UVA Baseball: Georgia Tech holds on, takes series

UVA (9-10, 2-4 ACC) scored four runs in its final two turns at the plate but ultimately had its comeback fall short in a 6-5 loss to Georgia Tech (13-7, 3-3 ACC) on Sunday afternoon at Russ Chandler Stadium. The Yellow Jackets took the final two games of the series, snapping a three-series losing streak to the Cavaliers.

Trailing 6-1 going into the bottom of the eighth, Brendan Rivoli (Douglassville, Pa.) blasted a three-run homer to pull Virginia within two runs. In the top of the ninth, freshman Nic Kent (Charlottesville, Va.) scored the fifth Cavalier run on a double play turned by the Yellow Jackets.

Georgia Tech reliever Tristin English surrendered a two-out single to Cameron Simmons (Royersford, Pa.) before striking out the final batter of the game.

Rivoli finished off a monster series that featured his first two long balls of the season. He went 5-for-13 four runs scored and six RBI. Simmons was equally as effective, finishing the three-game set 7-for-12 with a double, home run and three RBI.

Reliever Andrew Abbott (Halifax, Va.) limited Georgia Tech to an unearned run over 3.2 innings of work. After the Cavaliers scored three runs in the eighth, Abbott struck out all three batters in the bottom half, three of his four strikeouts on the afternoon.

Junior Cayman Richardson (Mechanicsville, Va.) matched a career-high with four hits in a 4-for-4 effort at the plate. Logan Michaels (DeForest, Wis.) plated the first Cavalier run in the top of the second on a two-out RBI single that scored Rivoli. Michaels went 2-for-4 and was one of three multi-hit performers for the Cavaliers.

Georgia Tech scored two runs in both the first and second innings on a total of six hits to jump out to a 4-1 advantage. The Yellow Jackets added a pair of unearned runs, one in the fifth and another in the seventh to round out their scoring.

Virginia will return to Charlottesville to begin a six-game home stand beginning Wednesday (March 20) when it hosts UConn at Disharoon Park. First pitch is slated for 4 p.m. and the contest will air live on ACC Network Extra.