#16 UVA baseball defeats Towson, 8-4

The No. 16 UVA baseball team finished off a two-game midweek sweep of Towson with an 8-4 victory Wednesday at Davenport Field. Eight Virginia pitchers combined to limit Towson (8-7) to just two hits in the win as the Cavaliers improved to 17-5 on the season.

Making his first college start, Virginia’s Chesdin Harrington (So., Montpelier, Va.) matched a career high by working three innings. Harrington (1-0) allowed just two baserunners via an error and a wild pitch on a strikeout. Harrington has yet to allow a run in 12 innings over six appearances this season.

UVA pitchers struggled with control the rest of the way, walking nine batters from the fifth through eighth innings, but Grant Donahue (So., Berlin, Md.) struck out five batters in the seventh and eighth innings before Tyler Shambora (Sr., Venice, Fla.) worked a perfect ninth.

Pavin Smith (Jr., Jupiter, Fla.) homered and drove in a pair of runs for Virginia, which finished with a season-low six hits. Jake McCarthy (So., Scranton, Pa.) had a pair of hits for the Cavaliers.

Towson starter Alex Cuas (1-2) allowed just one hit over three innings, but was victimized by four walks and his defense as he allowed six runs (two earned).

UVA took advantage of three Towson errors in the first innings to grab a quick 4-0 lead. Smith’s RBI groundout opened the scoring, but the lone hit of the inning, a two-run triple to right by Andy Weber (So., Aurora, Ohio), gave the Cavaliers a 3-0 edge. A fielding error by shortstop Richie Palacios then allowed Weber to come home on a Nate Eikhoff (So., Bristow, Va.) grounder.

The Cavaliers added a pair of runs in the third, loading the bases with one out following three Cuas walks before he uncorked a wild pitch to score Adam Haseley (Jr., Windermere, Fla.) and Eikhoff hit a sac fly to center to bring Smith home.

Towson got on the board with an unearned run in the fourth inning on a Colin Dyer single to bring home Richard Miller, who reached on a two-out error by UVA pitcher Bennett Sousa (Jr., North Palm Beach, Fla.). The Tigers scored two runs off of five Virginia walks in the fifth inning to cut the lead to 6-3.

Smith swatted a leadoff home run to right field in the bottom of the fifth, his sixth homer of the year.

Towson scored its final run in the sixth as Logan Burke hit a sac fly to score Trey Martinez, who drew a leadoff walk.

UVA added a run in its half of the sixth on an Ernie Clement (Jr., Rochester, N.Y.) groundout to plate Cameron Comer (So., Powell, Ohio).

Virginia remains home this weekend with a three-game ACC series against Duke, beginning at 4 p.m. Friday. The series airs on ACC Network Extra, which is available to authenticated subscribers of ESPN3 through WatchESPN and the ESPN app. Live statistics also are available on VirginiaSports.com.