#5 Virginia goes deep early, often, blasts Rider, 14-4

Fifth-ranked Virginia went deep four times, including Kyle Teel’s second grand slam of the season, in a 14-4 win over Rider on Tuesday at Disharoon Park.

The Cavaliers (15-1) improved to 10-0 at home this season and have now won 13 straight in their home ballpark dating back to last season.

Teel broke a scoreless tie in the fourth inning with a grand slam and finished the game 3-for-5 with a double, triple and five RBI.

Chris Newell, Casey Saucke and Devin Ortiz also homered.

Three Cavalier pitchers combined to strike out 12 batters and surrendered three earned runs. Making his first start on the mound, freshman Matthew Buchanan fanned six over 3.2 innings and walked one. He retired nine of the first 10 batters he faced and was ultimately credited with the win.

Sophomore Avery Mabe made his collegiate debut and pitched the final 3.1 innings to earn the save. The righthander scattered five hits, allowed one earned run and fanned three.

Saucke extended his hitting streak to 14 games with the long homer in the fourth. It was the second time this season he was part of back-to-back blasts. He followed up an Alex Tappen homer against Cornell on Feb. 27.

“I just thought I got our guys responded really well after a long day and first loss of the season on Sunday night (at Duke),” Virginia coach Brian O’Connor said. “Matthew Buchanan I thought was really good. He hasn’t thrown much and to go out there and throw 70 pitches and get us off to what I felt was a real quality start in the first start of the kid’s career was nice to see. (Dylan) Bowers did a great job, Avery Mabe got his first opportunity and I thought we pitched pretty well.

“There were a collection of guys that had big days offensively, which we’ve been doing quite a bit this year. Tomorrow will be the first time we played twice in the middle of the week. It can be challenging on your pitching, but we’ve got enough tomorrow and we’ll be able to run a lot of different guys out there tomorrow.”

The two teams will conclude the midweek series on Wednesday (March 16). The first 1,000 fans in attendance will receive a green Virginia koozie in honor of St. Patrick’s Day. First pitch at Disharoon Park is scheduled for 4 p.m.