The No. 10 Virginia baseball team held on to defeat Duke, 7-6, Saturday afternoon (March 12) at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park in Durham, N.C.
Matt Thaiss (Jr., Jackson, N.J.) had three hits and two RBI, while Adam Haseley (So., Windermere, Fla.) and Ernie Clement (So., Rochester, N.Y.) each added two to lead the Cavaliers (11-4, 2-0 ACC) to the series win. UVA will look to sweep the series with Duke (8-7, 0-2 ACC) Sunday. The finale has been moved up an hour because of inclement weather in Sunday’s forecast.
After starting pitcher Daniel Lynch (Fr. Henrico, Va.) allowed four runs (three earned) in 3.2 innings of work, Tyler Shambora (Jr., Venice, Fla.) came on and threw 3.1 innings of scoreless relief to earn his first collegiate win (1-0).
“Tyler really charged the mound today and threw strikes for the most part,” UVA head baseball coach Brian O’Connor said. “He has a lot of guts and certainly made a big step forward for us in a huge win.”
The Blue Devils took advantage of a Cavalier error in the bottom of the second to score the opening run when Lynch could not handle a throw while covering at first base. UVA came back in the third when Ryan Karstetter (Fr., State College, Pa.) led off with a walk and scored on a single by Haseley.
After Duke scored three in the bottom of the fourth, UVA came right back again with three of its own in the top of the fifth. Five-consecutive Cavaliers reached base, highlighted by an RBI single by Clement and a two-run double to right-center field by Thaiss.
Virginia took the lead in the seventh when Clement scored on a wild pitch and Thaiss came home on a sac fly by Kevin Doherty (Sr., Laytonsville, Md.). Daniel Pinero (Jr., Toronto, Ontario) gave UVA a 7-4 lead when he scored on an infield single by Karstetter, who hustled down the line and beat the throw.
Jack Labosky hit a two-run home run to pull the Blue Devils within one in the ninth, but Alec Bettinger (Jr., Woodbridge, Va.) closed the door for his fourth save.
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