Virginia Baseball Hits Insanely Short Home Run After Ball Embarrassingly Bounces Off Outfielder's Glove Over Wall
Virginia baseball infielder Jake Gelof's third home run of the season was the shortest of his career. It was not even hit over the outfield wall, technically.
With one on and one out in the bottom of the second inning against Longwood, Gelof stepped into the box with the count at 2-0. He saw the offering barreling down toward the dish and liked what he saw.
Gelof reared back, swung forward and put his bat on the ball. It sounded good off of the bat, but the ball quickly died at the warning track.
There, in centerfield, stood visiting outfielder Michael Dolberry II — who probably wishes he could have a second chance at the fly ball. The attempted out did not end well for him.
It ended well for Virginia.
Dolberry broke slightly to his left and failed to get square under the pop up. Instead, he leaped and tried to make the grab with only his glove hand.
Unfortunately, Dolberry's jump was ill-timed. He probably didn't even need to jump.
As Dolberry contorted his body to try and make the play, the ball finally came down off of Gelof's bat, hit the glove and bounced out. It hung in the air for a moment before hitting the batter's eye above the yellow line.
What should have been the second out of the inning became an embarrassing two-run home run.
To give Dolberry the benefit of the doubt, the sun was hanging right over home plate at Scott Stadium. Maybe he lost the ball off of Gelof's bat, tried to adjust, and simply did too much. For his sake, let's hope that's what happened.
Although Dolberry's blunder was hard to watch, it was not the root of Longwood's loss. Virginia won by 24 runs.
Oof.