George Washington took a brief 2-1 lead on #5 Virginia in the third inning. It was only the third time the Cavaliers have trailed this season.
In each instance, Virginia has either tied or taken the lead in the bottom half of the same inning, as was the case Tuesday, when the ‘Hoos answered with a five-spot on their way to a 10-2 win.
With the W, Virginia is 12-0 for the third time in program history.
UVA has scored 10 or more runs in its last nine games.
“We’ve done everything that we could do in these first 12 games,” said Virginia coach Brian O’Connor, whose team heads to Duke for the opening weekend of ACC play on Friday. “Obviously, we won all of them, but I think we’ve gotten better. We’ve proven to ourselves in some areas where there was uncertainty, how good of infield defense were we going to play and what was our starting pitching going to be like and things like that. I think we’ve proven to ourselves what we can in these first 12 games, now it’s league play. It’s the most important games, and we’re going to certainly have to be at our best to win in this league.”
First-years Ethan Anderson, Griff O’Ferrall and Casey Saucke were responsible for six of the eight Cavalier hits in the contest. O’Ferrall has seven hits in his last two games after a 3-for-5 effort at the plate on Tuesday, and Anderson launched his third homer in the last five games.
The Cavaliers scored the first run of the game on a bases-loaded walk drawn by Chris Newell in the bottom of the first. The free pass was one of three issued to Newell on the day, matching a career-high. UVA has scored a run in the first inning in seven of its first 12 games.
The five-run third inning saw 10 Cavaliers come to the plate. The inning was highlighted by RBI singles from Alex Tappen, Saucke and O’Ferrall.
Saucke drove in two on a single up the middle and finished 2-for-5 with a double, two runs scored and two RBI.
Saucke extended his hit streak to 10 games with the two-RBI single in the third. He is now hitting a team best, .500 (18-for-36) on the year. The 18 hits are also a club best.
Anderson made the score 8-2 with a two-run homer to right field, his third of the season.
The Cavaliers used a season-high, seven pitchers in the mid-week contest. The final five hurlers – Jay Woolfolk, Jacob Hodorovich, Devin Ortiz, Dylan Bowers and Will Geerdes – combined for five shutout innings and seven strikeouts.
Virginia fanned a total of 12 batters, the 10th time this season UVA has struck out 10 or more batters in a game.
Jake Berry was credited with win, the first of his career, after taking over in the second inning. He pitched 2.1 innings and struck out three batters.
Story by Chris Graham
Share
Chris Graham
