The No. 21 UVA baseball team finished off a three-game series against Pitt with a 9-1 victory Sunday afternoon at Cost Field in Pittsburgh. Adam Haseley (So., Windermere, Fla.) pitched eight shutout innings as the Cavaliers (30-17, 14-10 ACC) recorded their first series sweep of the season and pushed their win streak to five games.
“Adam Haseley was terrific today,” Virginia head coach Brian O’Connor said. “He’s been pitching great baseball all year long. Certainly what we did this weekend as a team is difficult to do, sweeping a league opponent on the road, and it was led today by Adam. He was in complete control of the game, and he seems to go out there every time and give us a chance to win. He was very impressive.”
Virginia recorded 16 hits, a season high in ACC play. Every UVA starter had a least one hit, led by a three-hit day from Ernie Clement (So., Rochester, N.Y.). In the midst of an eight-game road trip, the program’s longest since 1999, UVA improved to 6-1, including ACC series wins at Miami and Pitt.
Haseley (7-2) allowed five hits and did not walk a batter while striking out three as he matched a career high with eight innings pitched. Pitt starter Josh Falk (2-6) took the loss after allowing two runs (one earned), four hits and a walk in two innings of work as Pitt (21-17, 8-12) was swept for the first time in ACC play this year.
Virginia scored in each of the first three innings in building a 5-0 lead. Clement led off the game with a single and moved to third when Falk threw away a bunt attempt by Justin Novak (So., Tokyo, Japan). Clement scored on a Matt Thaiss (Jr., Jackson, N.J.) sacrifice fly.
UVA added a run in the second on a two-out RBI single from Novak, then tacked on three runs in the third inning against reliever Tyler Garbee. After a leadoff walk to Pavin Smith (So., Jupiter, Fla.), Daniel Pinero (Jr., Toronto, Ontario) ripped a run-scoring double to left-center. Haseley then hit a rocket off the right-field wall for a single, easily scoring Pinero. With runners on the corners and facing reliever Isaac Mattson, Cameron Simmons (Fr., Royersford, Pa.) grounded into a double play to bring home Haseley.
Smith lined a home run over the right-field wall with two outs in the seventh inning to push the UVA lead to 6-0. It was his sixth long ball of the year.
Virginia got a two-run triple to center with two outs in the eighth inning from Clement, and Smith drove in Thaiss with a grounder in the ninth.
Pitt broke up the shutout with one out in the ninth inning on a Caleb Parry RBI single.
Virginia wraps up its eight-game road swing at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Liberty before heading into a nine-day break for final exams.
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Chris Graham
