The UVA baseball team lost at VCU, 7-5, Tuesday evening at The Diamond in Richmond. VCU (19-10) snapped a 16-game losing streak against the Cavaliers (18-12), dating to the 2003 season. UVA fell into a 7-1 hole after six innings but chipped away and twice had the tying run at the plate in the ninth inning before VCU capped off the win.
“We had some opportunities, particularly early in the game, but we did not execute to take advantage of them,” Virginia head coach Brian O’Connor said. “We need to show a little more fight throughout the game and we aren’t doing that enough.”
Ernie Clement (So., Rochester, N.Y.) and Daniel Pinero (Jr., Toronto, Ontario) each went 3-for-5, while Adam Haseley (So., Windermere, Fla.) hit a two-run home run for the Cavaliers. UVA finished with 10 hits, while VCU had 11.
UVA starter Daniel Lynch (Fr., Henrico, Va.) worked 4 1/3 innings, allowing four runs (two earned), six hits and a walk with five strikeouts. He took the loss and dropped to 1-3 on the year. VCU starter Jonathan Ebersole (3-2) pitched five innings, giving up an earned run and five hits to earn the win.
Virginia loaded the bases with none out in the second inning, with Ryan Karstetter (Fr., State College, Pa.) driving home Pavin Smith (So., Jupiter, Fla.) on a fielder’s choice to shortstop. UVA’s bid for a second run was thwarted when Pinero was thrown out at the plate on a suicide squeeze.
VCU tied the game in the third inning on Cooper Mickelson’s run-scoring single, but missed an opportunity for more by leaving the bases loaded.
VCU took the lead for good with a four-run fifth inning. Logan Farrar hustled out a leadoff double to right-center, moved to third on a Mickelson sacrifice and scored when Jimmy Kerrigan’s slow grounder to third was thrown errantly home by Justin Novak (So., Tokyo, Japan). After Lynch hit Matt Davis with a pitch, UVA went to Tyler Shambora (Jr., Venice, Fla.) out of the bullpen, but Darian Carpenter crushed Shambora’s first offering over the left-field wall for a three-run home run.
The Rams pushed their lead to 7-1 in the sixth inning, but UVA countered with a two-run homer from Haseley in the seventh.
Virginia made things interesting in the ninth inning when Matt Thaiss (Jr., Jackson, N.J.) cranked an RBI double to right field and Smith hit an RBI groundout to cut it to 7-5, but Pinero struck out to end the threat. Thaiss extended his hit streak to nine games with his ninth-inning base hit.
Virginia returns home Wednesday for a 5 p.m. game with George Washington. A video broadcast is available through a Cavaliers Live subscription on VirginiaSports.com. Live statistics also can be found on VirginiaSports.com.
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Chris Graham
