The No. 11 UVA baseball team recorded its first shutout of the season Monday, blanking Monmouth, 10-0, at Davenport Field. Derek Casey (Jr., Mechanicsville, Va.), Alec Bettinger (Sr., Woodbridge, Va.) and Riley Wilson (Jr., Midlothian, Va.) combined on a three-hitter for the Cavaliers (14-3).
“It was a good midweek win for us,” Virginia head coach Brian O’Connor said. “The story of the game to me was Alec Bettinger. He came in and completely locked the game down with five innings and seven strikeouts. He settled down and pitched fantastic for us. I thought we did a lot of good things, but that was certainly tremendous for us.”
Bettinger (1-0) worked five innings of relief, allowing two hits and two walks while striking out seven after coming into the game as an injury replacement for Casey, who started and worked three hitless innings before leaving the game after being hit in the wrist with a line drive by Ryan Crowley to open the fourth inning. Wilson struck out three straight batters looking to close out the game.
Adam Haseley (Jr., Windermere, Fla.) homered and tripled while scoring three runs and driving in two. Ernie Clement (Jr., Rochester, N.Y.) and Andy Weber (So., Aurora, Ohio) each went 3-for-4 with an RBI.
Monmouth starter Justin Andrews (0-2) took the defeat after allowing three runs (two earned), four hits and a walk in three innings. The Hawks (2-11) used eight pitchers in the defeat and were not helped by their defense, which committed five errors.
UVA scored twice with two outs in the first inning on a single to center by Robbie Coman (Gr., Lake Worth, Fla.). Clement scored on the hit, and Haseley also scored as the ball rolled under the glove of Crowley in center field.
Haseley smacked a solo home run into the right-field bleachers in the third inning. It was Haseley’s team-leading seventh homer of the year. The Cavaliers tacked on a run in the fourth on a two-out RBI single by Clement to score Nate Eikhoff (So., Bristow, Va.).
UVA blew the game open by sending 10 to the plate in a six-run eighth inning in which the Cavaliers benefitted from three Monmouth errors. A dropped foul ball during a Cameron Simmons (So., Royersford, Pa.) at bat opened the door, and he promptly drew a walk. He stole second and moved to third on a throwing error. After Justin Novak (Jr., Tokyo, Japan) walked, the two combined on a double steal, and Novak came all the way around to score when the throw sailed into center and Crowley injured himself and was unable to get the ball back into the infield. Weber added a run-scoring single and Haseley had an RBI triple off the left-field wall as part of the big inning.
Virginia travels to No. 10 Clemson this weekend (Friday through Sunday) for a three-game ACC series.
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