Devin Ortiz earned the win on the mound and also went 2-for-5 with two doubles and an RBI at the plate to key an 8-2 Virginia win over Richmond on Tuesday.
Making his fourth start on the mound this season, Ortiz logged four innings and struck out eight batters, one shy of matching his career high. He allowed hits to the first two batters of the game and did not allow a runner to reach second base in his final three frames.
Ortiz helped himself in the first inning with an RBI double that scored Griff O’Ferrall and gave third-ranked UVA a 1-0 advantage. The Cavaliers have scored in the first inning in 13 of the 25 games this season and improve to 21-0 when scoring first.
Casey Saucke recorded his 24th RBI of the season with a single in the second inning and the Cavaliers made 3-0 on an RBI infield single by Jake Gelof in the third. Gelof came into the contest with 46 RBI, the second most in college baseball.
After Richmond plated an unearned run in the fifth, UVA responded with three of its own after nine batters came to the plate. Saucke and Ethan Anderson were credited with RBI in the frame.
The final five innings of the game were finished by five UVA relievers. Matthew Buchanan, Dylan Bowers, Matt Wyatt and Will Geerdes combined for 3.2 shutout innings. The only hit surrendered by the Cavalier bullpen was an Andrew Papantonis home run off of Jay Woolfolk in the sixth. Each Cavalier reliever had one strikeout and the staff totaled 13 on the day.
Postgame: Virginia coach Brian O’Connor
“It was good team win, it wasn’t our best played game of the year. The defense was not of the caliber that we’ve been playing but that happens from time to time. A sign of a good team is still to find a way to win. I thought, Devin Ortiz went out there and gave us a nice start for four innings and we knew we were going to throw all those guys out of the bullpen and chop the game up. I thought they all did a really nice job and a few different players contributed offensively.”
Virginia will continue ACC play this weekend with a three-game series against No. 22 Georgia Tech. The series will begin on Friday with a 6 p.m. first pitch. The middle game is slated for a 4 p.m. start and the series concludes on Sunday at 1 p.m.
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