Photo © Peter Aiken/Getty Images.
After an extremely lengthy tournament, yesterday the College World Series officially concluded with the deciding game three between Virginia and Vanderbilt. And in miraculous fashion, Virginia overcame a 1-0 series deficit to defeat Vanderbilt in game three and take home their first NCAA baseball championship.
Virginia has had a long and arduous journey to the finals. A young team dealing with a lot of injuries, they were able to battle through adversity for the school’s first national championship. Their 41-24 record (15-15 in ACC play) displays a group that simply got hot at the right time, which has started to become a staple in the CWS: Virginia is the fourth champion in a row to not enter the tournament seeded and the tenth over the last twelve years, according to ESPN.
Best of all, their improbable run, which gave the ACC their first champion since Wake Forest in 1955, was concluded with yet another come from behind victory: they have done this in seven of their ten postseason victories. And the icing on the cake has to be defeating Vanderbilt, who defeated them in the CWS finals just a year ago.
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Many expected Vanderbilt to close the series after their round opening 5-1 blowout, but Virginia battled back with some fantastic pitching. The combined effort of Adam Haseley and Josh Sborz shutout the Commodores in game two and a wonderfully mature seven-inning performance from Brandon Waddell secured last night’s 4-2 victory.
In fact, when Vanderbilt jumped on Waddell early, scoring two runs in the first inning, many expected a long day for the junior. But after the first, he buckled down and allowed only two more hits from the very strong Vandy bats. And teammate Pavin Smith did the rest, homering in the fourth to even the game and driving in a total of three runs on the day.
Simply, this win capped a surprising turnaround season for the Cavaliers, who nearly missed their conference tournament a few months ago.
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