The UVA baseball team scored four runs in the fourth inning, highlighted by a three-run home run from Kenny Towns (Sr., Burke, Va.) in earning a 5-2 win over Liberty Wednesday night at Davenport Field. The Cavaliers (26-15) have won five of their last six games and now have won 13 of their last 14 contests against Liberty (25-16).
“That was as good of a team victory as we have had this season,” Virginia head coach Brian O’Connor said. “What I mean by that is collectively – the pitchers that contributed, the start by Adam Haseley, the work from Tommy Doyle, the really great job from our middle infield, Justin Novak and Thomas Woodruff – we had a lot of guys stepping up. And we were able to punch across four runs in the third inning and that ended up being enough.”
Adam Haseley (Fr., Windermere, Fla.) made his first UVa start and worked four shutout innings to earn his first win at UVa. Haseley (1-0) allowed four hits and struck out four while not walking a batter. After Tommy Doyle (Fr., Vienna, Va.) and Alec Bettinger (So., Woodbridge, Va.) each worked two innings out of the bullpen, Josh Sborz (Jr., McLean, Va.) pitched a perfect ninth inning to earn his ACC-leading 12th save.
Liberty starter Parker Bean (3-4) pitched three innings, giving up four earned runs, four hits and a walk while fanning one in taking the loss.
Both teams recorded eight hits. Virginia’s hits were distributed amongst seven players, while Robbie Coman (Jr., Lake Worth, Fla.) was the lone Cavaliers to pick up two hits. In addition to starting on the mound, Haseley was 1-for-4 and scored a run during the four-run third inning. UVa played without starting shortstop Daniel Pinero (So., Toronto, Ontario), who sat out after being struck in the face by a pitch on Tuesday night. His streak of 82 straight starts came to an end.
Virginia scored four runs in the third inning, which later proved to be all the Cavaliers would need. With one out Justin Novak (Fr., Tokyo, Japan) was hit by a pitch. One out later Haseley stroked a singled into right field to send Novak to third. Bean uncorked a wild pitch, with Novak sliding in safely just before the tag at the plate. Matt Thaiss (So., Jackson, N.J.) drew a walk, and after a coaching visit to the mound, Towns cranked the first pitch well over the left-center field wall for a three-run homer, his fourth home run of the year.
Liberty got on the board in the seventh inning. Andrew Yacyk led off with a high fly to center that carried in the wind and dropped on the warning track for a triple. After Josh Close walked, Bettinger came in and induced a double-play ball from Clay Keranen, with Yacyk scoring on the play.
The Flames pulled within 4-2 in the seventh inning on a solo home run from Will Shepherd, but UVa got the run back in the eighth inning when Charlie Cody (Fr., Chesapeake, Va.) and Thomas Woodruff (Sr., Clifton, Va.) hit back-to-back doubles.
Virginia hits the road for its next four games heading into the exam break. UVa travels to NC State Friday through Sunday for a three-game ACC series and faces Old Dominion Tuesday (April 28) at Harbor Park in Norfolk, Va. UVa goes into its exam break on April 29 and returns to play May 8-10 with a home series against Duke.
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