UConn capitalizes on Virginia Tech's errors for upset

Alejandro Zúñiga Sacks | USA TODAY Sports

BLACKSBURG, Va. — Cinderella is in town, and the clock hasn't hit midnight just yet.

After winning the Big East tournament to earn a berth in the NCAA Tournament as the Blacksburg regional's No. 4 seed, the University of Connecticut baseball team survived a late rally to stun No. 1 Virginia Tech 5-2 on Friday evening. The Huskies (35-26) move into the winners' bracket and will face No. 2 Oklahoma on Saturday afternoon.

Connecticut took advantage of a pair of Hokies fielding errors in the fifth inning to bury Virginia Tech (38-21) in a deep hole. With one out, shortstop Tom Verdi reached when third baseman Andrew Rash bobbled a slow roller on the artificial turf. The speedy junior stole second and later trotted home on LJ Mazzilli's single that landed just fair inside the right-field line. After Connecticut's ninth hit plated Billy Ferriter, a botched throw on a routine toss from catcher Chad Morgan back to the mound gifted the Huskies a fourth run.

"We got fortunate — we got some breaks," Connecticut coach Jim Penders said. "But also I thought we applied good pressure with our bats all night."

The Huskies tallied 16 hits — all singles — but it almost wasn't enough. Virginia Tech threatened to overcome a three-run deficit in the seventh inning by loading the bases for cleanup hitter Tyler Horan, but the junior flied out harmlessly to shallow right field. Down four, the Hokies put two runners on in the ninth with nobody out but closer Pat Butler slammed the door after allowing only one run.

"That's the game. That's why nobody hits 1.000," Virginia Tech coach Pete Hughes said. "Those kids are up in pressure situations and they deliver a lot of the time, but sometimes they don't."

The Hokies fall into the losers' bracket of the double-elimination tournament and will face Coastal Carolina on Saturday afternoon. They must win four straight to advance to the NCAA Tournament's super regional round.

Virginia Tech left hander Joe Mantiply needed just seven pitches to retire Connecticut in the first inning, but the visitors didn't go down as easily the rest of the game. The Huskies strung together three singles in the second — the last a blooper into left field by sophomore right fielder Jon Testani — to grab an early lead.

Mantiply's counterpart on the mound, Connecticut pitcher Carson Cross's stellar performance stymied Virginia Tech's potent offense. The hard-throwing rightie worked himself into a jam when he walked a pair of batters on eight pitches in the fourth inning, but he recovered by striking out the next two Hokies he faced. Cross couldn't produce the same magic when Virginia Tech put runners on first and third with just one out the following frame, but running catches by Testani in right field limited the damage to one.

"That's a sign of an ace. That's why he is our ace." Penders said. "In those spots with two outs, he was really good."

Cross's previous outing was a nine-inning, 119-pitch gem in a 3-2 victory against Louisville in the first round of the Big East tournament that sparked Connecticut's magical run to the NCAA Tournament. On Friday, he scattered six hits across 6.1 innings and surrendered just a single run against the region's top seed.

"When the pressure's on, we like to step up to the pressure," Cross said.

Jake Joyce assumed pitching responsibilities for Virginia Tech with two outs in the fourth inning, and a run on a ninth-inning sacrifice fly was the only blemish on his four innings of relief. But his performance wasn't enough, and Connecticut escaped the tense ninth inning to put the Hokies on the brink of postseason elimination.