The Virginia baseball team clinched a series win over East Carolina with a 4-3 victory Saturday afternoon in front of 3,027 fans at Davenport Field. Tyler Wilson (Sr., Midlothian, Va.) pitched 6.1 innings and struck out 10, while John Hicks (Jr., Sandy Hook, Va.) went 3-for-4 to pace the Cavaliers, who improved to 6-0 on the young season.
Wilson (2-0) earned the win and worked into the seventh inning for the first time as a starting pitcher. He allowed three runs (two earned) and seven hits and did not walk a batter. Virginia’s bullpen – Kyle Crockett (Fr., Poquoson, Va.), Justin Thompson (Jr., Danville, Va.) and Branden Kline (So., Frederick, Md.) – combined to allow just one hit over the final 2.2 innings. Kline picked up his third save this year.
In the first two games of the series, Virginia’s pitching staff has struck out 31 batters and walked none.
ECU starter Zach Woods (0-1) took the loss for the Pirates (3-2) after working 5.2 innings and allowing three runs (two earned), four hits and one walk. He struck out three.
Hicks recorded half of the Cavaliers’ six hits. Jared King (Jr., Radford, Va.) picked up one of the Cavaliers’ biggest hits of the day with a pinch-hit RBI double to push UVa ahead for good as part of a three-run sixth inning.
East Carolina took the early lead with a first-inning run as Trent Whitehead led off with a double to left. Tim Younger and Corey Thompson followed with back-to-back groundouts to shortstop to advance Whitehead for the game’s first run.
UVa manufactured a run of its own in the third inning. Chris Taylor (So., Virginia Beach, Va.) led off with a bunt single. He moved to second on a Keith Werman groundout and advanced on a wild pitch. Steven Proscia (Jr., Suffern, N.Y.) grounded out to shortstop to to score Taylor and tie the game.
ECU took the lead back in the fifth inning on a leadoff home run to right field by Philip Clark, his first long ball of the year.
The Cavaliers forged ahead with a three-run sixth inning. With one out Danny Hultzen lined a single to left-center field and then stole second. Hicks reached base on a throwing error by shortstop Jack Reinheimer, with Hultzen moving to third on the play. With Hicks running John Barr (Sr., Ivyland, Pa.) grounded out to second base to score Hultzen and tie the game. Kevin Brandt came on in relief, but King ripped his first pitch to left field for a double to score Hicks and give UVa a 3-2 lead. Kenny Swab (Sr., Kernersville, N.C.) drew a walk, with King moving to third on a wild pitch on ball four. Swab then was caught off first base; in the ensuing rundown, Swab stayed alive long enough for King to come home to push the lead to 4-2.
That run proved key in the following inning. With one out Clark reached second base on a dropped fly ball in right-center by Swab. He moved to third on a single by pinch hitter Ben Fultz. Crockett relieved Wilson and gave up a chopper over the mound, which second baseman Keith Werman (Jr., Vienna, Va.) fielded and tossed out Whitehead, with Clark scoring on the play to cut the UVa lead to 4-3.
Thompson retired four straight batters – three by strikeout – before Kline came on in the ninth. He allowed a one-out single to Drew Reynolds, but then picked him off and struck out Clark to end the game.
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Chris Graham
