The No. 14 Virginia baseball team lost to No. 23 NC State, 5-2, Sunday afternoon in the rubber game of the three-game ACC series at Davenport Field. NC State (19-9, 5-5 ACC) limited UVA (18-11, 6-6) to six hits in clinching the series win, two games to one.
“This team is still building and still searching to find what it’s going to take for us to be consistent,” Virginia head coach Brian O’Connor said. “It’s no different than most of the teams in this country who are looking to figure it out and put it all together. (Ryan) Williamson has a heck of a breaking ball and was fantastic today. Unfortunately we could not capitalize on our opportunities and had way too many strikeouts. We didn’t do a good job of making an adjustment after seeing him a time or two through the order.”
Virginia starter Tommy Doyle (So., Vienna, Va.) pitched 5 1/3 innings and took the loss to drop to 1-4. He allowed five earned runs, 10 hits and a walk while striking out six.
NC State starter Ryan Williamson (5-0) earned the win after working six innings and striking out 10. He allowed two runs, three hits and five walks. Will Gilbert worked three scoreless innings to notch his third save. The duo combined to strike out 13 batters, most in a game against UVA since March 30, 2012.
Matt Thaiss (Jr., Jackson, N.J.) led UVA with two hits. NC State finished with a dozen hits — all singles.
NC State parlayed a leadoff walk into a two-out run in the opening inning when Andrew Knizner blooped an 0-2 pitch into right field for a single to score Stephen Pitarra. The Wolfpack strung together three straight two-out hits in the second inning to score a pair of runs and push the lead to 3-0, with Pitarra and Josh McLain hitting consecutive RBI singles to right field.
UVA benefitted from some wildness from Williamson in the second inning, using a pair of walks and a Cameron Simmons (Fr., Royersford, Pa.) single to load the bases before Justin Novak (So., Tokyo, Japan) was hit by a pitch with one out to force in a run. The next two Cavaliers struck out though as UVA left the bases loaded. UVA left 11 runners on base in the game.
NC State tacked on a run in the fourth on an RBI groundout from Brock Deatherage and added another in the sixth on a two-out RBI single from McLain.
Virginia has a busy week ahead with five games on tap – four on the road. UVA heads to Richmond Tuesday night for a 7 p.m. game with VCU at The Diamond before returning home Wednesday for a 5 p.m. game with George Washington. The Cavaliers play a three-game series at Boston College next weekend.
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