Devin Ortiz started the biggest game of his Virginia career on the mound. Four-plus hours later, he ended it at the plate.
With 74 pitches and one swing of the bat, Ortiz cemented his spot in Virginia baseball history. He kept the Cavaliers in the game by pitching four scoreless innings in the first pitching start of his four-year college career. He ended Old Dominion’s season in the 10th inning by smoking a 1-1 fastball into the Monarch bullpen for UVa’s first-ever walk-off home run in an NCAA Tournament game.
It’s a program already steeped in recent postseason lore. There’s the night freshman center fielder Adam Haseley held Vanderbilt scoreless for five innings in his first college start on the mound, in Game 2 of the College World Series Finals in 2015. Fellow first-year Ernie Clement’s walk-off hit to finish off Maryland in the Charlottesville Super Regional that same postseason. Chris Taylor’s walk-off that beat UC Irvine in the deciding third game of UVa’s 2011 super regional, also sending the Wahoos back to Omaha.
In Tuesday’s 4-3 win in the seventh and final game of the NCAA Columbia Regional, Ortiz capped a weekend of historic performances with a few soon-to-be legendary moments.
“This program and its legacy is something like no other,” said Ortiz, a senior playing in his first-ever NCAA Tournament after the Wahoos missed the postseason in 2018 and 2019. “This is what I came here to do. I wanted to come to Virginia, I wanted to play in these big situations, and I wanted to help my team win, most important. Something like today is something you dream about.”
Monday had been more of a nightmare for Ortiz, who had been poised to make his first start on the mound since he was a senior in high school. Virginia had set up the deciding final game of the regional by beating ODU 8-3 on Sunday night and Ortiz was announced as the Cavaliers’ starting pitcher for that game Monday morning. But the stormy weather in Columbia first prompted the NCAA to move the start time of that game up then delay the start several hours before ultimately rescheduling for 9 a.m. Tuesday.
Ortiz went 4-0 and led the team with a 1.78 ERA in 18 appearances out of the UVa bullpen as a sophomore in 2019 but hadn’t been on the bump in a big spot for the Wahoos since the 2019 ACC Tournament. He admitted to being anxious about the start all day Monday, then frustrated when the game was postponed.
Ortiz convinced himself that for whatever reason, a higher power had made the call to delay his opportunity.
“Maybe I wasn’t going to have it yesterday; maybe I’ll have it today. Or maybe I’ll hit something big. I don’t know,” he said. “I was just reminding myself in the hotel that we didn’t play today because there was a reason behind it.”
His head coach had been anticipating the moment for some time. Ortiz had been the team’s everyday first baseman until dislocating his shoulder in the ninth inning of a win against Liberty in late April. The injury limited Ortiz to playing designated hitter but also prompted Brian O’Connor to start using the two-way player more as a pitcher in midweek scrimmages.
Ortiz was scheduled to throw two innings in a practice last Tuesday. He threw so well that O’Connor and pitching coach Drew Dickinson made the decision to put Ortiz back out there to work a third inning.
“And our conversation was, as God is my witness,” O’Connor recalled, “’Hey, if we fall in the losers’ bracket of this tournament, Devin Ortiz is going to start, and we’re going to need to him to go four or five innings, so let’s extend him today and get him prepared for that.’”
That conversation had been in the back of Ortiz’s mind since UVa opened the regional with a loss to South Carolina on Friday. The Wahoos successfully staved off elimination with one win on Saturday and two more on Sunday. After beating ODU to cap Sunday’s double-header sweep, “I had immediate butterflies,” Ortiz said.
Those butterflies lingered all day Monday but were gone when he woke up this morning. Ortiz worked around a two-out double in the first inning then struck out the side in order in the second. Old Dominion stranded a pair in the third inning and one more in the fourth. With those four shutout frames, Ortiz extended an almost-forgotten streak of scoreless innings—it first began in April 2019 and had been dusted off for a pair of one-inning appearances in mop-up duty this year—to 19.1.
His final line: No runs on one hit in four innings, with two walks and a career-high six strikeouts. Ortiz threw 74 pitches, the most for the right-hander in a Virginia uniform.
“I was actually sitting in the dugout and I was telling Ortiz after the second inning, I said that your legend in this uniform is going to grow,” O’Connor said. “Even with the extra day’s rest, could there have been other guys who could potentially start? Sure. But we didn’t waver at all that Ortiz was going to start and he was going to get us off to a good start. He deserved that opportunity and I’m just incredibly proud of him.”
The gutsy performances on the mound continued for the Cavaliers as Tuesday’s elimination game ground on. Zach Messinger made his third appearance of the regional, giving up one hit and striking out two in 1.2 innings. HE was charged with ODU’s first run, which came on a two-out single off Andrew Abbott in the sixth. With the Wahoos shifting, lefty Brock Gagliardi chopped the ball through a gaping hole at shortstop to give the Monarchs the lead.
Abbott, making his second relief appearance of the season, recorded the final out of that sixth inning and two more in the seventh before giving way to closer Stephen Schoch. Like the Cavaliers’ ace the previous inning, Schoch inherited a runner at second with two outs. He picked off ODU’s Tommy Bell trying to steal third to escape that jam unscathed.
Virginia gave Schoch a lead in the bottom of the seventh, tying the game on an RBI groundout by Nic Kent before moving in front on an Alex Tappen RBI single. But Schoch got burned by a pair of walks in the eighth, one to start the frame and another with two outs. Gagliardi tied the game with another two-out single, then Bell put the Monarchs back in front with a base hit to right. Kyle Teel’s throw from right field to get Gagliardi at the plate kept it a one-run game.
“I’ll tell ya, probably other than Ortiz hitting that ball out, the biggest play of the game,” O’Connor said afterward.
Ortiz was at the plate with two on and two out in the bottom of the eighth when ODU closer Noah Dean uncorked consecutive wild pitches. The first allowed both baserunners to move into scoring position; the second brought Zack Gelof home from third base to tie the game.
Schoch did the rest for the Hoos on the hill, working around a two-out baserunner in the ninth before retiring the Monarchs in order in the 10th. He finished the day at 75 pitches—one more than Ortiz—in 3.1 innings, the longest outing of his two-year Virginia career. His day was done after that 10th inning. Thanks to Ortiz, the Cavaliers didn’t have to worry about who was left in the bullpen.
ODU had hard-throwing right-hander Aaron Holiday on the mound in the bottom of the 10th. He had been filthy on Saturday night against South Carolina, mowing down the Gamecocks for the final two innings of the Monarchs’ 2-1 win. Against the Hoos, Holiday hadn’t allowed a hit in 1.2 innings before Ortiz ended the game with his eighth homer of the season.
It was the first home run allowed by Holiday in 28 innings pitched this season and the first walk-off homer for Virginia since Kenny Towns took Jameis Winston deep to beat Florida State in extra innings at the 2013 ACC Tournament.
It puts UVa in a best-of-three super regional for the seventh time in program history and the first time since the 2015 team’s run to the national championship.
This is also the first time UVa rallied after losing a regional opener to win four straight elimination games and advance to the tournament’s second weekend. The Hoos hammered out 21 hits to beat Jacksonville on Saturday. Matt Wyatt threw five shutout innings in Sunday’s win against the Gamecocks. Brandon Neeck made more history with 16 strikeouts in 5.2 scoreless innings out of the bullpen against the Monarchs that night.
On Tuesday, Ortiz added his name to the program’s growing list of postseason heroes. Afterward, his head coach summed it up best.
“Wow,” O’Connor said. “What an amazing college baseball game.”
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