Virginia improved to 2-0 in the Charlottesville Regional with a 10-2 win over St. John’s on Saturday night before a Davenport Field record crowd of 5,050. The Cavaliers, the No. 1 national seed, tied the school record with their 51st win of the season. UVa advances to the regional championship game at 6 p.m. Sunday. St. John’s and East Carolina will play an elimination game at 1 p.m. Sunday to determine the Cavaliers’ opponent. Fewer than 800 tickets remain for the 6 p.m. championship game.
Danny Hultzen picked up the win for Virginia, striking out 12 batters while allowing one run on three hits in seven innings of work. Hultzen, who improved to 11-3 this season, set a new school record with 148 strikeouts this season, breaking the record of 146 set by Tim Burcham in 1985.
Kyle Hansen (8-7) took the loss for the Red Storm, giving up a season-high six runs on seven hits in 4.1 innings.
Steven Proscia and David Coleman led Virginia offensively, each going 3-for-5 and combining to drive in seven of the 10 Cavalier runs. Jared King added two hits for Virginia. Joe Panik led St. John’s with two hits.
The Cavaliers (51-9) jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the top of the first. John Barr walked and scored on Proscia’s two-run homer into the leftfield bleachers. It was Proscia’s team-leading eighth homer of the season.
Virginia doubled its lead with a pair of runs in the top of the fourth. Proscia led off the inning with a double and came around to score on a two-out RBI single by Coleman. Coleman stole second and scored on King’s RBI single that made the score 4-0.
In the fifth inning the Cavaliers extended the lead to 7-0. Chris Taylor was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning and Hicks drew a one-out walk. Proscia’s grounder bounced over the head of the shortstop for a single that drove in Taylor. Hicks scored as Hultzen delivered an RBI single to right. With two outs, Coleman’s single up the middle brought in Proscia for the third run of the inning.
St. John’s (36-21) got on the scoreboard with a run in the bottom of the fifth. Matt Wessinger reached after being hit by a pitch and scored on Kevin Grove’s two-out triple to left-center.
Virginia added a run to make the score 8-1 in the top of the sixth. Keith Werman led off with a single and came around to score on Hicks’ sacrifice fly.
In the top of the ninth, Virginia added two runs for a 10-1 lead. Barr reached on an error to lead off the inning. After Reed Gragnani and Kenny Swab walked to load the bases, Coleman drove in two with a two-out single to center.
St. John’s scored one run in the bottom of the ninth. Panik led off the inning with a solo homer to right, his team-leading 10th home run of the season.
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Chris Graham
