DURHAM, N.C. — Every player in the Virginia dugout packed up to the top step of the short stairway leading onto the field.
Derek Casey had been elite almost the entire afternoon. He pitched 7 2/3 innings. After striking out the first two batters of the eighth, he allowed a walk and a double, forcing a pitching change. But his late struggles did nothing to erase his pitching to that point. It did nothing to take away from a season where he developed into the team’s ace.
So as Casey walked off, likely for his final time in a Virginia uniform, the players started an ovation and walked on to the field to greet him.
There was meaning in a game that, for all intents and purposes, was devoid of it.
Virginia won 4-2 to close out its season with the type of win that it struggled to capture for all of the previous three months. For the first time in 15 years, UVa’s season ends in May and it ends without an NCAA Tournament berth.
Virginia and N.C. State was, in no uncertain terms, an inconsequential game. The Cavaliers’ postseason hopes were doused with Tuesday’s loss to Florida State. N.C. State — a team basically assured to host an NCAA regional — couldn’t be eliminated from the ACC Tournament with a loss.
The Cavaliers are usually playing for more than pride in late May. But this was a uniquely unsuccessful season for UVa. And this game was being played in a unique format that assures two games.
It gave the Cavaliers a chance for a pseudo sendoff-type game. Casey struck out nine batters snf allowed two runs over his 7 2/3 innings. Andy Weber, also playing in his final game following a tremendous junior season, ended the year with his 19th double and an RBI. The same could be said for Jake McCarthy — a projected high draft pick, who had an RBI hit as well.
N.C. State got one run in the second inning on a Patrick Bailey home run. Josh McLain had an infield single to score a run in the third inning. The Cavaliers came back to score two in the third on the aforementioned RBI from McCarthy and Weber. Justin Novak walked, Tanner Morris singled, then McCarthy singled Novak home. Weber tied the game with a sac fly.
An inning later, Cayman Richardson scored on a throwing error to bring home the lead run.
As a whole, there was little drama in a game that’s very premise promised very little.
But that didn’t rob the contest of all meaning. After Casey came back to the dugout to a hero’s welcome, Bennett Sousa — pitching in his final game — entered and ended the eighth inning with an emotional strikeout, pumping himself up as he walked back to the dugout.
When he last pitched five days prior, Sousa allowed four runs on four walks while recording just five outs. His penultimate appearance would not be how he ended his college career. He sent down all four batters he faced.
The goal is always to end your season with a win. Three years ago, that win came with a national championship in Omaha. The whole season has been a reminder that this program is not the same as it was then. But the Cavaliers get to go out on top — or with a win, at least.