Hanczarak was with Hlinka on Sunday. At home plate before the game as Hlinka posed with the Cavaliers’ other seniors for a photo. In right field while Hlinka was preparing for his opportunity in the bottom of the ninth inning. And in the box when Hlinka won a must-win game for the Wahoos with one swing of the bat.

“You can’t script it any better. It was just unreal,” an emotional Hlinka said with a sigh. “Ahh, I miss him. I miss him a lot, but I’m happy I was able to share this moment with him.”

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