#3 Virginia just misses on no-no in 8-0 win at Wake Forest

Alex Tappen went deep twice, and four Virginia pitchers held Wake Forest to one hit, which came with two outs in the ninth, in an 8-0 Cavaliers win on Saturday.

Virginia (22-1, 7-1 ACC) had to go with Jake Berry (3-0, 1.98 ERA) as the emergency starter after scheduled starter Brian Gursky, a five-game winner in 2022, was scratched due to illness.

Berry, who had thrown 17.1 innings in nine appearances as a reliever coming in, did more than asked by coach Brian O’Connor, who hoped for at best four innings from the 6’10” lefty, striking out nine and walking four in five hitless innings.

Jay Woolfolk, the backup quarterback, struck out four in two innings of relief, and Paul Kosanovich took the combined no-hitter into the ninth.

Kosanovich, with two outs in the inning, got to two strikes on Zach Sehgal before walking him on a close 3-2 fastball, then got to an 0-2 count on Tommy Hawke, who put the two-strike pitch into play with a weak grounder to second, which saw Virginia second sacker Justin Rubin range to his right to try to get a forceout with a flip to shortstop Griff O’Ferrall.

Hawke beat the throw, and the infield hit broke up the no-no.

Kosanovich retired leadoff man Nick Kurtz to end it.

Virginia got on the board with a sacrifice fly RBI off the bat of Chris Newell that plated Jake Gelof in the top of the second.

Tappen, who also homered Friday in Virginia’s 8-2 Game 1 win, hit a two-run homer to left to make it 3-0 in the fourth.

Then in the fifth, after an intentional walk to Gelof to put runners at the corners with one down, Tappen took one out the opposite way to right for a three-run shot that made it 6-0.

Virginia added a pair of runs in the eighth on an error that plated Colin Tuft and a Kyle Teel RBI double.

Casey Saucke had two hits to extend his hitting streak to 21 games.

The finale for the three-game set will have a 1 p.m. Sunday first pitch. Virginia will go with lefty Brandon Neeck (2-0, 3.74 ERA, 21.2 IP, 9 BB, 21 SO) to face Wake Forest righthander Teddy McGraw (1-1, 3.63, 17.1 IP, 8 BB, 13 SO).

Story by Chris Graham