May 31 - St Stephen’s & St. Agnes graduate Josh Smith hit a game-winning Grand Slam to power the College of William & Mary to an automatic berth, and local players helped defending national champion Virginia earn a top seed in the Division I NCAA Tournament, which opens with regional play this weekend.
Smith hit his bases-loaded round-tripper in the bottom of the eighth inning to give the Tribe the lead in a 14-9 triumph over UNC-Wilmington in the Colonial Athletic Association’s championship game on Sunday in Charleston, S.C. The senior outfielder finished the day with three hits and seven RBI, and was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player.
“I went up there and that was probably the calmest I’ve been in an at-bat in the past two or three weeks,” Smith told CAA.tv after the game. “I knew I was going to do something special there, and the first pitch, I got it. It was pretty amazing.”
The Tribe (29-29) will open regional play in Charlottesville on Friday at 1 p.m. against top seed Virginia (37-20) in a region that also includes Bryant and East Carolina. William & Mary has 13 players on its roster from Northern Virginia, including Nick Brown (Patriot) and Joey Gaouette (Manassas Park), the starter and closer, respectively, in the championship game victory.
Other Tribe players from Northern Virginia are pitchers Chase Bailey (Robinson), Mitchell Aker (Paul VI Catholic), Jason Waldman (Fairfax), Chris Lohr (Robinson), Dan Powers (Madison), Charlie Fletcher (Briar Woods), Andrew White (West Potomac) and John Yoest (Yorktown), infielder Kyle Wrighte (Freedom-South Riding), and outfielder Owen Socher (Madison).
The Cavaliers, meanwhile, won just one of three games in pool play at the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament, dropping one-run decisions to eventual champion Clemson and Wake Forest before beating Louisville, 7-2, in their final game. But the NCAA’s selection committee considered Virginia’s overall body of work this season and postseason pedigree in naming the Cavaliers as a host of one of the 16 regionals.
Last year, the Cavaliers traveled across the country to win its regional in California, then found some late-game magic to get past Maryland in the Super Regionals before claiming the first national title in program history in Omaha.
"I think it was good for us to experience last year - it made us handle the adversity - but I think you've got to appreciate being home,” Virginia coach Brian O’Connor told reporters in Charlottesville yesterday. “Nothing's better than playing in front of our crowd at home. There's a lot of energy. The atmosphere here is great."
Virginia has advanced to NCAAs in each of O’Connor’s 13 seasons at the school, and this will be the ninth time it has hosted a regional. The Cavaliers are seeking a fifth College World Series berth under O’Connor, who has had pitching coach Karl Kuhn and associate head coach Kevin McMullan with him throughout his entire tenure.
Virginia has three players from the area, including: freshman Nate Eikhoff (Patriot), who is hitting .287 with 17 RBI in 39 games in his rookie season; Tommy Doyle (Flint Hill), who is 2-5 with three saves and a 4.47 ERA in 58.1 innings over 20 appearances; and Alec Bettinger (C.D. Hylton), who is 2-5 with a 5.69 ERA in 54.1 innings over 22 appearances.
UNC-Wilmington (39-17) earned an at-large bid and will be a two seed in the Columbia, S.C., regional, opening play on Friday at 1 p.m. against Duke. Top seed South Carolina and Rhode Island are also in the regional.
The Seahawks feature three locals in Nick Feight (Battlefield), the CAA Player of the Year, as well as all-conference performers Brian Mims (Forest Park) and Austin Magestro (C.D. Hylton). Feight has been one of the country’s top offensive players, and enters the tournament hitting .358 with 21 home runs and 90 RBI. Mims is hitting .367 with 13 homers and 57 RBI, and Magestro is 5-3 with two saves and a 2.89 ERA in 43.2 innings over 28 appearances.
Three other local pitchers will take the field for NCAA-bound teams, including Nebraska’s Jake McSteen (Langley), Princeton’s Nick Brady (Madison) and Coastal Carolina’s Zack Hopeck (Heritage).
McSteen is 2-2 with a 4.56 ERA in 47.1 innings for the Cornhuskers (37-20), a Big 10 Conference at-large selection who open with Oklahoma State at 12 p.m. on Friday in the Clemson regional. Hopeck is 3-2 with a 3.15 ERA in 45.2 innings for the Big South champion Chanticleers (44-15), who play St. Mary’s at 2 p.m. on Friday in the Raleigh, N.C., regional. And Brady has a 4.02 ERA in 15.2 innings for the Ivy League champion Tigers (24-19), who open with host Louisiana-Lafayette at 8 p.m. on Friday.
Winners of the regionals will advance to one of the eight best-of-three Super Regionals beginning on June 10, with those winners advancing to Omaha for the College World Series, which begins play on June 18.
Photos of Josh Smith and Nate Eikhoff courtesy of Wiliam & Mary athletics and Virginia athletics, respectively.
