Henry Zatkowski, back in the weekend rotation, picked up his sixth win, striking out 10 Clemson hitters in seven innings of work, as #9 Virginia opened a three-game series with a 6-4 win on Thursday night at The Dish.
Zatkowski (6-0, 4.25 ERA) allowed three runs on five hits, striking out 10 and walking two, on 100 pitches on his night.
Tyler Kapa notched his eighth save with an iffy scoreless ninth, allowing two Tigers hits.
AJ Gracia was 2-for-4 with one of the two big hits of the night, a three-run homer to left in the second that put UVA (27-12, 11-8 ACC) on top, 3-2.
The other big hit came from catcher Jake Weatherspoon, whose three-run double in the sixth broke a 3-3 tie.
Virginia coach Chris Pollard was ejected later in the sixth after unsuccessfully arguing a botched infield-fly call that was so bad it should make it that at least one of the umps working tonight worked for free.
Clemon starter Aidan Knaak (2-4, 5.05 ERA), the darling of the ACC Network broadcast team, took the loss – also striking out 10 and walking two, but getting touched up for six runs on seven hits in 5.1 innings.
Clemson used a pitcher named Drew Titsworth, who, appropriately enough, got a pair of outs in his brief stint to close out the eighth.
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Chris Graham
