Daniel Lynch had his fastball zipping as hard, if not harder, than he had all season on Monday night. With Virginia’s series finale with Georgia Tech delayed deep into the night by thunderstorms, Lynch started the game determined to end the game before the clock turned to Tuesday.
After letting two reach in the third inning, including the walk of a hitter batting .131, Lynch came back to strike out the leading hitter in the ACC, Chase Murray, who smashed his bat in frustration.
"I thought Daniel Lynch was really terrific tonight," said head coach Brian O'Connor. "He certainly had a lot of strikeouts. He was in complete command of the game. ... I thought Lynch was really, really special."
Lynch turned in one of his best starts of the season, striking out 13 batters over seven innings. He allowed two earned runs while throwing 123 pitches and powering the Cavaliers’ 8-4 win over Georgia Tech. UVa (27-21, 11-16 ACC) struck out 17 Yellow Jacket batters on the evening.
The storylines entering the game was a 151-minute rain delay that pushed the finale of the game to 12:49 a.m., and the return of Jake McCarthy, who missed 34 games and hadn’t played since March 6.
But Lynch stole the show.
"I really was attacking the strike zone," Lynch said. "Just trying to get ahead of guys. I wasn't doing a great job of that early in the game, but then once I settled in, just really trying to work ahead of guys."
McCarthy finished 2-for-3 with an RBI. Alex Tappen was 3-for-4 with a triple and a loud two-run home run. Nate Eikhoff had three hits, and Brendan Rivoli had two hits and an RBI. Cameron Comer had two RBI.
The win all but clinches UVa a spot in the upcoming ACC Tournament. The only way the Cavaliers could miss out is if they lose all three games at Wake Forest this upcoming weekend, Virginia Tech wins all three of its remaining ACC games and Pittsburgh loses all three games. The win also provided a minor boost to any fledging at-large NCAA Tournament hopes that might arise for the Cavaliers over the next two weeks.
"We definitely watching the Miami and (Virginia) Tech series, what happened there," Lynch said. "We know that. It's not something the coaches talk about, but you know, we have social media and we see that type of stuff."
With dozens of scouts in attendance, Lynch’s velocity was consistently hitting 93 miles per hour on the radar gun. He kept one of the best lineups in the conference flailing throughout most of the night.
Many of those scouts were also likely there to see McCarthy, who has first-round potential. McCarthy hit a sacrifice fly in his first at-bat, then had a sharp single up the middle and an infield single to follow that.
"It was 6-to-8 (weeks), that's what we were thinking," said McCarthy, who missed 10 weeks. So we figured it'd be toward the back half. The main concern was just getting healthy, and now I am, and it's good to be back".
Georgia Tech (28-24, 12-14 ACC) cut a 4-0 Virginia lead to 4-3 in the sixth behind a long home run from Joey Bart — who finished with two homers on the night — and a dropped pop-up from UVa second-baseman Andy Weber. But the Cavaliers extended the lead to 6-3 in the seventh on a fielder’s choice ground out from Comer and a Rivoli single right after.
"We're all just focused on one win at a time, one game at a time, just trying to make a little run to end the season for a postseason push," Tappen said. "It was a good game."
After Lynch allowed those two runs in the top of the sixth inning to close the gap to one run, he went into the dugout and showed frustration at the way the last inning had transpired, slamming his glove. Already near the century mark in pitches, he was still sent out to pitch the seventh inning.
That’s when he struck out the side with complete dominance.
"When you're competing and you're in the heat of the game, you can get a little too fired up sometimes," Lynch said. "That's what happened. I was frustrated that I didn't make a couple pitches. Just to be able to come back was really good.
In what will likely be the final home start of his college career, Lynch tossed one of the best games of his career.
"I was warming up in the batting cages," Lynch said, "so I didn't get to experience it as much. But I'm so grateful for my whole career here. This being the last time, it'll probably take a little while to settle in."