In its lone road exhibition of the fall, UVA Baseball topped Liberty, 11-3 on Friday night at Liberty Baseball Stadium.
The Cavaliers jumped out to an 11-0 lead before Liberty broke through in the 11th inning. The two teams played a predetermined 12 innings.
A combination of six pitchers scattered four hits and kept the Liberty offense off the board until the 11th inning. Starting pitcher Griff McGarry (Portola Valley, Calif.) struck out four batters while allowing one hit over two innings of work. He gave way to Chesdin Harrington (Montpelier, Va.) who worked three hitless innings and struck out three batters. Zach Messinger (Chandler Ind.) rounded off the multiple-inning hurlers by sitting down six of the seven batters he faced in two scoreless frames.
Home runs by Logan Michaels (DeForest, Wis.) and Zack Gelof (Rehoboth Beach, Del.) highlighted the Cavalier offense. Michaels tagged a two-run shot in the sixth inning and finished the night 1-for-2 with two runs scored and two RBI. Gelof cleared the left field wall in the eighth as part of a 2-for-3 effort at the plate.
Junior Devin Ortiz (Irvington, N.J.) got the scoring started for the Cavaliers in the second inning with a two-out, two-RBI single to left. He added a run-scoring hit in the ninth and finished 2-for-4 with three RBI.
As part of a four-run sixth inning that enabled Virginia to jump out to a 6-0 advantage, freshman Tate Ballestero (Morristown, N.J.) tripled to score Gelof. Ballestero later scored on the Micheals two-run shot and was 2-for-5 with two runs and three RBI in his fall debut.
The Virginia bullpen trio of Stephen Schoch (Laurel, Md.), Kyle Whitten (Manassas, Va.) and Matt Wyatt (Timonium, Md.) each tossed a scoreless inning of relief to complete run of 10 shutout innings for the Cavalier pitching staff.
The Cavaliers return home on Monday (Sept. 30) to host the Ontario Blue Jays in a scrimmage at Disharoon Park. First pitch is scheduled for 3 p.m. Admission to all fall contests is free.
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Chris Graham
