Home Solid start from Jay Woolfolk pushes #13 Virginia to series win over UMass
Sports

Solid start from Jay Woolfolk pushes #13 Virginia to series win over UMass

Chris Graham
baseball
(© Todd Taulman – stock.adobe.com)

#13 Virginia got out to a big early lead, then held on for a 10-6 victory over UMass on Sunday at Disharoon Park.

The Cavaliers (10-1) took two out of three in the weekend series with the Minutemen (2-5).

Starting pitcher Jay Woolfolk turned in the longest outing of his career, tossing six innings of one-run baseball.

Woolfolk matched a career-best with five strikeouts and recorded his first win of the season.

The Cavalier offense was sparked by home runs from Henry Godbout and Henry Ford.

With two outs in the bottom of the third, Godbout provided the fireworks with his first homer of the season, a two-run shot that put UVA up 6-0.

Godbout was 5-for-9 with a home run, four walks, three runs and six RBI in three games against UMass.

The sophomore is batting .515 (17-for-33) on the season and has hit safely in 10 straight games.

In the fourth inning, Ford made it 9-1 with a 405-foot blast into the left field bleachers, his third home run of the season.

The freshman went 2-for-3 with two runs scored and had three RBI in the contest.

After the second run of the game crossed for UMass in the top of the seventh, the Cavaliers responded when Anthony Stephan tripled down the right field line and came around to score on a sacrifice fly by Ford.

Stephan has reached base safely in all 11 games this season.

Casey Saucke went 2-for-3 with a run scored and extended his reached base streak that dates to last season’s College World Series run to 19 games.

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].