Home Baseball: #19 UVA, VMI complete sweeps, #14 Virginia Tech, Liberty notch wins
Sports

Baseball: #19 UVA, VMI complete sweeps, #14 Virginia Tech, Liberty notch wins

Chris Graham
baseball
(© ccestep8 – stock.adobe.com)

#19 UVA finishes off Columbia

#19 Virginia completed the three-game series sweep over Columbia with a 9-1 victory on Sunday at Disharoon Park.

The Cavaliers (7-0) scored all nine of its runs in the eighth inning, the third time this season UVA has scored nine or more runs in a single inning.

Neither team had a scored a run until UVA sent 13 batters to the plate in the eighth. The Cavaliers took advantage of three Columbia errors, four walks and a hit by pitch in the game-changing frame.

All nine runs scored in the eighth were unearned. Ethan Anderson put the exclamation point on the offensive outburst with a 3-run homer to right field to make it 9-0.

Reliever Jay Woolfolk was credited with his first win of the season after recording the final five outs of the game.

The sophomore righthander rescued the Cavaliers by retiring the last two batters of a bases loaded jam in the top of the eighth inning.

VMI completes four-game sweep

Redshirt junior Justin Starke had three hits, including a double and a home run, to lead VMI to an 11-6 victory Sunday over visiting Holy Cross from Gray-Minor Stadium.

The four-game series sweep is the first for the program since records were kept prior to the 1951 season. The Keydets swept Lafayette College in a three-game set last season on Gray-Minor Feb. 25-27. VMI is now 5-3 on the year.

Doubles from Cole Jenkins and Grayson Fitzwater helped VMI score three in the second to go ahead 3-1. The Keydets plated two more in the fourth and Starke’s two-run blast was part of a three-run fourth inning.

The Crusaders scored two in the fifth and one in the seventh to cut the lead to 8-6, but three late insurance runs made sure Holy Cross got no closer.

#14 Virginia Tech 15, Bryant 8

Chris Cannizzaro hit for the cycle, leading #14 Virginia Tech to a 15-8 win over Bryant on Sunday.

Cannizzaro tripled for the Hokies’ first hit of the game during the first inning, homered to right center during the second inning, singled during the fourth inning and doubled down the left field line during the sixth inning.

As an encore, Cannizzaro walloped the first pitch of the seventh inning to left center for his second home run of the day, pushing Tech’s late-inning lead to 14-7.

He finished batting 5-for-6, crossing the plate four times while earning his two RBIs on his two home run swings.

Liberty 9, Campbell 7

First baseman Will Stewart’s three-run home run in the eighth inning broke a 5-5 tie as the Liberty Flames defeated the Winthrop Eagles, 9-7, Sunday afternoon at Winthrop Ballpark.

Stewart’s home run, his first hit in Flames uniform, was one of three Liberty home runs in the contest. Third baseman Cam Foster hit his first of the year in the fourth and catcher Gray Betts lined his second home run of the season inside the right field foul pole in the seventh.

Betts led the Flames with two hits in the contest.

With the win, Liberty takes the three-game series, two games to one. The Flames move to 3-4 on the season. Winthrop falls to 4-3.

Chris Graham

Chris Graham

Chris Graham is the founder and editor of Augusta Free Press. A 1994 alum of the University of Virginia, Chris is the author and co-author of seven books, including Poverty of Imagination, a memoir published in 2019, and Team of Destiny: Inside Virginia Basketball’s Run to the 2019 National Championship, and The Worst Wrestling Pay-Per-View Ever, published in 2018. For his commentaries on news, sports and politics, go to his YouTube page, or subscribe to his Street Knowledge podcast. Email Chris at [email protected].