Kyle Teel may have a problem keeping his helmet on but he never lost his head.
Virginia’s freshman catcher-turned-outfielder found himself at the plate in the biggest spot of the season on Monday: Bases loaded with two outs in the bottom of the seventh, and the Wahoos trailing Dallas Baptist 2-1 in the deciding third game of the Columbia Super Regional.
“I just think it’s important to embrace the moment,” the first-year stated plainly afterward. “I just try to do the best I can. That’s all you can really do. You just do the best you can and that’s it.”
Teel focused on his game plan as he stepped into the batter’s box in the most critical situation of his short college career. He knew DBU lefty Peyton Sherlin liked to attack left-handed hitters with breaking balls. Sure enough: Slider for ball one. With the count even, Teel laid off a tempting 1-1 slider that drifted out of the strike zone for ball two.
With the count even again at 2-2, he got the breaking ball that he’d been hoping to hit. Teel elevated the pitch toward the batter’s eye in center field at Founders Park.
It felt like a long out off the bat, he said. In the dugout, UVa sophomore pitcher Matt Wyatt thought differently.
“I had a good feeling,” he recalled. “I mean, watching a lot of his home runs, you can kind of tell. When he hits it, he hits it.”
Wyatt was right. Teel’s fly ball carried beyond the center field fence for a go-ahead grand slam. It was the freshman’s ninth home run of the season, tying him for the team lead, but his first in the team’s eight NCAA Tournament games this postseason.
It proved to be the game-winner in a 5-2 win that clinched the fifth all-time trip to the College World Series for the program.
“Getting to Omaha our first year, it’s a dream come true,” said Teel, who first became a UVa baseball fan while watching the Wahoos in the 2014 CWS Finals during a hospital visit. “That’s what I wanted to do when I was little. Virginia was always my dream school.”
This isn’t the first time Brian O’Connor has gotten a legend-making hit from a freshman to send Virginia back to the College World Series. The last time the Hoos reached Omaha, in 2015, it was on a walk-off hit by first-year second baseman Ernie Clement to beat Maryland in the second game of the Charlottesville Super Regional. Clement was one of three freshmen, along with first baseman Pavin Smith and outfielder/pitcher Adam Haseley, who played pivotal roles during that national championship run.
After Monday’s victory, O’Connor said Teel shared an essential trait with those first-years from six years ago.
“I’ll tell you the characteristic: Fearless. Kyle Teel is fearless,” the head coach said. “He isn’t afraid, and to win games at this elite level of baseball, you not only have to have skill, you can’t be afraid. You will crumble at times when pressure’s on if you’re afraid. He’s not afraid.”
“I love the quote, ‘No pressure, no diamonds.’ It’s my favorite quote,” added Teel. “It’s difficult. There’s a lot of emotions involved, but just controlling those emotions and accepting all the pressure and doing the best you can is all that matters.”
Wyatt was the beneficiary of the newfound lead that came from Teel’s first career grand slam. The breakout star of last Sunday’s 3-2 win against South Carolina in a regional-round elimination game, Wyatt was again overpowering on Monday. His velocity hit 97 mph on the radar gun at Founders Park. He got ahead in the count 0-1 against 14 of the 21 hitters he faced. Take away an intentional walk and two first-pitch balls in play for outs and that improves to 14 of 18.
After the Wahoos moved in front, Wyatt only needed 10 pitches to retire the Patriots in order in the eighth. He worked around a two-out single in the ninth to secure his second win of this NCAA Tournament. His final line: No runs on two hits in 5.2 innings with two walks and eight strikeouts.
Wyatt headed to Columbia almost two weeks ago with a 5.40 ERA on the season. When he got on the bus back to Charlottesville Monday evening, after totaling 10.2 scoreless innings across his two NCAA Tournament outings that ERA had dropped to 3.79.
“He attacked the mound like he did last weekend against South Carolina,” O’Connor said, “and boy, he just had an amazing pitching performance.”
Both Wyatt and UVa starter Nate Savino also benefited from some key defensive plays. Nic Kent twice showed off his range to rob his DBU counterpart at shortstop, Blayne Jones, of base hits, both to start the second inning and to end the eighth. Kent also hit his eighth homer of the season at the plate to cut the Patriots’ lead to 2-1 in the fourth inning.
But the biggest highlight for the Hoos defensively came in the top of the seventh. Leading off the inning, Andres Sosa took Wyatt’s 2-1 pitch deep to center field. Like with Teel’s long fly ball a half-inning later, Wyatt got an immediate suspicion.
“When he hit it, I was kind of thinking in my head like, ‘That’s not where I wanted to put that pitch,’” he admitted.
Wyatt watched as Chris Newell backpedaled in center field. He stopped just short of the wall, reached high with his glove hand and leaped to make the catch. Instead of a Sosa home run that would have extended the Patriots’ lead back to two runs, it went down in the box score as a long out.
As Teel summarized afterward, “That catch from Chris Newell was awesome.”
Jake Gelof led off the bottom of the seventh with a single, then advanced to second on a Logan Michaels sac bunt. With two outs, the Patriots pitched around Zack Gelof then, with left-handed hitters Max Cotier and Teel coming up for the Hoos, went to Sherlin out of the bullpen. Virginia had been 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position before Cotier chopped a ball up the middle for an infield hit that loaded the bases for Teel.
“It’s these moments that players have to emerge, and Teel did,” O’Connor said. “It was his day to step up and I’m just really, really proud of the poise and the calmness that our guys had shown today and these last two weeks.”
Two weeks ago, none of O’Connor’s current players had experienced NCAA Tournament baseball. A little more than two months ago, the Wahoos were buried in a 4-12 hole in the ACC. Now 6-0 when facing elimination this postseason, that same group will travel to Omaha later this week to open pool play at the College World Series on Sunday against Tennessee.
Led on Monday by a first-year catcher-turned-outfielder who can’t seem to keep his helmet on, O’Connor watched his entire team once again keep its head with its season at stake.
“I told the team when we got off the bus before we walked into the stadium, I told them the calmer, more poised team will prevail,” he said. “And they’ve earned this opportunity. The team that does it the right way and controls their emotions will prevail. So, just proud of them.”
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