The UVA baseball team scored in each of the first six innings in rolling to a 15-3 win over George Washington Wednesday at Davenport Field. Justin Novak (So., Tokyo, Japan) went 3-for-4 with a home run and a career-high five RBI to highlight a 16-hit day for the Cavaliers (19-12).
“Last night (at VCU) was really frustrating and I talked to the team a lot afterwards about taking the fight to the opponent,” Virginia head coach Brian O’Connor said. “I felt like we were taking punches last night rather than giving them. I was disappointed in the outcome last night and I told them that we needed to start throwing punches first. I thought we set the tone in the first inning and that was good to see.”
Ernie Clement (So., Rochester, N.Y.), Adam Haseley (So., Windermere, Fla.) and Pavin Smith (So., Jupiter, Fla.) each had a pair of hits for the Cavaliers. Bobby Campbell had two hits for GW (11-19), which finished with nine hits.
Virginia chopped the game up and used six pitchers, with starter David Rosenberger (Sr., Bethlehem, Pa.) earning the winning after working three scoreless innings. Rosenberger (2-0) allowed two hits and two walks while striking out one. GW used five pitchers, with starter Jordan Sheinkop (1-3) taking the loss after allowing seven runs in two-plus innings.
Virginia batted around and scored five runs in the first inning. Haseley cranked the first pitch over the wall in right-center for his fourth home run of the year (second in as many nights) and his first career leadoff homer. It was UVA’s first home run to lead off a game since Ernie Clement hit a homer to open the La Salle game on Feb. 21, 2015.
After GW recorded two quick outs, the next six UVA batters reached base safely. Smith doubled and the following four batters walked before Novak hit a two-run single to center for a 5-0 lead.
Smith doubled home Clement with two outs in the second inning. Novak hit a safety squeeze in the third, and Haseley followed with a run-scoring double to give UVA an 8-0 edge.
The lead ballooned to 9-0 in the fourth inning on a Kevin Doherty (Sr., Laytonsville, Md.) RBI single. In the fifth inning, Novak came around to score when Clement’s single to center was booted by Joey Bartosic. Clement trotted home on the next play when Matt Thaiss (Jr., Jackson, N.J.) lined a single to center. The single extended Thaiss’s hit streak to a career-long 10 games.
Virginia stretched the lead to 15-0 with four runs in the sixth inning, capped by a two-run homer to left field by Novak, his first college long ball.
GW broke up the shutout with a pair of runs in the eighth inning and then added a run in the ninth.
Virginia travels to Chestnut Hill, Mass., this weekend (Friday through Sunday) for a three-game series against Boston College. It marks UVA’s first trip to BC since the 2011 season. The teams play at 2:30 p.m. Friday, 1:30 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday.
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Chris Graham
